In the dinghy in the dark

Thursday, October 9

Rain fell now and then over the course of Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and when the light showers wandered away for a bit, Walt rigged a system for lowering and raising our dinghy’s outboard engine from Braesail’s stern into and out of the tender, and then we motored to the Ganges Harbour shore in Coracle to buy some fruit and a few other items at the nearby Thrifty grocery store.

Once back on the boat a little before noon, we raised our mud-packed anchor, Walt rinsed it with the spray from the anchor washer hose stored in the locker below the deck in the bow of the boat, and we began a four-hour motoring trip around the southern end of Saltspring Island and back north between the west side of Saltspring and the shores of Vancouver Island farther west still. The sun yawned and stretched and emerged slowly from its cloud blankets to light the occasionally-current-swirled water, the soaring cliff faces, the sturdy bluffs, the shore-side meadows and houses, the driftwood-decorated pocket beaches, and the occasional deciduous trees whose red, orange, and yellow pierced the deep green of the evergreens. After a wonderfully-scenic journey, we moored Braesail outside the guest dock at the Maple Bay Yacht Club where we’d stayed briefly at the beginning of our trip to Alaska in the spring of 2022.

After hiking up the dock and a hill to the handsomely-furnished Yacht Club lounge and bar to register our presence, we returned to the boat for a snack and a short nap before climbing into Coracle at about 5:30 pm for the 15-minute ride across the water to the Lion Rampant Scottish Pub. We tied Coracle at the dinghy dock, climbed up to the onshore pub, and enjoyed watching the evening light change on the slopes across the water to the east and tint the streams of lilac clouds with pale rose while we dined on the pub’s deck (their creamy seafood chowder was very nice!). After our meal, we climbed into Coracle, turned on the light in its stern, and, by the light of Walt’s headlamp, whirred along over the smooth black-silk water back to Braesail after a fine evening!

After completing some email-reading and some writing (this blog post), and watching some videos, we wandered off to bed, having made plans to travel to the yacht club in the town of Ladysmith on Friday.