Fire Onboard!

WEDNESDAY June 24th – Time to Explore Little Sucia before heading off to Roche Harbor.

Fox Cove is one of our favorites because a tiny island called Little Sucia forms part of the cove.  We love exploring Little Sucia because not many people venture out there.  There’s always some treasure to find and this time Little Sucia gave us a piece of wood that looks just like a whale, as long as we can find the perfect tail. 

We cast off bound for Roche Harbor when in the distance we could see another American Tug just off the North end of Orcas Island.  Through the binoculars it looked like they were just floating along.  Then behind the boat it looked like I could see smoke.  After a second confirming look I gave the binoculars to Julie to see if I was crazy.  It was kind of hard to tell but she thought so as well.  We made a rapid course change and headed for the boat.  As we arrived the Skipper came out and let us know they had a fire onboard.  Their alternator had burned up and caught on fire but luckily did not cause much damage and quickly went out.  The engine however was now dead and could not be restarted.  He was on a fairly slow drift, headed for open water.  We stayed with the disabled boat for a while until they had an ETA from Vessel Assist.  The skipper then told us he felt like he was in no danger and was comfortable with us leaving.  We carried on to Roche Harbor happy we could provide help if needed.

We arrived in Roche Harbor and immediately filled up with water so we could all take showers.  We had a great dinner out at the Madrona Grill, then came back to the boat for an early night to bed.