Seattle Trip Day 12

Wednesday August 26

I must not be too good at this trip planning business because yesterday we had a 35 mile day and today we had an 85 mile day.  Oh well, it worked out OK in the end.

Today was yet another special day for us because we had to transit Seymour Narrows.  Seymour Narrows is one of those places where small boats like ours can only transit safely at slack tide.  I had a book that told me that slack tide in the morning was at 9:15 AM, and we were about 20 miles away from there.  I decided that I should allow at least 3 hours to get there, hence a 5:30 AM wake up and a 6 AM departure.

Here is a Wikipedia definition of slack tide, or what they call "slack water:"

Slack water, which used to be known as 'the stand of the tide', is a short period in a body of tidal water when the water is completely unstressed, and therefore no movement either way in the tidal stream, and which occurs before the direction of the tidal stream reverses.^[1] Slack water can be estimated using a tidal atlas or the tidal diamond information on a nautical chart.^[2] It is a common misconception that the time of slack water occurs at high and low water, that is, at the greatest and lowest height of tide. In fact, the time of slack water, particularly in constricted waters, does not occur at high and low water,^[3] and in certain areas, such as Primera Angostura, the ebb may run for up to three hours after the water level has started to rise, and the flood may run for three hours after the water has started to fall.

As I write this I am still on the M/V Kennicott on the trip back to Ketchikan.  I just watched a short documentary on board here about the project back in the 1950’s when they blasted out 2 big rock pinnacles collectively known as “Ripple Rock” inside Seymour Narrows.  Prior to today I did not even know that had been done.  It was quite a project, requiring over 2 million pounds of explosives.  An amazing feat of engineering.

Here's a link to an 8 minute video that describes the project and shows the blast.  It's worth the 8 minutes if you have any interest at all in marine naviagtion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=getmLam9H80

Here is the intended route for today:

Of course all the other southbound cruising boats in the area also need to transit the narrows safely, and everyone knows when slack tide is.  So as we approached the narrows we started falling into line with other boats.

We got there about 9 AM, about 15 minutes prior to slack tide, but the other boats headed right in and so I got in line and headed in along with them.

We made it through with no issues, and even got to see some Killer Whales on the other side.  Apparently I strayed a little too close to them because as I tried to get some photos of them I got a warning call from the Canadian Fisheries boat that was in the area. 

We had come down through Discovery Passage and were now in the Strait of Georgia, and the sea conditions were excellent.

It was a long run for the day, but we made our way across the strait to an area called Pender Harbour, and Fisherman’s Resort Marina.

It was a small marina, but with good services, and we enjoyed our brief stay there.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset at Fisherman's Resort in Pender Harbour.

I swear we are always the smallest boat in the marina.

If we stop here on the way north next year perhaps I'll calculate the mileage to Ketchikan and make a sign to add to their post.

 A heron visited us on the dock near our moorage.

598 miles to this point.

I did not realize it at the time, but this was the last time we fueled up - Yahoo!