the water, where there was a fishing pier at the street’s end. From the pier we could see not only our harbor, but also the ferry landing for the Anacortes ferry that comes here once or twice a day. We were blessed with another sunny day and we could see all the way across the straits to Washington, even though a thin fog was developing.We returned to the store at 9 o’clock and found them just opening up, hauling odds and ends out on the sidewalk for display, including some large ball fenders and a full sized wooden pirate. Inside were rows and bins of all sorts of paraphernalia, similar to the Second Wave store in Seattle, only with aisles closer together. Outside was a yard with fuel tanks, a canoe, exhaust manifolds, teak ladders – you name it, they probably had it somewhere. But, it turns out we didn’t need any of it, so we came back empty handed.
Erin and Mary almost came back empty handed as well. The bear claws were not quite ready at the bakery and the clerk suggested they come back in a half hour. They shopped in some nearby stores and returned a half hour later, only to discover someone had come in and bought their entire stock of fresh bear claws. They did manage to come back with a box full of butter horns, though.
We had planned on leaving at about 11, but hearing that fog had formed in the strait around that time yesterday we backed away from the dock a bit early, around 10:30.
As we were headed down the fairway towards the exit, we saw Craig and Kristine aboard the Elsa, also heading out. “Adios Potentate”, they radioed, as they were headed south towards Cadboro Bay.We set our course for the tip of Sidney Spit, and then a direct shot across Haro Strait to San Juan Island and Roche Harbor, where we could clear U.S. Customs. Because we left a little earlier, the tide was ebbing quite a bit faster. It was to our advantage for the first half of the crossing, boosting our speed over the bottom up to 11 knots in some places. It also created quite a bit of turbulence, but it didn’t approach the level of a pounding and we only took a few sprays up over the bow. Midway across we entered the ebb flow coming out of Spieden Channel on the U.S side and our speed over the bottom dropped dramatically, to as low as 4.6 knots. The water was much smoother, though – a fair trade for the reduced headway.
We passed Battleship Island and entered Roche Harbor just before noon and headed towards the marina and Customs. We expected the usual 20 or 30 minute wait for a spot on the Customs dock and were pleasantly surprised to see an opening large enough to accommodate us and then some. We cruised right on in and tied up. I gathered up our papers – passports, registration document, customs decal number, Canadian clearance number and Tribble’s medical records and went into the office to declare our arrival. That all went smoothly, and today the agent came out to the boat – not to board it but to compare everyone’s face to the photos on our passports. We were done in less than 10 minutes.
The agent asked us to shove off as quickly as possible, as other boats were now waiting. We had decided to stay here for the evening, so I contacted the marina on the radio and we were assigned a slip. About an hour later, Mary, Erin and I walked ashore to investigate while Ray stayed on board. As we were walking past the store, who should we see approaching but our friend Craig, who had been heading south from Sidney when we both departed the marina. They had encountered an electrical problem with their alternator or voltage regulator as their battery voltage was dropping rather than increasing as they cruised. They decided to divert here in hopes of finding a quick repair somewhere in the San Juan Islands. They had just cleared customs, and Craig had found a marine store a couple hundred yards beyond the old lime kiln area here at Roche Harbor. He had inquired there about repair facilities, and found that nowhere in the islands is there a place that repairs alternators. They typically ship them out to Seattle or Bellingham. With the shipping turnaround time he’d be looking at several days of waiting.
After hearing the story, I said “we have a spare alternator on board the Potentate, from when we upgraded to a higher capacity alternator a few years ago. Maybe you can use that.” Craig and I returned to the Potentate while Erin and Mary continued on their walk. We found the alternator in our sea chest after a bit of rummaging around, and carted it off to the Elsa, which was tied to the visitor area adjacent to the Customs dock. It looked like it would fit, but it had been a few years since I removed it, and I wasn’t certain which terminal was which. We decided to walk back to the marine store for advice. We got the straight story there on battery lead, ground and switchable field connections, and headed back. We even hitched a ride on a harbor service golf cart for part of the way, a good break. Craig began removing his alternator, and I went to the Potentate to retrieve a coil of wire that we could run from an ignition switchable terminal to the voltage regulator (his was configured differently). We thought we were in fat city with all the bases covered. Then Craig noticed that the mount for our alternator was the opposite configuration from his. His alternator has a couple of ears on it that go on either side of a mount on his engine. Mine had a solid mount on the alternator made to go onto ears that come out from the engine. We thought there might be a way to make it work, but without a supply of different size and different length bolts and a few other things, it just wasn’t going to work. We were bummed, especially because it took away a few hours of travel time in hopes of getting it fixed. Craig resorted to his original plan, which was to cruise either to Anacortes or Bellingham this evening in hopes of getting a quick fix tomorrow. He can last a couple days without the alternator, but will have to go to a dock with shore power for recharging at least every other day. We’re hoping to hear a successful update to this story soon.
Dinner this evening consisted of cheese dogs that Erin and Mary picked up at the store here, along with some baked beans and chips. Afterwards Erin and I walked a few docks, admiring the boats. The Thea Foss, a classic from the 1930’s and originally John Barrymore’s boat, was here and in pristine condition. We admired and photographed it, walked a few more docks and returned to the Potentate for the evening.
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