Thursday-Friday, October 15-16, 2026
We began to carry out our “master plan” on Thursday morning despite the foggy blanket that covered the entire area. Walt pulled our bowline out of the ring on the mooring buoy at around 10:30 am and we slowly motored out of amazing Active Cove (which had not been particularly active all night!). He began to sound Braesail’s horn for five seconds every two minutes because our visibility was perhaps a half-mile at most. Almost immediately after leaving the cove, I saw a large powerboat coming at us from a short distance away—no running lights, no horn sounding, no AIS signal for us to see on our charts, and nothing visible on our radar! “Boat!” “Port!” I called out to Walt, who hadn’t seen the vessel coming. He turned our boat and leaned on our horn and a collision was avoided—WHEW!!
For the next two hours, we motored through fog with sunshine behind it, and we wore sunglasses and hats to combat “snow-blindness.” Walt watched the radar and sounded the horn, and we both looked at our charts for vessels sending AIS location signals and stared out into the whiteness. The fog finally began to thin and then to lift as we came closer to Anacortes, and we (I in particular) were very relieved! As we approached the Cap Sante Marina, I saw a small black dorsal fin slice the water’s surface as if in greeting—was it a minke whale or something else?
Walt had been given a dock and slip number for Braesail’s overnight stay in the Cap Sante Marina by the Fidalgo Yacht Club, at which we had reciprocal mooring privileges, but when we found the right spot, it was occupied with another boat. Walt called the yacht club, and they gave him a different slip location, and so, while we were “in the neighborhood,” we used the holding tank pump-out facility and then purchased 70 gallons of diesel at the fuel dock (about $6.30 per gallon—aaargh!). This time, we found our assigned slip empty, and a kind fellow-boater made sure Braesail’s bow didn’t encounter the dock in front of it as we maneuvered into place. After an enjoyable conversation with our helper (newly arrived from Maine and looking for a place to live and keep his boat), Walt got a Lyft to the storage lot about three miles away and, as expected, found that the Prius’ starter battery was completely and totally dead. He’d brought our fully-charged jump-starter with him and revived the battery, drove to the marina parking lot to meet me, and we immediately left to drive to the COSTCO in Burlington, about 17 miles away, to buy a new battery (Walt had decided that the car’s eight-year-old battery really needed to be replaced). We stopped at our favorite ice cream store (of course!) on the way, and Walt had to use the jump-starter again before we could go on our way.
At the Burlington COSTCO, however, we found that the battery Walt needed was out of stock and had been on back-order for a long time, so the worker in the tire department called the store in Marysville, about 25 miles to the south, and asked them to hold one of their two batteries for Walt. Off we drove to Marysville, where we picked up the battery and a few groceries at the COSTCO, had a fast-food supper, and returned to the marina in Anacortes. It was now about 7 pm and we both were tired after a busy day that had included several hours of straining to see anything in the fog, taking care of boat tasks, and doing a lot of driving. Walt planned to install the new car battery in the morning before I had to drive to the ferry terminal to catch the noon sailing, and so we went to bed early, watched a fine video about sailing down the coast of Patagonia, and looked forward to a much-needed rest.
No fog on Friday morning—cheers! Walt replaced the Prius’ starter battery, and it’s a good thing he did—there was barely enough charge in the battery to allow him to unlock the car door. I returned our pass key at the Fidalgo Yacht Club desk, dropped off our recycling I the parking area, and set off in the Prius at about 10:30, filling the gas tank on the way to the Anacortes Ferry, and waiting in the parking area from 11:15 until nearly 12:30 for the 11:55 sailing. Meanwhile, Walt was leaving the yacht club dock in Braesail on his three-hour journey to the Deer Harbor Marina.
The ferry traveled slowly on this spectacularly beautiful day (engine troubles?),
and there were several points at which Braesail was visible in the distance; I took a few photos in which, if you enlarge them, you can see that the little dot is actually a boat!
I drove off the ferry in Orcas village at about 2 pm and drove, at Walt’s request, to the charming town of Eastsound in search of bait for our crab trap. I was able to buy two different kinds of bait, and then walked to the Brown Bear Baking shop to buy two different pastries with which to celebrate our return to Deer Harbor almost exactly one year after we moved Braesail from the Anacortes Marina to the marina here.
The drive from Eastsound to the Deer Harbor Marina was stunning, with deep blue sky and ocean setting off the green, orange, crimson, and gold with which the deciduous trees were clothed. I arrived at my destination at 3 pm, and greeted Walt on Braesail in our new slip—he’d tied up the boat at the dock at about 2:15 and was settling in. He baited our crab trap with my recent purchases and buzzed off in Coracle to drop it into the midst of a congregation of traps already floating around the harbor. He spent the rest of the afternoon folding the prawn trap (a complex task!) and the inflatable kayak (another complex task!) for storage, and after sharing the salad supper I prepared in an attempt to use up various leftovers, he transported them, together with our gigantic spinnaker sail in its large bag, up the dock to the car in our foldable cart.
Walt watched videos while I wrote this post, and, since we’ve decided to travel by car ferry to one or two of the nearby San Juan Islands tomorrow and so need to rise early, we’ll be thankful for a windless night and will collapse into bed relatively early as well. I am very happy to be “home” in this lovely marina and little village, and that, despite some glitches, our “master plan” worked out well!
