. . . a star-bridge to a fair sea!
Thursday and Friday, August 20-21, 2026
On the first day of our fall 2026 boating excursion to places north, I gave thanks for Excellent Things: full fuel tank, water tanks, and food storage areas, and an empty garbage receptacle and “black water” holding tank, as well as functioning basic systems (propulsion, navigation, communication, refrigeration, waste-handling, heating, cooking, etc.). I also attempted to increase my tolerance for the clumps of clutter resulting from a number of unfinished projects on which Walt will work during the coming two months, and the “Have you seen my . . .?” queries that will come my way as the projects move forward. But after a three-month delay, both Walt and I were very pleased to be on the water again—and personally functional!
We’d intended to begin a voyage toward Alaska in April, but Walt was told in March that he needed to have cataract surgery as soon as possible, and this took place on April Fool’s Day and the day following. Then on May 10, he tripped and fell in his basement workshop, and a CT scan 25 hours later showed three fractures, two in the C1 vertebra and one in the C2. Miraculously, the neck bones remained perfectly aligned, no surgery was necessary, there was no paralysis, and Walt began three months of wearing a cervical collar nearly all day every day. Healing progressed amazingly rapidly, and the neurosurgeon told Walt that it would be safe for the two of us to travel to England in late July for three weeks, two of which would be spent as members of the excellent St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Choir from Berkeley, CA, which we’d joined for a singing tour in the summer of 2023.
The choir tour to Norwich and Canterbury cathedrals was a superb experience (we spent an average of five hours per day singing), but at Heathrow Airport on August 10, I tripped over a wheel on my roller bag, fell hard, crushed my left hand against the floor, and found two days later that I my left ring-finger was fractured right below my rings. These had to be cut off because of the swelling, and I’m now wearing a splint most of the time; fortunately, I have very little pain.
We spent August 11-16 preparing Braesail for a shorter journey northward (she was in a storage lot for maintenance when Walt’s broken-neck-adventure occurred and had remained there for three-and-a-half months), and on August 17 she was returned to the water near Anacortes via a huge transport device called a Sea-Lift.
Three more days of preparation and storage aboard of tools, parts, lines, food, clothing, and various supplies were spent with the boat in a slip in Cap Sante Marina near the boatyard, and, after leaving our Prius on a storage lot about three miles from the marina on Wednesday evening, and dining in Braesail’s cockpit on the beautiful new wooden folding table on which Walt had been working when he fell in his shop, with a pillowy magenta-and-lavender sunset as a shimmering backdrop, we thought that we were ready to begin our journey on Thursday morning.
As the boat’s water tanks were being filled via a long hose, Walt tried to pump up our inflatable kayak but found that our foot-pedal pump didn’t have the correct adapter for use on the kayak. So off he hiked to a nearby marine parts store, where he found that, in order to procure the connector, he had to buy another pump! Back on Braesail with the new pump, Walt guided the boat out of the slip at about 11 am and headed for the holding tank pump-out station. Upon docking, we saw signs proclaiming that the pumps were not working (we’d deal with sewage disposal later), and so we turned to the fuel dock, at which there were several large boats being serviced and more waiting in line. After our turn at the diesel pump, we motored at last out of the marina and toward Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island on a still, sunny early afternoon.
After a 1.5-hour journey, we found that the small harbor was too crowded with boats on mooring buoys to allow Braesail a safe stay, and we therefore motored on for an additional two hours to spacious Echo Bay on Sucia Island where there was plenty of room to anchor with ease. The remainder of our first day at sea was occupied with napping, sorting and organizing food and gear, working on various ongoing projects, doing DuoLingo German exercises, enjoying a tasty supper, dealing with email, and cleaning up the galley. I began to feel unwell after eating, probably because I hadn’t drunk enough water over the course of the day, but after downing some and preparing for bed, I felt a good deal better. I looked out at a misty half-moon leading a giant curve of stars toward the ebony surface of the sea, and was thankful to be on the boat and out in the San Juan Islands again!
On the second day of our excursion we enjoyed relaxing at anchor in Echo Bay and watching a fascinating variety of watercraft enter the harbor and find a spot for the weekend. We visited via Zoom with my brother and his wife in Springfield, IL, and via phone with our son in Vancouver, BC, who, with his girlfriend, had recently returned from a journey to England, Portugal, and Spain in pursuit of the total solar eclipse (clouds prevented their success in that quest, but they had a wonderful time anyway!), and occupied ourselves with reading, writing, and constructing rope gates for the boat’s lifelines and “soft shackles” (loops of super-strong Dyneema rope) for the staysail with which to attach it to a removable forestay in the boat’s bow (one of Walt’s many projects). We again ate supper in the cockpit, worked there after sundown by the pleasant light of a hanging lamp, and were happy, as a breeze whispered into the cockpitD that the large Coast Guard vessel that had filled Thursday night with the steady thrumming of its generator was no longer in the bay!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 