All washed up in Port Hardy

Saturday, June 15, 2024

The laundry is done, everything is put away, and we’ve had a change in plans!

The day began with more alternating periods of rain and partial clearing, but I left Braesail at about 10:45 am and made the half-mile hike to the laundry facilities at Stryker’s Electronics, carrying my bag full of washing, without getting wet! I exchanged a Canadian ten-dollar-bill for ten “loonies” (Canadian one-dollar coins) at the check-out desk in the store and was about to enter the building containing the washers, dryers, and shower rooms when I suddenly realized that I hadn’t brought a detergent strip with me, and I did NOT want to walk all the way back to the boat to get one! I said a quick prayer, asking that I’d find some detergent in the laundry room, and, behold! After I’d entered I saw three little boxes of TIDE sitting on one of the defunct washing machines!

Both of the larger washers were in use, so I settled down on one of the ancient, saggy sofas with which the waiting area was furnished to read until the machines were free. When they were, and I saw that the man who’d been using them and who was now drying his clothes, did not pick up the TIDE boxes, I loaded my laundry into one of the washers, sprinkled the contents of one of the detergent boxes into the tub, inserted my four “loonies” into the proper slots, pressed the START button, said a prayer of “THANKS!”, and returned to my reading as my washing was processed.

The dryer worked fine also, and I was back on Braesail at about 1:45 pm, having again escaped the rain. Walt had filled the boat’s water tanks and added a quart of oil to the engine’s crankcase, and was finishing whipping the ends of some lines to keep them from raveling, so departure plans were going well. I put away the clean laundry and finished some email I’d been working on when our son Martin, who, with our friend Hans, was driving a rental car to Port Hardy from the ferry terminal in Nanaimo, called to say that Hans had suddenly been summoned to work on an emergency ship electronics repair in the Victoria area and so wouldn’t be able to join us on the boat until sometime on Sunday–we hope! So it appears that Braesail won’t have her full crew complement in time to make her departure for Bull Harbour on Hope Island on Sunday as planned. Martin will arrive sometime tonight with food and gear, and we’ll decide the best course of action–we will pay for an additional night at the dock, of course. As to what might happen next, my father was wise when he used to observe: “You can never sometimes tell!”

Boats at Fisherman’s Wharf in Port Hardy at about 9 pm