Sunday-Monday, September 13-14
Sunday was another very warm day, over-arched by a sapphire blue sky and hosting a persistent little breeze that set the cove’s wavelets dancing round the bases of the surrounding boulders.
Blue sky, green water, a layer cake of rock to which you can see Braesail’s stern-line attached
A small wildfire burned over this area a decade ago, and new growth is evident
It was lovely to sit and read and write in the cockpit and enjoy the liquid lullaby–such enchanting water-music! Walt worked on setting up the preventer lines on the boom and in the bow, and I read sermons and wrote email to a number of people. Another sailboat anchored and stern-tied beside us, and Walt helped to coach the boat’s young crew as they rowed their dinghy to the rocks, clambered onto the stone step that Walt had climbed on Saturday, and tied their stern line through the ring fastened into the stone. I hoped they’d have a wonderful stay, perhaps hiking up a trail to a nearby lake and swimming in the comfortable water that is said to be quite well-warmed by this time of year.
A tapestry of mosses and lichens drapes the granite
It was almost hot in Braesail’s cabins, and the breezes generated by the recently-installed fans proved quite welcome; it was cool enough out on Braesail’s decks to make sitting there very comfortable as well. In the evening, nine of us gathered online for Compline to give thanks for the Feast of the Holy Cross, and the singing, sometimes in unison and sometimes in four parts, was lovely! Before retiring for the night, we watched the recent highly-rated mystery comedy-drama, The Sheep Detectives, and were delightfully entertained. The small, steady wind that had blown all afternoon died away as we prepared for bed, and our night was perfectly silent and motionless.
Monday was another day of small projects and a good deal of relaxation. Skies were cloud-covered and temperatures were somewhat lower than they’d been on Sunday, and though showers were predicted, none materialized. The small wind blew during most of the day from the same direction and at the same velocity as it had on Sunday, and sitting in the cockpit was like being in the middle of a soothing river of innumerable and incomprehensible babbling, splashing, gurgling conversations.
Walt did some work straightening up and organizing Braesail’s many lines, and made extenders for the preventer lines that had proved to be a little short due to the amount of rope taken up in making splices. He also did a little work on the diesel engine, checking and adjusting the valves. I read and responded to email, read a short but excellent sermon for Holy Cross Day by one of the Brothers of the Society of St. John the Evangelist (an Anglican order of monks), read some articles and wrote to friends, and, like Walt, did my daily German exercises. In the evening, the winds wandered away, and the watery whisperings of the surrounding wavelets subsided. After supper, we watched excellent videos made by a couple who recently sailed northeast from our location to the head of 40-mile-long Bute Inlet, a fjord that winds far up into the soaring B.C. Coastal Mountains, a journey we plan to begin on Tuesday morning, and we looked forward to another tranquil night.
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 