Restoration

The cruising season will be soon upon us in earnest. Our current plan will be to make our way North to the San Juan Islands and continue our explorations up there. Our itinerary is rather loose and will begin with the circumnavigation of Lopez Island sampling the many anchorages that surround that part of the archipelago. Driftwood beaches, wooded trails and riding our bikes along the meandering 2 lane roads that weave through the farmland of the interior will be our exercise both for the body and mind. After that, it will depend on the weather, which way the wind is blowing and how crowded it gets. The Canadian border is still closed so the concentration of boats in the San Juans is higher than normal.

When the anchorages start to fill up in the summer we will return to Port Ludlow for a refit of food and water and then make our way to the skinny waters of the Southern Salish sea East of Ketron, Anderson and McNeil Islands.

Over the past several weeks we’ve been busily bringing Great Northern back into cruising fitness. We have new Lazy Boy recliners in the salon. After all, GN is not a sailboat. We recently took the carpet off the back deck and power-washed it on the dock. What a chore! The pantry is being topped off. The wine locker is filling. We re-positioned the skiff on the flybridge so it is now facing fore and aft to make it easier and safer to launch, retrieve and secure. It also has new numbers, a chart plotter with depth, and we lengthened the cover of the old skiff to fit and it is now protected from the rain, the sun, and seagull bombing runs. Nearly there. We only have a few more things to do: Figure out bike storage on the flybridge, make a final trip to storage to retrieve the paddleboards and the flybridge cushions, and finalize food / booze acquisitions.

In my spare time I’ve been playing with words. It is something that I enjoy doing and I thought I’d share my latest invention. When I started this latest poetic project the spring weather still exhibited a wintry component. We had experienced a series of storms, the last being quite belligerent with winds to 55 knots registering on the freak-O-meter. I included sustained, driving rain. I read Les an early draft and she commented that it was quite dark and depressing. Well… it was and perhaps I was… being subjected to the rigors of early spring weather in the Northwest.

Then we had a patch of sun with temps hovering just below 70 degrees. In the Northwest there is a saying. If you don’t like the weather, wait fifteen minutes, it will change. This morning there is a fog shrouding the view out of our starboard windows. It is dense and still, but slowly dispersing. I can now see a tiny bit of definition where there was once a blank gray palate. Les and I have decided that we like the winters up here. Yes it is cold and damp. But the views are magnificent and when the sun does break through the clouds it is glorious in a way that the continual sun of Southern California can’t match.

Time for a morning walk. Hope you enjoy reading my latest word-fest which follows…

Restoration

Cold
Wet
Windy
Grey
Mist

A lingering meander
Traversing a beach 
Cobbles, gravel, and
The skeletons of trees
Blocking the casual

An ancient carcass
Home to moss 
And others
A Backrest
For the creature
Sealed in wondrous
Weather shedding polymer
Legs splayed out

In repose…

Deadpan stare over open water
Leaden wavelets
Tap the beach
Never more
Never less
Filled with ease

Mists flow inward
And through the edges
Sight bemused by distance
Restrained by inner fog
Bound by illusion

Sun bleached driftwood surround
Totems of the past
Plucked from the soil
Carried by the currents
Stranded by the tides

Diving birds
Fly through the water
And the air
And disappear
Only to return

Stands of evergreen
Prick the horizon
And the imagination
Whispering to other sentinels
Framing the sky

Flotsam
Floats
Past
Always moving
Prisoners
Of the tide and current

Deadpan stare over open water
Releasing its grasp
Giving way 
To Calm
Serenity
And
Belonging