Monday, September 15
After cramming the car from bottom to top with food, clothing, boat parts, tools, and miscellaneous equipment and supplies, finishing condo-clean-up, and giving my plants a substantial drink, Walt and I left Everett at about 3 pm on a shiny autumn afternoon. I glanced out the driver’s-side window just in time to glimpse a shaggy coyote loping across the neighbor’s lawn across the street! A nice farewell from local wildlife!
At the Anacortes Marina, we loaded shore carts with our gear and maneuvered them down the ramp from the shore to the docks. As I was hauling one of the carts, a gangly gray heron flapped onto the dock in front of me and conducted us, as if the cart and I were a float in a stately procession, down past the many moored watercraft that were silently observing our passage, to Braesail’s slip, at which point he uttered a sharp “Hwoark!” and winged away. A nice welcome from local wildlife!
After laboring long and hard at loading, sorting, and stowing our gear, we enjoyed an excellent supper at Dad’s Diner in downtown Anacortes, where vintage photographs of all sizes of dads of all ages and varieties spill over and down the walls in a joyous jumble. My “Whatever’s in the Kitchen” salad (several kinds of greens, tiny tomatoes, cheese curds, cucumber slices, red pepper bits, and light puffy croutons, all dressed with tangy balsamic vinegar) was superb!
Once Braesail’s cabins were sufficiently organized to allow the relatively rapid location of needed items, we made up the bed in the “Captain’s Cabin” in the stern and were glad to cease from our labors for the night! Braesail would be off the next day to go somewhere and then somewhere else for some time and some more time—depending on the weather.
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 