Excited about my first cruise on Shuttlecock, I arrived at Cadboro Bay with the boat loaded for my first trip to San Juan Island, USA! Kevin and Diane had been here with Comber (their Nordic Tug) for about a week at Royal Victoria Yacht Club, and this morning they were rafted to Shuttlecock while they were having lunch with some friends.

I threw off the lines and headed out of Cadboro Bay. There was zero wind so the 8 hp, 4 stroke Yamaha was to be put to its first test since Dave Tobacco helped me get it running back in June. The test would not be without its challenges.

Everything was running nominally until about 90 minutes into the voyage. That's when the engine started missing. The missing gradually got worse until I decided to head back to Cadboro Bay. I had made it as far as Zero rock. That's half way between Cadboro Bay and Sidney spit. Our first stop before heading to the United States tomorrow.

Another 90 minutes later, with the engine missing (but not sacrificing performance in terms of speed through the water), I arrived back in Cadboro Bay. Kevin and Di were still not back from lunch, so I rowed to shore, retrieved my car and drove to Canadian Tire for a set of spark plugs and a spark plug wrench. I didn't have one so couldn't remove the existing plug to take to the store for identification. I thought, surely CANADIAN TIRE could look up what spark plug I needed!

WRONG.

The guy told me he couldn't look up marine-use spark plugs. WTF?! Whatever. I bought a spark plug wrench, drove back to Cadboro Bay, rowed out to Shuttlecock and removed the plugs. Then, with plug in pocket, I rowed back to shore, drove to Canadian Tire, bought the plugs, drove back to the beach. Parked my car where it wouldn't be ticketed and rowed back out to the boat.

By this time, Kevin and Di had arrived on Comber. So I changed my plugs and we left together for the Spit. The engine started missing again by Zero Rock. Onward! Other than a constantly missing outboard, the trip to the Spit was uneventful.

We spent the evening catching up and planning our trip to San Juan Island the next day. I was concerned about fuel (I only had 1 extra gas can on board and wasn't sure about the engine economy.) So we decided to clear customs at Roche Harbour, rather than Friday Harbour as Roche is much closer to the Spit.

The Customs dock at Roche Harbour (which is a massive American Port) is a dinky little hut with two touchscreens. It didn't work for me, as it required a vessel registration number, which I don't have. Legally, Canada doesn't require that a vessel be registered if it is powered by an engine of less than 10 HP. At least I think that's what I remember someone once told me. Fortunately (or not) Kevin had a hell of time using the damn thing, even though he and Di go to the US every year! And so it was decided that we would continue on to Friday Harbour, where we thought there's be some reasonable humans working.

WRONG.

After walking to the gas dock twice at Roche, (forgot my wallet the first time) we split for Friday Harbour. Another couple of hours later, I arrived at the much larger customs dock at Friday Harbour. No humans, but they did have a big, yellow phone box along with a shit ton of surveillance cameras.  So I tied up and picked up the phone. A pleasant enough sounding woman on the other end asked me why I hadn't used the APP. "Because I wanted the pleasure of your company." I said. Well, you can't come in without a Vessel Registration Number. "Oh. So I have to leave?!"

Now, get this. I started walking down the wharf (away from Shuttlecock to tell Kevin and Di what had happened) when, all of a sudden there was this shrill, shrieking, Impossible to ignore siren coming from what turned out to be the big, yellow phone. Since there was no one else at the customs dock, I thought I better answer it. I was greeting on the other end by a very unfriendly, gruff sounding man who asked me why I was walking in the wrong direction from my boat? Holy shit. Talk about big brother. I tried to tell him I was telling my companions that I was unable to enter the Country and would be leaving for Canada. He told me, in no uncertain terms that I must return to my vessel IMMEDIATELY and leave the country. And when I was no longer in the United States of America, I must call the Canadian Customs and tell them I was back in Canada.

"Thanks very much for your help. Oh, by the way, I need gas. Is it OK if I go to the gas station to get some, so I can make it back?" "YOU ARE ALLOWED TO GET ENOUGH FUEL BUT THEN  YOU MUST LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!" OK.

I didn't call Canada Customs. That should fix him. As I headed out of Friday Harbour, I decided to continue my circumnavigation of San Juan Island, so I headed South and finally arrived back in Cadboro Bay after two days. Of special note is that I hadn't left Shuttlecock except to get gas twice. Once at Roche and once at Friday. I'm in no hurry to return to the US aboard Shuttlecock, or otherwise. I just happy to have escaped with my life.

Almost San Juan Island

chart view