Wednesday, July 8: Day 35: Another Day in Comox

☕ Morning Winds and Shifting Schedules

At about 5:45 AM, I heard something slapping outside, which woke me up—just a tiny breeze blowing something out there, probably a line or two. I went back to sleep until about 7:45 AM when we finally got up. I am writing this on Thursday because I didn't get a chance to write it on Wednesday, so let's see if I can remember exactly how the day unfolded!

When we first got up, we headed to the cockpit to have our coffee and saw just how incredibly low the tide was. Here is a photo of how it looked on the other side of our dock, alongside a comparison photo showing what it looked like when we came in the other day.

Low tide in the morning.

Yesterday's view when we came in.

We originally thought we'd spend the morning on Lil' Ollie getting some chores done, but as usual, life has a way of changing your schedule on you. Paulette had an appointment at 9:15 AM, so Art picked us up at 9:00 AM, and we headed to the appointment. As soon as she finished up, the four of us went for breakfast at Art's favorite breakfast spot. It's called Early Bird, in Courtenay and they have great senior portions there. 

🛒 Groceries, Laundry, and Fresh Linens

After breakfast, we went to a mall where Greg headed to Thrifty Foods to pick up some groceries. Yes, more groceries! We've been eating out so much lately that we haven't even had a chance to eat much of our onboard freshies. While Greg was shopping, Paulette and I went into a clothing store to exchange something, and then we headed back to the car to wait for him.

Once we got back to the boat, I gathered up the laundry, and Greg helped me carry it down to the marina laundromat. I was lucky again and found two empty washers right away. Here, a load of laundry is $5.00, which includes the drying. I was able to get everything in the two loads! While the machines did the work, I caught up on my email and worked on my blog post for the day before. It was about 2:30 PM when we carried the clean, dry laundry back to the boat. Not all of it went into the dryer, of course—you know there are always some articles that just can't handle the heat.

Oh, I forgot to mention! Before we left for the laundromat, we hung the duvet outside along with a clean sheet that had been sitting on the boat for months just to air them out. The sun was shining and a beautiful breeze was blowing—absolutely perfect for freshening up the bedding. When we got back with the damp laundry, I swapped out the fresh bedding for the items that couldn't go in the dryer, left them out for a short time, and then hung them up inside to finish.

🍽️ Dinner with Friends and Family Games

Art and Paulette had invited us to their place for dinner and were picking us up shortly after 3:00 PM. Before heading over, we ran to Costco for a few more food items, and then stopped at Quality Foods for a bag of ice. We made a quick trip back to the boat to put the cold stuff away, take down the airing duvet, and bring it inside.

Then it was back to Art and Paulette's, where I actually did another tiny load of laundry—it was only two items, but Paulette threw a couple of her things in, too. Art wanted Shepherd's Pie for dinner, which he had picked up from Costco, along with a salad and a bagged coleslaw kit that you just throw together. Paulette also cooked up some yummy frozen green beans from M&M's. It was a delicious dinner and so easy. You know, none of us are spring chickens anymore, and it is always nice to get a break from cooking a scratch dinner! We had those yummy Magnum ice cream bars for dessert.

After dinner, we played a couple of games of Skip-Bo, which is always such a fun game. Art and Paulette generously let us win—I won the first game, and Greg took the second! Greg isn't usually much of a games person, but when he does play, he does quite well, and he certainly did today.

Around 8:30 PM or so, Art drove us home—back to Lil' Ollie, which is our cozy home for now. I made our bed with the fresh, clean sheets and the wonderfully freshened duvet. I finished writing yesterday's post and fixed up the formatting for the day before. We watched another couple of episodes of The Resident, and then it was off to bed. It was a lovely, productive day!

🐾 An Update on Artemus

I haven't mentioned Artemus much lately, but he is doing quite well on the boat. We recently got him some store-bought wet food, which is much cheaper at under $2 a can compared to the Buckerfield's food ($3–$4/can) that is supposed to be healthy. He absolutely loves it, so we've started mixing it in with his quality food. He lets out a loud squawk every time we are about to put his bowl down for him!

He also really likes it when we feed him at the top of the companionway stairs in the cockpit. From up there, he can see absolutely everything that is going on in the boat, and you know how cats love to supervise. He isn't trying to escape or get off the boat at all now. Greg even took him for a walk up to the end of the wharf. There are a lot of large fishing boats in this marina, which might be just a bit intimidating for him, hence the reason he may be staying on board. Whenever we leave him on Lil' Ollie, Greg puts up the custom screen he made for the companionway opening so Artemus can sit safely on the step and watch the world go by while waiting for us to return, and at night when we go to sleep.

Custom screen made by Greg.