Well, here it is October and we still haven't rounded the cape. But tomorrow, the wind's supposed to change in our favor.
This morning was overcast, damp, and windy. Our anchor was dragging, so we moved forward and lowered the second anchor. Several other boats dragged, too.
The Lady Washington's in here now. In fact, there are a whole bunch of boats waiting to go south.
Forgot to mention yesterday, when we got off the bus, the driver asked if we were senior citizens. When we told him our ages, he was surprised. He said, "You both look a lot younger." That really made our day!
Roy spent most of today working on the generator. Finally got it started at 3:30 in the afternoon. He had to disconnect the stop button, but we can stop it easily by taking the wire off the sparkplug. Sure nice to have microwave-cooked meals again.
I spent most of the day trying to tune the shortwave radio. Finally decided the antenna needs adjusting. Lowest standing wave ratio I could get was 2:1, and that was only on one or two bands. Most of the bands were around 5:1. The standing wave ratio is supposed to be 1.5:1 or lower.
After finishing repairing the generator, Roy went to town to buy a few things. He ran into the husband of the woman we were talking with yesterday and got the rest of the story, or at least the husband's version of the story. They did pay; the husband left a twenty-dollar
bill, which was more than enough to pay for their food, most of which they didn't eat. His wife had ordered a meat dip with cheese. It was brought without cheese, so she complained. The waitress went back and got a cold piece of cheese with the paper still on it and put it on the plate. The woman refused to eat it. Apparently, some heated words were exchanged. Her husband had eaten a bite or two of his hamburger, and the crew member had eaten two or three French fries. The woman had eaten nothing. The husband said, "Let's get out of here." He slammed a twenty-dollar bill down on the table, and the three of them left.
The non-uniformed police captain caught up with them in the grocery store and told the woman she was under arrest. She asked, "What for?" and he said, "For disturbing the peace." Her husband came over and told the captain he was not going to arrest his wife. He's an aeronautical engineer with a million-dollar yacht, so he had no qualms about standing up to a small-town cop. The captain threatened to arrest him for interfering with the duties of a police officer. The engineer told the captain if he wanted to keep his job, he'd better leave them alone. The argument went on and on. The woman was in tears, and a crowd of shoppers had gathered to watch. The captain got nervous and called for backup. Seven officers responded! I didn't know there were that many policemen in the entire area. The captain, who was about 25 years old, looked frightened and ridiculous. One of the officers fetched the waitress from the restaurant, and she admitted they had paid. No one was arrested. The captain told the three to get out of town and stay out, which was fine with them, since they were planning on leaving anyway. The woman took the bus to Seattle, and the two men will take the boat south tomorrow.
There should be a mass exodus out of here in the morning; a dozen or more boats are waiting for the wind to change.
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