Jan 6, 2012 Point Baker

It’s good to be back in Point Baker, and to experience the place in the dead of winter.  It blew most of the day, with some noonday sunshine granting us the opportunity to walk the docks and check out the spacious community building stocked with firefighting equipment, photos of deceased community members (mostly fisherman), books and discarded magazines.  We kept the fire going throughout the day and calculated that one tote bag full of wood lasts eight hours.  Concerned about how our eggs had fared during yesterday’s sail and  having noticed some damp cardboard, we removed all cartons and inspected every last egg.  We put all 240 eggs in a basket and found only 1 damaged!  Replacing the cardboard and gently nestling the eggs back in their cartons, we hope they will remain unscathed for the remainder of the trip.  They are refrigerated” close to the hull with water temperatures around 40 degrees.

Since none of our food is in labeled boxes, we scrounge for whatever is most accessible, eggs and rice at the moment.  The day was spent reading, playing cribbage and relaxing.  We suspect we may be here for a few days.  If we’re going to be stuck in any town, Point B is a good place to be, tied up to the quirky floating village center that consists of community room, post office, store, defunct laundry room and cafe.  We found the Baywatch café closed, not a surprise in the least bit, but a slight disappointment.  We would have to give up on the idea of a slice of homemade pie this visit.  All the better that there are few opportunities to spend money.  The trappings of commercialism did grab hold, though.  The town store is a shack that stocks mostly canned and pre-packaged food and which opens for a couple of hours a few days a week.  Pete managed to lay down $4.15 for a box of Cheez-its, insisting that they’re a caretaking tradition.  As a visitor, it’s hard not to get a little anxious in Point B, as walking around is nearly off-limits.  The dock ramp leads to a No Trespassing” sign and any other boat accessible areas are dotted with private properties and perhaps shotgun wielding homeowners.  Our favorite thing to do here is row through the channel, but the weather did not allow this time.  So, we continued to stay snug inside next to the woodstove, curled up in our wool blankets.

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