Alaskan Sea-Duction: Roche Harbor

When you first enter Roche, you can see right away that it is different than Friday Harbor. Roche is not for rednecks, there are multi-million dollar yachts here from all over the world. When you call the harbor master, you are assigned a slip and, in my case led to the slip as I was unfamiliar with the marina. getting to the marina can be a challenge as 100 ft. plus boats are coming and going, and, by the way, watch out for the float plane that lands next to you. Once you get to the slip, there are a couple of college age kids that meet you at the slip to tie you up. They then hook up elec. and water and place trash cans in front of the boat. Then, after a few min. of being tied up, a nice young lady walks up, much like a reception hostess, takes your boat info and your credit card. She is on call for questions you may have about the "Resort". Oh, I forgot that, huh. This is not a town but a resort and the prices clearly reflect that. Docking is $1.95 LOA (length overall). ASD is 54 ft. LOA. we stayed 3 nights.

The resort is set up for the boating community. You don't see derelict boats here. The service is great. They have a boat called the M/V Pheacal Phreak. Slogan "We take crap from anyone". They go around and pump out your holding tanks as part of the slip fee. They do take tips, of course. During July and August this place is jam packed and a "madhouse". There is a nice grocery store, antiques, a small marine store and various shops, restaurants and a hotel. The streets are brick. There is a formal garden in the middle. At sunset, a crew performs a "taking down of the colors" ceremony. There are four flags, WA state, Canada, Great Brittan, and the US last. The kids do their best to perform the ceremony in a military fashion. As the flag is lowered, that country's national anthem is played. Taps is played when the US flag is lowered. A small cannon with a very loud voice is fired just before the US flag is taken down.

There are things to see as this resort started out as a lime kiln in the 1800's. Later the McMillin family bought it and turned it into a resort. At the hotel you can see the sign in log and see signatures of visitors such as Theodore Roosevelt and John Wayne. JW visited often in his own yacht. At night, the resort lights up, but beware, no alcohol is allowed on the dock or in public areas. All in all, a nice place to visit. After three days we went to the fuel dock to top off before going to Canada. Our next stop is Stuart Island, Reid Harbor.