It began raining off and on around 11 o’clock last night. This morning it looked pretty dreary with clouds down to about 50 feet off the deck – or water. The weather forecast called for more of the same today, with partly sunny with scattered showers forecast for tomorrow. That all added up to a good reason to stay put for today.
When I went up to the harbormaster’s office to pay another day of moorage, I asked about Internet service, since I could find no unsecured connections. They had a secured wifi setup for the Fisherman’s Wharf, and he said if I could receive it, then I could have the code for a mere $3.36. That seemed fair enough to me. I found the signal, but it was too weak for a good connection. Bringing the computer up to the bridge seemed to solve that problem, so I went back to the office and paid for the code. When I tried to connect a little later, the signal strength was no longer good enough, but lo and behold, an unsecured site popped up and has been working all afternoon. I’ll save the code for next year – I don’t think they change it very often.
There’s an ice creamery on the main drag here called The Udder Guy’s. Erin is a big fan of licorice ice cream, and they have a flavor called ‘Not Black Licorice’ which she first sampled when we were here last year. It's a light tan in color. This year she treated herself to a double scoop cone, and also an additional packed pint to put in our freezer. I’m not a licorice fan – I went for the wild blackberry cone.
Despite the rain, the local dragon boat crew was out in the harbor most of the afternoon practicing. There must be a race coming up. The dragon boats have a crew of about 20 paddlers sitting 2 abreast. At the stern is a tiller man, and up front is what would be the coxswain in a racing shell – only she faces the paddlers and beats out the cadence on a huge drum. They made several passes past our dock, where they’d swing around 180 degrees and head back through the anchored and buoyed boats. As evening approached, they had on their red and green navigation lights and stern light. There’ll be a video clip in the movie version of this tome.
Across the dock from us are two small tugboats – the Falbro and the Georgina. They have rough sawn lumber rear decks, and I surmised they were used for logging operations and the decks were chewed up from corked boots. A bit later in the day some people came and fired them both up – they were getting ready to go out on a job. I chatted a bit with one of them and confirmed that they did indeed tow logs to the local mill. Then he asked me “you like crab?” Of course I did, and he proceeded to pull up a line tied to the dock. At the other end was a milk crate type basket half full of Dungeness crabs and he pulled out three for us. “You want ‘em dead or alive” he said. “Alive’s fine”, I responded, “we’ll take care of them this evening.” So we had a crab dinner this evening, with enough left over for dinner tomorrow.
Tomorrow we’ll head back to the San Juan Islands, probably clearing customs at Roche Harbor. I didn’t buy our customs sticker ahead of time this year, so I’ll have to pony up for that at the customs dock. At Friday Harbor I’d have to hike up to their office on the hill above the harbor, so Roche Harbor will definitely be easier for this one – other than the usual jockeying for position at their dock.
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