Quijote Rides a Waterfall

The sun finally paid us a visit yesterday.  What a lovely evening.

Yesterday morning at this time, we were just getting up to sounds of… no rain!  It had rained hard all night long.  It felt cozy to be snuggled into bed, listening to the incessant driving rain and wind. I was dreading the thought of pulling on rain gear for another day of it.  It slacked off just in time.  The morning was heavy with low hanging clouds in a light breeze and the rigging was dripping onto the wet, glistening deck.  Gearing up for the cold, we entered Johnstone Strait at slack, caught the ebb tide, and rode north.

The weather improved as we proceeded and the wind stiffened.  We travelled all day in sunshine with 20 knot winds in our face, gusting to 25.   The effects on boat speed of wind and current mostly cancelled each other out.  Sources warn us about opposing wind and current making for rough conditions, but the chop was on the bow, rather than sideways to it, so Quijote did a good job of cutting through it, burying her bow into a large wave at times and shedding water through her scuppers.

There’s a feature along the way called Earl’s Ledge that the book tells us can be dangerous at ebb on spring tides.  The topography of the bottom pours water from one elevation to another, creating substantial turbulence at times of rapid current. We were approaching it at probably the worst time for the day in that regard, but since it wasn’t a spring tide (in fact we are only two days away from a neap tide when currents are at their most benign) and since we were traveling with the current, I was confident that we could ride on through and get to the other side quickly.

As we approached the feature, our speed over ground increased as it would when heading over a waterfall.  That’s essentially what this is, although the fall is all underwater.  In the distance we could see a wall of turbulence ahead of us.  I wondered briefly if we should turn around and wait it out, but by then the current was pushing us toward it was over three knots, so getting turned around and battling our way away from it would have been difficult.  On we charged, right into the teeth of the monster.  With swords held high, we screamed our battle cries.

In the center of the strait, the water looked particularly violent, but looking at the topography on the chart, the north side of the strait where we were traveling had a more gradual drop off, and sure enough, the turbulence was only moderately scary. We plowed through it at over nine knots, then quickly slowed into the glassy upwelling of the back eddy.  Soon we were through that too.

I’m really glad we were able to safely experience Earl’s Ledge in moderate current. I’ve run through it before, closer to slack, and I’ve wondered what the fuss is about. I can see how with larger current, closer to the center, and heading the other direction, a small boat might get into trouble.

We’re in Boughey Bay now.  The weather forecast has offered up three days of “winds: light.” The timing is perfect as we head into the Broughton Archipelago today.