First Sailing Trip – Day 5 – Problem Solved
The 32 year old Farymann Engine Service Manual still has a use… Tightening that screw solved the diesel fume problem. Motoring is much more relaxing and better for the lungs. We succeeded in finishing off the wine box last night which makes US Customs a lot easier today. Breakfast was at the Rock Salt café/restaurant in Fulford Harbor Village. It’s right at the ferry terminal and part of the funky hippie area. The food was excellent. After that we backed out of our slip and pointed southeast toward San Juan Island. We were able to get a little light air sailing as we cruised through the gulf islands toward the border. We motored into Roche Harbor on San Juan Island to clear Customs and found out that Colm’s green card had country of birth as Usa. First, that isn’t even correct, and second it’s not capitalized correctly. No problem really for Customs but he’ll want to correct it.
Then we motored through Mosquito Pass to Garrison Bay but there were so many boats in there that I didn’t feel comfortable anchoring. There was just no room to swing around the anchor. So we headed back to Roche Harbor and called over the radio for a slip. There were no regular slips available but they had Mediterranean style stern tie available. Despite not really knowing what that is, we went for it. Apparently this is very common IN The Med but I’m not sure why. Essentially, you back up with your stern to the dock and tie both sides of your stern. Every boat rubs up against the boat next to it and it creates a large immovable floating platform of boats all tied to a common floating dock along the stern side. At 30 feet we were one of the smaller boats tied there. There was a 48 foot power boat, and a 60 foot sailing catamaran on each side of us.
Roche Harbor is a crazy place. It’s really cool and all, just really popular and apparently most popular with wealthy people. I’m pretty sure the average boat length for the whole marina was around 50 feet. There was a 73 foot Ocean Alexander for sale at a cool $3 million and a couple 100+ foot boats visiting. TONS of people, kids, dogs, etc. Anyway, we decided that a night out for dinner would be good so reservations were made at the Roche Harbor Marina restaurant — “McMillan’s” I believe. The drinks, service and food were all exceptional there and the price was fairly reasonable considering. You’d pay more for worse food in many restaurants. The RH Marina does a flag ceremony every night which lasts quite a while; they play various songs while the color guard (teenagers in RH Marina garb) lower the Canadian, British Columbia, United States, Washington, and RH Marina Flags. They also do announcements of anniversaries, engagements, and shout outs to regular visitors.
Colm took Adrienne to the garden after dinner and proposed to her (something he’s planned for months) and of course she said yes. We all met back at the boat and got some shuteye.