On Jul 7, 7:41?am, HK wrote:
Chuck Gould wrote:
On Jul 6, 5:14?pm, wrote:

As far as "can't run the inlet", etc, comments further down the
thread...pooh, pooh. One of the oldest maritime traditions is working
*with* the winds and currents to get around.

For a motorless sailboat or rowboat, absolutely. Glad to see you have a
rationalization for every occasion!


My favorite local example of horsepower being substituted for brains
and seamanship is a little waterway known as Deception Pass. (Due to
the high volume of current, the orginal Spanish explorers charted the
pass as a "river mouth". When Vancouver used the Spaish charts as a
basis for his exploration of the NE Pacific he realized the flow was
tidal current through a pass, not a river mouth, and so he named the
pass "Deception" to acknowledge that it had fooled the Spanish).

Anyway, Deception Pass is between the north end of Whidbey Island and
the south end of Fidalgo Island. 8 knot currents are common during
maximum ebb or flood. Large groups of boats, including all varieties
of power boats and of course all sailboats gather at either end of the
pass to wait for slack water to transit through. Those waiting for
slack will include boaters with 1400 HP boats capable of doing 20-30
kt or more.
An 8 knot current certainly wouldn't impede a 20-knot boat, but there
are some *extremely* good reasons why the sea savvy either wait for
slack or skillfully time their arrival at the pass during slack water.

The pass is narrow, (hence the velocity of flow), and peppered with
rocks along each edge. When the pass is running, random whirlpools
form without much warning and can collapse just as quickly. A boat
with any draft at all can easily be diverted from what needs to be a
reasonably precise course. Our local waters are notorious for drift
and deadheads, so deadfall and logging debris are swept through the
pass at nearly every flood or ebb. It gets very interesting when a 20-
foot length of phone pole diameter drift wood gets sucked under by a
whirlpool, carried along the stream until the vortex collapses, and
then comes shooting back up through the surface like some wooden
missle launched from a submarine- it renews a person's respect for the
awesome power of the sea. Nobody builds a pleasure boat that would be
immune to damage from a vertically launched battering ram. Drift that
isn't sucked under to come shooting back through the surface 50 or 100
yards downstream can run at any position through the pass, including
"sideways", and that could leave very little room for a vessel to
dodge aroudn the end of the log and the edge of the rocks.

A tiny percentage of people will run the pass at any current state.
They often boast about their stupidity. I once heard one remark, "I've
got enough power to run 20 knots, so I can still make 8-10 knots
through the pass!" I wonder who he thinks is "steering" that oncoming
40-foot phone pole spinning through the whirlpools at 8 knots?