After the bears came Wrangell, another fish town asking itself, "What now?" Situated near the alluvial outflow of a major glacial system the waters north of town appear to be the obvious route to follow, but they are far too shallow and quirky for any but local small boats. The rest of us either have to go way around to the the west or take the shortcut to Petersburg by using Wrangell narrows. For over 20 miles this skinny piece of improbable water that looks more like a river than the sea, and flows like a reversing river four times a day, allows for a careful passage almost due north from Wrangell. Here's the weird thing. The tide is widespread and driven by the outer ocean, of course. So the south end of the narrows and the north end of the narrows get close to the same rising and falling tides. The rising tides push south into the narrows from Petersburg. The same rising tide pushes north into the narrows from just west of Wrangell. The water literally piles up in the middle, and then with falling tide on both ends it rushes back out both north and south! How do you play this one? You try to time the passage so that you go into the narrows from either direction on the rising tide, and hope to get a free ride out the other end on a falling tide. If you do it right the water will give you an extra four knots the way you are going. Call it wrong and you might just have to wait as you won't be going anywhere and simply burning up fuel. This current action makes the waterfront in Petersburg very challenging and boats have been swept off the fuel dock there into nearby pilings by not getting it right.