Coffee in Bastion Square

It's morning again, with the sun coming up behind Mt. Baker. Early spring, cold mornings. I've been watching this pretty little cutter sail on the morning breeze from behind Cormorant Point in Haro Strait. The north wind is soft this morning but she is on a broad reach and making fair way. The sun is warm on my cheek.

I'm on the edge of a high bank overlooking the strait but old habits make me scan to the horizon every ten or fifteen minutes to check for traffic. Winter/spring traffic is sparse except for the commercial traffic to Vancouver, which stays in the VTS lanes closer to the San Juan Island shore.

Yesterday, we had coffee with old friend and sailor Doug in Bastion Square overlooking the inner harbour. Lots of traffic on the water there - float planes, tugs, water taxis & little busses. A large power boat is slowly feeling its way in past Laurel Point. Tall masts appear over Shoal Point and a pretty schooner rounds into the harbour. She is a hundred feet or so and the deck crew is busy with lines and fenders. Easy to see what Victoria harbour was like one hundred years ago, except she would have sailed right up to the dock. They were real sailors then. Come into the tight harbour with a bone in her teeth, douse the jib and staysail, turn up into the wind and drift into her spot at the dock to kiss the pilings, all in one smooth motion. The watchers (and there are always watchers, seen or not) on the dock know that the master knows what he is doing. The master, calm and collected on deck, disappears below to have a nip and be thankful that he didn't mess up coming in.

Now that the sun is firmly up, the soft morning wind is giving way to a northerly of 15 knots or so. Cordova Bay is covered in small whitecaps and spinnakers like little jewels are skirting James Island from the north. The wind has cleared the air and the Golden Ears, in snowy white, are visible 85 nautical miles to the south.