Wednesday, September 30, 1992 - Neah Bay, WA

First thing we discovered this morning was that the bilge pumps weren't working, so Roy spent the morning cleaning the bilge. For-
tunately, that was all that was needed; the pumps were just clogged. They work fine now.
While Roy was doing that, I paddled ashore and bought a few groceries and a book of stamps. Then I paddled around the bay. Went over to the remains of the bridge but got chased away.
We had tried to listen for Ken at ten a.m., but the reception was very poor, and we kept hearing the loud ticking. After lunch, I noticed that the depth sounder was on, and it occurred to me that might be what was causing the ticking. Roy agreed that was a good idea. He turned on the radio and turned off the DC circuit breakers one by one. The ticking wasn't caused by the depth sounder; it was caused by the radar. That makes sense; the radar has to time the beams it sends out, probably by a crystal oscillator, and it's located close to the radio antenna. So now we know how to eliminate the ticking.
We paddled ashore to take the bus to Forks. In spite of my reminder, Roy forgot the chain, lock, and key, so he had to zoom back to the boat and get them.
While we were waiting for the bus, two men and a woman came up and started a conversation. The woman said she had been treated very rudely in the restaurant across the street. They hadn't brought her what she had ordered, so she had refused to pay for it.
When Roy and I got on the bus, we saw the Police Captain's car in front of the restaurant. The captain (?), in jeans and sports shirt, was talking with two waitresses. We surmised the waitresses were complaining about the woman who didn't pay. They looked at me on the bus as if they thought I was the one. (There was a slight resemblance.) Sure enough, the bus had gone a very short distance when it was stopped by the police captain. He got on the bus and asked about the people who had got on at the motel. Another man who had gotten on with us immediately spoke up and said he'd gotten on there and had heard about someone who hadn't paid in the restaurant. We told the captain that the woman and two men had headed towards the general store. He thanked us and left. Methinks that's going to turn out to be an expensive meal.
Enjoyed a pleasant, free ride to Forks. It's about 45 miles each way, the first ten alongside the strait, the rest through woods. It was an unusually warm, almost hot, day. We strolled around Forks for a couple of hours and bought a few things we couldn't get in Neah Bay, including a little camping toaster (non-electric) to use on the propane stove.