Thursday, January 1, 2026
No fog this morning—hooray!
We had a very quiet night, and we did some reading and writing and a few maintenance tasks before raising the anchor and motoring out of Prevost Harbor at 1 pm beneath ashen skies and with almost no wind, listening to music in the cockpit as we traveled. By about 2:30 pm, we were pulling into our slip in the Deer Harbor Marina; as I tried to slip off Braesail’s deck with the central docking line (the “breast-line”), the boat moved slightly away, so I threw the line around the nearest dock cleat and belly-flopped onto the dock, got up, pulled the line tightly around the cleat, and assured Walt, who was climbing off the boat and grabbing the stern line, that I was fine. I must practice lasso-ing dock cleats from Braesail’s deck so I don’t have to dive!
I took a bag of garbage up onto the shore, squeezed it into the dumpster near the building that houses the office, restrooms, showers, and laundry, visited the very nice ladies’ room, and watched a slim otter gliding through the water near the ramp from the docks to the shore as I walked back to the boat. Walt and I napped as the sun set, and then went ashore
and climbed a small slope to the Island Pie pizza shop where we enjoyed a tasty, filling meal and chatted with the restaurant’s very pleasant owners and played with their young child. With enough pizza left for a meal or two on Friday, we walked back down the steep ramp (the tide was very low) beneath a gauzy full moon to complete our evening tasks.
The first day of the new year, and the last of our 2025 Christmas excursion, concluded comfortably and quietly; tomorrow Walt will try to deal with the loose engine part cover that our car had dragged beneath it from the ferry landing in Orcas Village to the Deer Harbor Marina on December 23. During our trip, God blessed us with amazing beauty and safe travels, delightful times with family and friends, great music and worship, and time to think about future travels.
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 