Eating Nanaimo bars

Friday, May 24, 2024

The gentle swaying of the boat lulled us to sleep on Thursday night, and after some rain overnight (and much less noise and bumping about!), we left the Fairwinds Marina dock not long after 10 am on a cloudy morning and motored over rather choppy seas toward small, secluded, and scenic Deep Bay on Jedediah Island, a place we’d visited several times in the past and had always enjoyed. We raised our mainsail as we traveled to provide more speed and stability and a smoother ride, and toward the end of our 2.5-hour journey we were able to turn off the diesel engine and sail quietly for about half an hour.

We dropped our anchor and then tied Braesail’s stern to one of the dozen chains attached to the rocky bluffs that surround the bay for just that purpose. For a while, Braesail was the only boat in the bay, but in mid-afternoon, another sailboat joined us with a couple and two dogs aboard. As one of the sailors began to row his dinghy to the shore to attach a stern line to one of the chains as we had done earlier, an oarlock detached itself from the little boat and the oar floated off to the other side of the sailboat. Walt, who’d been watching, launched our dinghy, Coracle, rowed over to our neighboring boat, retrieved the oar, and then rowed the boat’s stern line to the cliff face and attached the line to the hanging chain. The grateful boater attached his outboard motor to his dinghy and took himself and his two canine companions to shore at the head of the bay. I was so glad that Walt was able to help!

We spent a restful afternoon reading and writing and doing a few cleaning and maintenance tasks. Since there was no connectivity, we napped, caught up on some delayed reading, enjoyed a salmon burger supper, and consumed our exquisite Nanaimo bars, accompanied by a lovely bitter-almond liqueur, as a late dessert. We will stay here in Deep Bay through Saturday, and so can sleep peacefully on a drizzly night without having to rise at any set hour in the morning–cheers!