One of the fun challenges about boating up the Inside Passage are the narrows and rapids. With the wide swings in tides and currents, deceptively peaceful channels transition to impassable torrents of whirlpools, eddies and overfalls in the space of an hour. The current can run from 1 or 2 knots at slack water up to 15 or more knots 3 hours later at maximum current. Multiple factors influence how fast the water moves: the moon, the tides, the wind, the weather, the geography etc. Of course, the safest time to pass through these narrow channels is at slack water which happens about every 6 hours. Even speed boats need be wary but, when you have a slow boat like a trawler or sailboat, it is essential to pass through at slack tide or within 30 minutes of same for most passes.
Motor boats have 2 main kinds of hulls: displacement hulls and planing hulls. Displacement hulls displace the water through which they move. Planing hulls ride up above the water once up to cruising speed. The advantage of a boat with a displacement hull is the fuel efficiency. The disadvantage? It is slow. Arcturos has a displacement hull. 10 knots is pushing the engines as hard as they can go, spewing black smoke. Its sweet spot for fuel efficiency is 7-7.5 knots. Some sailboats can pass us in a good wind. I think you can understand why, for a slow boat, moving with or against even a 3-5 knot current in a place with whirlpools, could be difficult and dangerous.
Our goal this day is to get at least to Cordova Cove which is a small group of islands in Cordova channel just past the Greene Point rapids. About 30 minutes after leaving Douglas Bay, we will need to pass through Whirlpool rapids. Slack water at the rapids is not at exactly the same time. Fortunately, Greene Point turns slack after Whirlpool but, not much after. For us, it will take about an hour to get from one to the other. In our favor, is that we are two days from the Neap tide, when we have a 1/2 moon and the difference in the high and low tides is the least. We get up early so that we can get through Whirlpool rapids 20-30 minutes before slack water which should get us to Green Point rapids about 30-45 minutes after slack. No problems. Kind of fun! We arrive at Cordova Cove by 9 am. Beautiful but, not much to do other than watch boats come through the rapids so we move on towards Hanfield Bay which is positioned fairly close to Seymour narrows which we can pass the following day. Sorry not to have any exciting pictures of rapids for you. Someday we will sit above some rapid on land and watch as it turns wicked.
Holeinthewater 