A bonny bit of sailing

Tuesday, September 16

A lazy sunny morning was spent, over tea, coffee, and fruit, in reading, doing DuoLingo German lessons, and arranging more gear in Braesail’s cabins. In mid-morning, as arranged, two experts from Northwest Rigging arrived to check, tighten, tune, and balance the strong steel cables that hold the boat’s mast in place. While Walt observed and worked with the riggers, I pulled a dock cart containing currently-unneeded heavy rope for anchoring and an engine oil-change kit up to the Prius, and then returned to the Anacortes Yacht Charters office the fine (and expensive!) set of foul-weather clothing that had been left in one of Braesail’s many cubbyholes by one of the recent charterers, a woman in Montana who was extremely pleased that the jacket and overalls had been found and would be returned! After lunching on a frosty Fudgsicle (free ice cream bars are supplied to boat owners by the chartering agency,) I returned to the boat to find that all was well with the rigging and we could leave the dock in the afternoon.

By about 3 pm we were alternately sailing (so gently and peacefully!) and motoring (faster AND noisier!), as a teasing wind rose and fell across the shimmering water, and we spied the occasional hints of fall color with which the shore trees tantalized us.

We anchored among a number of other boats in broad Blind Bay on Shaw Island a little after 6 pm, refreshed ourselves with sleep and food, and watched some videos on Walt’s laptop after I deleted junk email from mine and Walt spent some time working on our refrigeration system, which needed reprogramming after a little cleaning. While watching, we enjoyed hot beverages and biscotti, and finally trundled off to bed, anticipating a tranquil night.