Day 2 Kingston to Roche Harbor

We left Kingston this morning about 9 am in pea soup fog, quarter mile visibility. Stayed that way all the way to Smith Island half way across the straits We stayed on the west side of the shipping lanes all the way to Port Townsend, many ships passing within a half mile never seeing them but hearing their fog horns. Not many other pleasure boats out with us so the water was not very crowded. The fog finally lifted in time for us to stop and watch J Pod of the local Killer Whale population off Lime Kiln Point. We got the obligatory courtesy stop by the whale watcher watchers. They were nice and just wanted to make sure we knew the new rules for whale watching, stay 200 yards away and you can’t chase them or stop in their path of travel. He said they had not seen us do anything wrong and thanked us for being whale aware. It was a long day but everything worked like it was supposed to and we met Steve and Michelle and Alan and Sue when we got to Roche Harbor. We anchored out in the bay after attempting to anchor near the Henry Island SYC outstation. Could not get the anchor to set in 12 feet of water off the docks so I pulled it up to reset and had about 100 lbs of eel grass stuck on it. Cleaned it off and moved to deeper water and set the first time. Was wandering around the grounds at Roche when I ran into Eric Waters and Pat from GHFD #5. They had decided on a whim to fly up to Roche for dinner. We sat and talked for a while before Chris and I took our leave to have dinner on Sue and Alan,s boat. They are headed south tomorrow fog permitting. Day 3 Roche Harbor Lightening storms all night. NO wind but hail and heavy rain. Today Alan and Sue were planning on leaving but a line of thunderstorms across the straits and heavy fog starting at Mosquito pass caused them to rethink that plan. Saturday looks much better for crossing to the south. Were hanging out waiting for my parents to drive up from Cattle Point where they live to have brunch with the at the Roche Harbor Cafe. Great looking breakfast but were going to miss that as they stop serving at 1100 so lunch fare will have to suffice. If they make it at all, they got several inches of hail at their house, apparently, mom said something about icicles, I think not but hail, icicles, i guess it could be considered the same thing in mom's thinking? Temperature has dropped 10 degrees in 10 minutes as the storm front moves south of us but it should miss us.