Friday, June 14, 2024
The saying about variable weather–”If you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes”–certainly applied to conditions in Port Hardy today! The night was perfectly still apart from the rattling of intermittent rain showers, but throughout the day, periods of rain and of brilliant sunshine alternated rapidly! We accomplished some tasks related to the arrival on Saturday evening of our son, Martin, and our long-time mutual friend, Hans, both of whom are excellent and experienced sailors. My main goal was having a duffel-bag full of clothes washed and stowed away by the end of the day, but when I walked up to the Fisherman’s Wharf marina office to find about washing machine and dryer availability and costs, I was told that the machines in the nearby Quarter Deck Marina complex, which the Fisherman’s Wharf guests normally use, were not functioning, and I’d need to walk about a half-mile to Stryker Electronics, where there were other laundry facilities.
This I did, getting showered and then quickly dried as clouds gathered, spilled their contents, and then gave the sunshine a turn to play in the skies over the harbor. The folks at Stryker told me that the Quarter Deck Marina had run out of propane and had not received their expected delivery from the town of Campbell River to the south, and that I could use their laundry facilities in the next building—they would give me change for the machines! When I looked around the laundry area in the indicated building and spoke to a woman trying to wash and dry seven loads of clothes, I discovered that, out of about ten washing machines and five dryers, only three of the washers and two of the dryers were working; a large wash load cost $4 Canadian and a dryer load cost $2 Canadian, and washing and drying one load could take up to three hours. I decided to come back on Saturday morning with the hope of finding at least one available working washer and one dryer—I’ll certainly bring something to read along with my coins!
Since the sun was putting in an appearance, I walked to the Quarter Deck Marina and inquired about their laundry facilities, and was told that they had no idea when they would be available. So I enjoyed a pleasant walk back to Braesail while the rain was turned off and took the picture of the upper part of Hardy Bay at low tide that you see here.
We spent the afternoon reading and writing, while we had sufficient connectivity, and Walt baked a loaf of bread that he’d been working on for two days—it was delicious! While I was reading up in the cockpit and he was baking, I happened to notice a small furry head poking out of the water—an otter! It slipped back below the surface very quickly, but I was glad to see it!
Later in the afternoon, a very-long-time friend phoned and we had a great visit before supper was ready. After galley clean-up and sending more email (before we spend three weeks in VERY remote spots on the west coast of Vancouver Island from which I may be able only to make blog posts via satellite phone), we played an interesting game of Backgammon, which I lost hugely!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 