Flying across the water!

Sunday, May 26

The day began very early when Walt awakened at around 5 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I woke up too, and he told me that he was going to raise our anchor and free us from our stern-tie and head for Lund before the predicted strong winds rose, and I should go back to sleep. I was able to rest in our aft-cabin bed for about two hours, but the boat’s rolling back and forth kept me awake, and I joined Walt in the cockpit at about 7:30 am, feeling nervous about the wind.

The 40-mile trip to Lund normally takes a little over six hours at “normal” speeds, but we had steady tailwinds rising to over 28 mph and the boat zoomed through the water at 8-10 mph (VERY fast for Braesail!) for about four hours with the mainsail raised and the genoa (the large foresail) partially furled–we arrivied in Lund after only about five hours at sea! I found the boat’s heeling over (tipping to one side) and the unusual speed to be rather frightening, but Walt assured me that all was well, and HE had fun! I was glad when we docked in Lund in a wind that was pushing the boat away from the dock (a kind gentleman helped to catch our mooring lines and tie them down). We made sure that all was secure, visited for a bit with a man whose powerboat was moored across from Braesail, and then hiked up the docks and the ramp to the shore to pay a much-anticipated visit to the famous Nancy’s Bakery. Here we enjoyed lattes and superb cinnamon rolls, Walt’s filled with candied pecans and mine with blackberry jam—YUMMM!

Our next stop was the marina office, where we paid our moorage fee and learned that freshly-caught prawns would be coming off the docks in the afternoon–we should watch for the boats surrounded by clouds of seagulls!

Since both of us were quite sleep-deprived, we took long naps before making our way back up to the shore to pick up a few items at the small grocery store near the marina and to see if we could buy some prawns. The last catch of the day was just coming in, and we bought a pound of the tasty little creatures, who were still wriggling around in their plastic bag, for about $15 US! Walt sauteed and served them with garlic butter for a delicious dinner later in the evening–terrific!

We spent some time looking at cruising guides, nautical charts, tide and current tables, and wind and rain forecasts after dinner and decided that our next stop would be beautiful little Laura Cove in Desolation Sound, about 15 miles away from Lund; we could stay there until the rain predicted for Tuesday had subsided, or travel on. Walt’s laptop had abruptly stopped working completely earlier in the day, so he had to spend a good deal of time loading data onto his smartphone and his tablet and preparing for six weeks without the laptop–aargh!

Soon it was time for bed after a day that was somewhat frustrating but very exciting for Walt, quite challenging for me, and filled with culinary delights for us both!