A Big Welcome to Roche Harbor

Success! After two nights on anchor in Garrison Bay we called Roche Harbor Marina early Sunday morning and were put on the waiting list. We only waited a half hour or so before they called us in. The busy harbor was in stark contrast to our previous night’s surroundings. With the holiday weekend in full swing, we were pretty quick to pick up on the electric, party atmosphere.

As were coming down the fairway, we spotted another Ranger Tug just a few slips down from where we soon docked. We had noticed their dinghy tied to the back of their boat (you really couldn’t miss it since it was bright orange. Most are grey, not a usual color for a dinghy but when you think about it very practical for safety reasons since it would be much easier to spot than a grey one). Since we are dinghy-less at the moment we have been looking at all the different models available but had never seen one like this, we were very curious. Barry and Jill, on Laxey, were more than happy to show us their cute little Portland Pudgy dinghy and explain all its features.

Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel sat on the hill right behind our boat. The church’s bells entertained us several times during the day ringing out some great songs which seemed to resonate throughout the harbor.

In addition to the church bells, we had some very friendly dock neighbors. As we were in the middle of happy hour on the deck of our boat and our dock mates on each side of us were cleaning and cooking Dungeness crab – they both decided we needed to have some. We think they had a little debate going on as to the best way to do it. Our neighbor, on the starboard side, packaged two crabs in aluminum foil, along with onion, garlic, lemon, and a little white wine. The neighbor to the port side used a pressure cooker and claimed he could cook it in less than half the time as all the bigger yachts that had big pots of boiling water on the back decks of their boats. We have to say that both versions were delicious.

It was just one big crabbiest on the docks tonight and we loved it. We would have to say that just about everyone in the harbor tonight were catching and/or eating crab in one form or another. If you didn’t catch it yourself there was a little crab stand at the beginning of the main dock to purchase it fresh without effort. We also learned a little bit about how easy it is to catch these crabs and we’re tempted to buy a trap and get going.

Another gift of nature’s bounty is found almost everywhere you turn on the islands… Blackberries. The berries in this area were just starting to ripen, happening later this year due to the late start to summer in the Pacific Northwest.

I don’t know why I have such a fascination for these pump-out boats, but I think it’s because they all have such creative names to describe their business. Here’s one of my favorites.

Our dock mate, on our port side, had a steady stream of family and friends over to his boat, and lots of activity – games, crab catching, cleaning, and cooking. Apparently, he needed an open/closed sign to inform visitors of the status of the welcome mat.

If you look closely (above) you’ll see Kismet at the dock in Roche Harbor. Monday morning we walked up to the church up on the hill behind us and got some gr

Curfew for small kids AND teenagers (above – right)? I wonder how they enforce this.

This could be us, on our next visit to the PNW (above – left).