Friday-Saturday, September 11-12
My hope was realized—we had a very quiet, restful night and enjoyed a relaxing morning doing research on wind conditions, upcoming weather, cruising guides’ descriptions and reports, etc., and discussing travel possibilities for the upcoming week. We decided to pull in our stern line and raise our anchor at noon and leave lovely Deep Bay for the town of Lund about 35 miles to the northeast. A minimal wind blew directly over the bow of the boat, and so we motored under pewter skies and over lightly rippled seas. I had a pleasant Zoom visit with my brother and his wife in Illinois in the afternoon as we moved along at around six miles per hour.
Having noticed a bit more blue smoke than usual when starting Braesail, and possibly a small increase in the diesel engine’s use of fuel, Walt made some phone calls regarding checking and possibly replacing the fuel injectors in Vancouver when we’re passing through the area in several weeks. He’s considering filling our fuel tank in Lund and then keeping careful track of the hours during which we are motoring so that his feelings about fuel consumption can be evaluated at the time of the next fill-up. This will be enlightening . . .
We arrived at the breakwater in Lund at about 6 pm and had no docking difficulties. After a pleasant conversation with the couple relaxing in the cockpit of the sailboat moored just ahead of Braesail, we went about our usual evening activities and investigated more travel possibilities for the following few days. We took to bed with us visions of cinnamon buns from a famous Lund bakery to be procured in the morning!
Saturday morning found us taking Coracle from the breakwater to the main dock in Lund, going ashore, paying for our night’s moorage, finding that fuel would be VERY expensive and deciding not to top up our tank, walking over to the very nice new grocery store so that Walt could buy some capers (they actually had some!), and making our highly-anticipated visit to Nancy’s Bakery, where the various cinnamon buns are justly famous! Walt bought sausage rolls to serve as an afternoon snack, I chose a blackberry-filled cinnamon bun and Walt selected one with pecans for our breakfast, and we consumed our morning treats on the patio in the sparkling sunshine.
By about 11:30, we were motoring away from Lund toward Teakerne Arm, a sizeable, very deep anchorage about 14 miles to the north where we have stayed on past excursions and have enjoyed the lovely waterfall. There was, again, negligible wind and it was blowing right over Braesail’s bow, and so we motored for about 2.5 hours past forested mainland shores and rock-and-tree-rimmed islands. There were several boats in the portion of the bay in which we wanted to anchor, but as we approached the place where the water was shallow enough for safe anchoring, and where the area’s only stern-tying apparatus (here, a rope fixed to a large wall of rock) appeared, a catamaran (a boat with two hulls), aptly named Serendipity, was just preparing to leave. Perfect timing! After several attempts, the anchor was set securely, and Walt rowed the dinghy to a shelf of rock at the base of the wall, climbed onto it, reached the end of the rope hanging above him (because the tide was very low) with his telescoping boat-hook, pulled it down and tied on the end of our stern line, and rowed it back to Braesail. We had arrived!
By dinner time, Braesail was the only vessel within sight–how delightfully quiet and tranquil it was–only the gentle gurgling of tiny silvery wavelets, as they explored the cracks and crevices at the edges of the rocks, disturbed the silence.
With our supper we enjoyed one of the refreshing apple ciders we’d purchased at the tiny tasting room near Port Browning. I, of course, took a picture of a soft sunset before settling down to write this post. A soundless night will introduce a restful Sunday in the anchorage–might we take Coracle to visit the waterfall?
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 