April 28-29
Hi All,
Whoa…..Mystic has now been properly introduced to the log dance….JOHN..Kathy yells, starboard NOW, go to Port, oh no there’s a whirlpool right in front with big ones, go into neutral, and Mystic goes over the logs….thump, thump, thump……arghhhhhh!!!!! For the last 75nm we have dodged massive telephone poll size logs maybe 30+ times. Out of the ~300 logs we dodged, 2 hit us……whaaaaaaa! One was in a whirlpool and submerged which we did not see….made this god awful noise hitting the keel 4 times….Kathy raced to the stern to see a log, 1′ in diameter and maybe 6′ long with lots of cuts, as in not the first time it had been hit. The 2nd hit was when we were surrounded by logs with no where to go….went into neutral and drifted over the mess….one good size log hit us once…..arghhhhhh!!!!! As far as we can tell, no damage except probably some scraped bottom paint!!! Our full keel certainly saved the propeller!!!
I could have named this blog doing the swirling dance as well. We would come up on giant whirlpool and Mystic would dip and jog to the right, then left and back and forth until we were out. That’s the force of these waters, moving a 45 ton boat like a toy…..wow, wow, wow!!!!
We did leave Deep Bay around 6am….engine on at 5:45am….that’s even before sunrise at 6am….but, we wouldn’t know as it has been thick dark gray clouds the last few days with lots of rain. Nobeltec had predicted an Ebb foul current for about 3 hours, but we got a 0.5-1.0 kt flood favorable current. After a few hours of that, we realized we could make Seymour Narrows in Johnstone Strait, 6nm further north than our proposed anchorage in Gowlland Harbor. John rapidly did all the calculations and…..well, at this 9.0 kt speed we will be there 1.5 hours early….so from 1600 rpm to 1200rpm we took off enough speed to only be there 45 min early….Seymour was still doing +7kts with lots of overfalls.
Seymour Narrows is infamous, speeds can go as high as 14-16kts at higher tides, the day we passed was 2 days after full moon and one of the largest currents, like 15′ knots….it has lots of overfalls and whirlpools….the strong advice is to only pass in <6 kts but preferably <3 kts. This is the Narrows that had a huge rock, Ripple Rock, 9′ below the surface and in the middle of the passage and it created dangerous whirlpools. More than 20 vessels were lost and >100 lives lost. They blew up over 35′ of rock in 1958 and it is now 45′ below the surface…..whoa!!!
We did a huge circle (donut in marine slang) and then at 25min early we went in…..did +3.5kts with some smaller whirlpools but really no big deal. Then the log dance started…..ODG….it was like doing the iceberg dance in front of the glaciers…..whoa!!!!
We made it to Kanish Bay around 1:45pm, 62nm….an exciting 8 hour day!!!! Kanish was a lovely anchorage which we had all to ourselves…..well worth coming back someday!!1 We did not keep going as once through Seymour Narrows the tide changed and the flood current was now in the foul 2-3kt range and building….no need to fight that. On Thursday, we got up and engine on at 6:45amand did the rest of Johnstone Strait in a strong ebb tide. We did the fastest speed for Mystic EVER @ 15.4 kts in the Current Passage….the previous record was 14kts outside Thursday Island in Australia…..yippee….she’s going to break up Scottie!!!!
We got to Havannah Channel around 11:00amwhich is close to Boughey Bay, our original planned anchor spot and one of our all time favorites!!! But, we decided to carry on another 20nm miles to Farewell Harbor in Blackfish Sound and be done with Johnstone Strait and all the logs. At the time the winds were 15-20kts, with a 1-2′ wind chop, all dead astern…..no big deal. But then the winds built to 20-30G40kts….yes that’s right, 40kts….yikes, that’s Gale force crap….ugh…but…again dead astern….Mystic said no problem I got this!!!! We did turn on the stabilizers as we did have some corkscrew motion coming down the 2-4′ wind chop stuff….ride ‘m Mystic!!!! We arrived around 1:15pm….61nm, 6+ hours, average speed 10kts….ODG a record for sure!!!!
Farewell Harbor is lovely and well protected, AND we had our first bear sighting of the season! Kathy saw him while I was napping. He was a large black bear who came down to graze on some grasses near the shoreline. He stayed for over a half an hour and was just up in some bushes nibbling on something when John got up. Very cool!! We never get tired of seeing the wildlife up here!!!!
Critter Stats:
Whales: 12
– Killer Whales 12, 10 adults, 2 juveniles in San Juan Islands
Stellar Sea Lions: ~20, Sucia Bay
Bears: 1
– 1 very large Black Bear in Farewell Harbor
The Plan: Well….hopefully we can make Allison Harbor….at the end of Queen Charlotte Strait which is somewhat exposed to open waters….tomorrow and stage to go around Cape Caution on Saturday. There is a HI over us now with a LO off in the Gulf of Alaska near Sitka and we are in the squash zone….gale force winds and seas in the 9-12′ range….nope not doing that stuff anymore. The front does pass tomorrow and hopefully everything calms by Saturday am for our crossing…maybe 5′ West swell, 10-15′ SW winds, maybe 1-2′ wind chop…will have more motion than we have had in a few years but hopefully doable…fingers crossed.
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
Farewell Harbor in Blackfish Sound
Position: 50 36’02.51 N, 126 40’25.87 W
Course: Anchored
Position: 21-04-29 17:10:56 -0700
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=50.6007,-126.6739&q=50.6007,-126.6739&z=16
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