August 2014 Cruise – First cruise in Mobert Part 2

Waking up in Garrison Bay the next morning, we relaxed for a bit, had breakfast and planned our next move.  After raising anchor and slipping out of the bay, we maneuvered north through Mosquito Pass again up into Roche Harbor for a quick visit.

A couple of hours later we had a new crab pot, fishing bait, fishing licenses, more food and drinks we didn’t need, ice cream cones, lattes, full water tanks, some electrical connectors I needed for a boat project, and a new manual pump assembly for the Jabsco head.

See, a while back I serviced both of the heads.  The aft head is manual and I replaced the pump assembly with a whole new assembly, with the plan that I’d then get a service kit and rebuild the old pump assembly for a spare.  Of course I haven’t done that yet, but the new pump assembly works great.  The forward head on the other hand is electric and servicing it was more involved.  Essentially it hasn’t worked correctly since I worked on it.  Since there was a marine chandlery at Roche Harbor I decided to buy yet another manual pump assembly and just swap out the electric pump for a manual one so we could have two, if even manual, working toilets.

After sharing the better part of my wallet with the wonderful Roche Harbor resort, we said goodbye to their expansive docks and headed north out of the harbor, east around the south side of Spieden Island (which really intrigues me) and into the north bay of Jones Island (a State Park, also known as Deer Island).  At first we anchored in between other boats but after a mooring buoy freed up we decided to move since it was more clear for swinging.  The girls went ashore with mom and grandpa and I set to work swapping the toilet pump in the forward head.

My reward for successfully dealing with the toilet was a nice hot shower in that same head.  Mobert has a very effective hot water heater and near household-like water pressure so showering is actually quite pleasant on board and it felt really good to be clean.  Of course the shower handle in the forward head leaks a bit and the stream/spray switch kept falling off, so that handle is on the list of upcoming replacements.  Another crew member decided a quick hair wash in the cockpit would feel good and took advantage of the hot water as well.  Apparently, the plastic cockpit shower spigot also leaks, likely from years of freezing in the winter.  Another replacement on the list.

I was told later by the shore party that no deer were spotted on the island which was sort of a surprise considering the islands nickname.  During our previous night at anchor in Garrison Bay, we discovered that our battery consumption was fairly high so we had to run our genset more often than expected.  On average we needed to charge batteries for a couple of hours at night before bed, then another couple of hours in the morning to recharge from the overnight.  I think refrigeration has a lot to do with it, but I’ll need to tackle that later.  No big deal really as running the generator to charge the batteries also powers the water heater, allows us to charge phones and iPads, and powers “Movie Night” complete with Bose Surround Sound.

The next morning after waking up we planned to go to Rosario Resort and take advantage of their swimming pool.  On the way we were treated to a nice view of the Adventuress, a 100-year-old Schooner that sails around the area.  Once we got near the entrance to Eastsound we were in radio range of Rosario and unfortunately found out they were full.  So we turned around and decided to sneak through Pole Pass between Orcas and Crane Islands and check out Deer Harbor.  Like Roche Harbor, Deer Harbor has dock attendants to help you into your slip and they also have an outdoor pool.  Their store sells fish and chips, locally made ice cream, and a few basic sundries.  Another really nice place to spend a day.

A few of us walked up to Deer Harbor Inn for dinner at their restaurant which was fun and then got a ride in their limo back to the marina.  We would have taken the limo up to the restaurant also but it had apparently broken down.  Must not have been too big of a problem since it was working not too long after.  The walk was actually pretty short, a bit uphill, but a fairly nice walk in general.