Getting ready to go!

Walt’s youngest brother, Ken, and his wife, Lisa, arrived at our condo building in the afternoon of Friday, May 17, having driven north from the Sacramento, CA, area over the course of several days. Soon Walt and I in our car, and Ken and Lisa in theirs, were heading north to Anacortes, where we transferred TONS of food and gear from our vehicles to Braesail, onto which Walt had already loaded a great deal of frozen food, tools, spare parts, clothing, safety equipment, etc. that morning. We enjoyed a good restaurant meal of fish and chips before Walt dropped us off at the boat dock and then drove back home to our Everett condo (he had to attend a long meeting in Seattle the next day) while we organized and stored our food and gear and spent a restful night in the boat.

We spent an enjoyable Saturday reading and relaxing, doing a little more sorting and storing of goods, and then driving to beautiful Washington Park at the tip of the peninsula at the western end of Fidalgo Island (on which Anacortes is located) and taking in the spectacular views from the bluff top (see below). We did more grocery shopping while waiting for Walt to call Ken to drive back to Everett to pick him up and leave Ken’s car in front of our condo building for about a week while we traveled on Braesail to the Nanaimo area on the eastern shore of Vancouver Island. At this point, Ken and Lisa planned to leave us and visit a long-time friend before returning to California, while Walt and I would continue our long-planned seven-week circumnavigation of Vancouver Island.

It took quite a long time for Walt and Ken to return to the boat from Everett, and after taking care of some last-minute pre-travel tasks, we retired for the night, happy to be together and to be able to share time on Braesail!