Ten days of wandering (and a dozen pictures) in a single post

The ten days that Walt and I spent looping through the San Juan Islands on Braesail as summer let out a last hurrah were generally lovely, lazy, and relaxing, despite a whingeing and moaning lower-back pain that occasionally kept Walt holed up in the main cabin because the companion way stairs were impossible for him to climb. Several days before we’d planned to leave Anacortes, Walt had crawled around in the chain locker in the boat’s bow as he installed a pump and hose that would be used to wash the mud and weed from the anchor after its raising, and he’d begun to feel increasingly sore. So we didn’t leave the dock on August 25 as planned, but waited until the 28^th, hoping that Walt’s back pain would diminish.

Walt did feel a bit better on the 28^th, and we loaded ourselves and our gear onto Braesail on a beautiful afternoon and set off for Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island. We hooked a mooring buoy, settled ourselves into the scenic anchorage in the company of a good number of other boats, and stayed there until the morning of Friday, the 30^th, resting, reading, napping, writing email, enjoying fine meals, observing the neighboring boats, and watching the sunlight wax and wane on the water and the surrounding bluffs. Clear weather and the absence of moonlight brought us night skies festooned with garlands of glittering stars.

By Friday morning, Walt’s back was not better, but we slipped our bowline out of the mooring buoy’s top ring and motored in a headwind to Patos Island to see if the single mooring buoy in its snug little anchorage was unoccupied.

We were not surprised, on Labor Day Weekend, to find another sailboat attached to the mooring ball, three small motorboats pulled up on the shore, one boat leaving the cove, and another coming along just behind us. We cruised around the shores, amazed as always by the galleries of fantastical sandstone sculptures carved over the centuries by wind and waves

and then turned back toward Ewing Cove on nearby Sucia Island. We were able to sail for a short time past a river of bouncy breakers foaming over an invisible reef, and we waved to furry-sausage sea lions lounging on a pile of rocks. We soon cruised into the cove and found its mooring buoys filled, so we moved around to Sucia Island’s expansive Echo Bay and dropped our anchor there among a great number of boats of all kinds and sizes.

Because Walt’s back pain was occasionally agonizing, we remained at anchor in Echo Bay from Friday afternoon until Monday morning, resting, reading, boat- and sky-watching, and hoping for some improvement. The weather remained very warm and calm, and it was delightful to look out at night at the multicolored anchor-lights at the tops of the surrounding vessels’ masts that bobbed above the bay’s mirror-like surface–were flights of fairies signaling one another with their softly glowing lanterns? On our last night in the bay, were treated to a stunning sunset:

Walt’s lower back felt somewhat better on the morning of Monday, September 2, and he was able to climb up into the cockpit and squeeze behind the helm, so I raised the anchor and we motored on another bright, summery day to comfortable Parks Bay on Shaw Island, a place we’d never visited before. I helped to lower and secure our anchor, and we enjoyed two more days of relaxation as one of a half-dozen boats swaying softly on glowing green-gold water ringed by forested shores.

I managed our anchor-raising with Walt at the helm on Thursday, and we motored to spacious Hunter Bay at the southern end of Lopez Island. We were again able to sail for a few minutes before the wind died, and we found plenty of anchoring room among a small number of boats.

We enjoyed a peaceful night, and departed for Anacortes on the morning of Friday, September 6, thankful that we were on the water and enjoying a cool breeze on a hot day! We asked for some docking assistance from the staff at the Anacortes Marina because we thought that Walt’s back pain might make it difficult for him to move quickly around and off the boat if that were to become necessary, and the dock hand and I managed to secure Braesail in her slip after Walt guided her in bow first. I had packed most of our gear on Thursday, and so I proceeded to carry a load of bags to the Prius in the onshore parking area , grab a shore cart, bring it back down the ramp and along the dock to the boat, load it with food, clothing, laundry, and gear (some things to be cleaned and others to be repaired or replaced), and trundle it back to the car. Walt was able to help with the bags, to climb off the boat, to walk to the parking lot, and to drive to a lab in Mt. Vernon to have blood drawn in preparation for a visit to his doctor on September 10.

By about 7:30 on Friday evening, we were back home and hauling our baggage back up the stairs to our condo. I was SO thankful that we had made it home safely, and I continued to wonder if Walt’s lower back pain would prove to be caused by a strained muscle or by kidney stones or by both. We talked about taking Braesail out again a time or two before the end of the month, and will see how Walt’s back feels as summer fades into autumn.