Saturday, December 21, 2024
The shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (sunrise a little after 8 am and sunset at 4:20 pm) found Braesail and her crew of two still docked in tranquil Telegraph Harbour (though the peace was broken now and then by the landing and taking-off of a seaplane or the passing of a powerboat). Showers came and went throughout the day and evening, and Walt and I spent a restful day reading, writing, dispatching Condo Association business (Walt is the current president), listening to Advent music brought to us through the boat’s excellent stereo system, and downing a few cookies (I baked over 500 cookies of eight different varieties during November and the first part of December to give to family and friends, and Walt baked a good number of cone-shaped Norwegian krumkake as well).
Shortly after 4 pm, the rain curtain thinned and some patches of blue appeared overhead, so I climbed out of the boat and onto the somewhat slimy sloping dock to take pictures as the sun began to slink softly into the sea. I then took a half-hour twilight walk onshore, passing the little park’s picnic shelter and a level area above it and hiking up a sword-fern-edged gravel service road strewn with fragrant blown-down fir branches to the point where a fallen tree blocked my way. The forest was too dense to allow views over the harbor, but I enjoyed being folded in its softly dripping embrace. I made my way back down the hill past the postal “shed” containing residents’ letter boxes and then down some stairs to the restaurant’s deck, and finally walked the ramp leading from the shore to the docks, carefully stepping over numerous clam shells as I returned to Braesail.
We finished our day at about 10:30 pm after a small, very tasty supper, watching some boating videos and a Masterpiece Mystery on Walt’s laptop, and doing some weather-checking and travel planning. We decided to spend Sunday at the dock to avoid another round of strong winds and rain forecast for that day, and to leave for Vancouver early on Monday morning to make the four-hour transit of the Strait of Georgia in gentler weather. Afternoon naps facilitated by the percussive sounds of passing showers did not impair our ability to drift off to sleep!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 