Sailing

Last week I finished the third of three new flower beds in front of the house. Who needs the gym? What with pushing around wheelbarrows full of soil to build raised shrub beds (triceps), shoveling the soil (quads, glutes, shoulders), digging holes (more fun than doing lunges) - it was a full day workout. The view out the front window, is now one of laceleaf Japanese Maples, one deep red, one green, and the evergreen shrubs:  Ligustrum 'Sawannee River', Hebe 'Wiri Blush' and Viburnum 'Davidii', all three of which will grow to around 4'x4', flower in spring and berry in the fall. They will stay green and keep the bed grounded during our coastal winters. Plus a Sedum, Autumn Joy, that was rescued from the garden, one of the very few plants left from previous owners and tenants. Also one of my old time favorite perennials, a Peony, this one 'Kansas', for that late spring flamboyance.

After all that I ended up in some, shall we say,  discomfort and spent the following day reclining with a book and aching muscles - on the couch, and outside on a lawn chair in the garden. It seemed a good time for a change of pace. Time to go sailing. Friday was warm and sunny and glorious. I got up really early, around 6:00 made coffee and went out in the garden with Dennis where I saw the sun rise and watched the light change on the golden brown of the new cedar fences. A few hours later, we packed lunch and were off to the marina, a 25 minute drive up the coast headed on a day sail to Tribune Bay on Hornby Island. My first sail on the new boat.

Chrome Island Lighthouse - on the way to Hornby from the marina

I think about the people who choose to live on Hornby Island, about 1000 of them. If you live there it will take 3 ferries to get to to mainland (Vancouver) and 2 to get to Vancouver Island, passing through Denman Island on your way. A few years ago we visited Denman Island and looked at a property for sale, prompting the whole imaginary tale of what it would be like to live on one of these small islands in the Salish Sea. Not for us but it certainly is for some. Many on Hornby are artists and the summer months are filled with festivals, retreats and workshops. I'm thinking that they all must breathe a sigh of relief in the fall when all the tourists once again disappear until another summer rolls around.

Tribune Bay (BC Tourism)

We sailed to Tribune Bay where we dropped the lunch hook. It is quite a large bay with a long beach and apparently is a popular anchorage in summer as long as the winds aren't coming from the south east. We practically had the place to ourselves, aside from one small power boat way over close to the beach and two sets of kayakers paddling past. As a matter of fact, it felt like we had the entire Salish Sea to ourselves; we saw only a few other boats on this glorious Friday in May. By the way, this is a new sea. Well, at least a new name for this body of water which stretches between the southern part of Vancouver Island and the mainland, encompassing the Georgia Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was only recently that it was officially renamed, taking its name from the Coast Salish native populations who have lived here for thousands of years before the Europeans ever arrived.

I thought a lot about Ed and Irma, the couple who owned this boat for over 20 years. I'm told that in the 14 or so years they had it on this coast, their practice was to go out on a month or so cruise every year, along the coast. It is so huge, this coast of ours, and if you are sailing everything obviously will take time. I can see how a month would make sense, although for me, right now, I can't see that far. Friday was a day sail, no doubt next will be an overnight, and then who knows. Go as far as you can see and when you get there, you will see further. Being on board a sailboat after all these years was strange and familiar and intimidating and breathtaking.