Five Days With Family

Sunday, June 8 – Thursday, June 12, 2025

Walt’s younger brother Dan and Dan’s wife Debbie had arrived by car on the afternoon of Saturday, June 7, had stayed overnight in our condo, and had driven north to Anacortes early on Sunday afternoon. Walt and I joined them after Sunday morning church services; we loaded our baggage onto Braesail; and we set off for Inati Bay in the mid-afternoon of a VERY warm day. To our delight, we were able to sail peacefully, in a light but consistent wind, nearly all the way to the bay, where we anchored near the shore to the accompaniment of welcoming bird calls. Walt rowed our dinghy, Coracle, to the beach and found a tree trunk around which to loop our stern line, thus securing the boat between the anchor and the shore.

After a tasty dinner at the cockpit table, we first enjoyed visiting and then a generally tranquil night while a light wind stirred some gurgling wavelets that whispered on the gravelly beach and around Braesail’s stern. Coracle bumped gently against the hull until Walt got up, climbed out onto the deck, and tied the dinghy more securely. Dan and Debbie slept very soundly in the cabin at the bow of the boat, about which I was very happy.

We were finishing a French toast breakfast on Monday morning when Walt’s youngest brother, Ken, called Walt from Anacortes, to which he and his wife Lisa had driven from SeaTac Airport. They’d arrived earlier than expected, and so Walt raised the anchor while I stood at the helm and Dan pulled back and wound up the stern-line. Off we went in mid-morning, sailing in a nice breeze frisking about under sunny skies.

Once back at the dock in the Anacortes Marina, we welcomed Ken and Lisa aboard, and the six of us spent the afternoon and evening sharing great food and conversation around the table in Braesail’s main cabin. As the darkness deepened and a pink-gold full moon climbed slowly into the sky to survey the marina, Lisa and Ken drove their rented car back to their tiny-house B&B, and Dan, Debbie, Walt, and I made our way to bed.

Ken and Lisa joined us on Braesail on a sunny Tuesday morning, and our crew of six had a marvelous two-hour sail to a small dock behind a stone breakwater on Vendovi Island.

We found that the island’s nature preserve was closed to visitors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so Debbie and Dan, and then I, climbed up the VERY steep ramp from the dock to the shore (the tide was extremely low!) and enjoyed, from the platform at the top, the excellent views over the island on one hand and over the surrounding sea on the other.

Several birdhouses perched atop the dock pilings, and their inhabitants entertained us while we ate lunch and took some time to rest before sailing back to Anacortes in a gentle breeze.

Video-viewing, reading, naps, and conversation filled the late afternoon, and a long while after sharing the fine dinner that Walt prepared, Lisa and Ken took their leave and returned to their lodgings. What a beautiful, relaxing day we had had!

Debbie, Dan, Walt, and I enjoyed a leisurely morning lounging about in Braesail’s main cabin and sun-suffused cockpit (our “sun porch”) before driving to an outstanding deli in Anacortes’ “Old Town” to meet Walt’s cousin Rhoda and her husband Dennis who’d recently returned from a 40-day trip to several European countries. We found a table for eight, and chatted over soups, salads, sandwiches, and desserts before driving to the lovely picnic area in Washington Park.

Dan and Walt drove off in search of frozen razor clams to have for dinner (they were successful!), and the rest of us relaxed and chatted at picnic tables visited by shafts of sunlight but also by chilly wind puffs that made our jackets feel quite welcome. Some of us wandered along the curving, rocky beach and stuck our hands and feet into the cold—but not frigid—sea water, and decided that swimming was not a desired activity!

Later, we decided to drive the narrow, twisting loop road through forested Washington Park, and to stop at a lookout point on a tall bluff to enjoy the spectacular views over some wooded islands and the water between them, where currents circled and interlaced and the occasional powerboat zoomed out into the open ocean.

Rhoda and Dennis decided to return to their home in Edmonds (about 17 miles southwest of Everett) after our stop at the viewpoint, and the rest of us drove to and parked near the bridge over Deception Pass, another spot from which breathtaking views over swirling water far below can be photographed.

Ken, Debbie, Dan, Walt, and I strolled along the bridge while Lisa waited in the car (her mobility is very limited), descended a stairway to an area below the bridge,

climbed up the stairs to the roadway again, and returned to our cars for the drive back to the Anacortes Marina for a great razor clam dinner in Braesail’s “saloon” (main cabin) following a marvelous family “day out!”

Since they would be returning by plane to their Elk Grove, CA, home on Thursday, we said good-bye to Lisa and Ken well after 11 pm; Debbie and Dan packed their belongings in preparation for beginning their drive to their home in Paris, TN, in the morning; and they and we made our ways to bed around midnight.

On Thursday morning, Dan and Debbie and Walt drove back to our Everett home so that Dan could pick up two guitars he’d left there on Sunday for safe-keeping and to get some excellent aged wood from Walt from which he could build some musical instruments. Walt returned to the boat in the afternoon, and he and I spent a quiet afternoon catching up on email, reading, writing, and DuoLingoGerman exercises. In the evening, we dined at a Thai restaurant in Anacortes, and then drove along a twisting road through a beautiful “community forest,” past some lovely lakes lined with water lilies, and up to a lookout point atop 1300-ft. Mt. Erie, the highest point of Fidalgo Island. Because the light was failing and there were too many trees around the point, I wasn’t able to take any photos (you can look up Mt. Erie on the Web and see some gorgeous pictures), but the drive was marvelous!

We crawled into bed after eating the last of some delicious ice cream, and I was thankful for the terrific times we’d shared with our relatives.