See this satellite view of Dodd Narrows
I'm sure there are many cruisers experienced in Canadian waters that are entertained by this portrayal of my anxieties, trials, and tribulations learning my way around the Gulf Islands. There's more to come, I assure you, ...hopefully none of it ending in any degree of tragedy. So far, so good.
One lesson is that timing is everything, ...and my timing yesterday was less than perfect. Back in Montague I had invested in some tide and current charts for Juan de Fuca Straits and the Straits of Georgia. Now I’m not a dunce, but it took me a while to figure out how to use them and, even then, I did so with less than full confidence.
Departing Sibell Bay with Nanaimo as my destination, I had to transit Dodd Narrows, so I looked at the current charts to see when slack tide occurred. It seems an exaggeration to me to say that Dodd Narrows is a notorious passage, but I expect that anyone with any sense at all enters it with a certain level of trepidation. So did I, although now I expect that my own level of trepidation was not high enough.
I went to bed Tuesday night with my alarm set for 6am, planning for a 6:30 departure and arrival at Dodd Narrows at nine, about 45 minutes before slack tide. It was about 12 nautical miles from Sibell Bay and I usually count on making about 5 knots under power, so a 7 o’clock departure would get me there about right. Okay, the alarm went off, I took the time to make a latte and an English muffin, secured the boat for sea, hoisted the anchor and got into the main channel of Ladysmith Harbour about 6:45.
With fine conditions, I made better time than I expected and, even though I cut back my speed for the last half hour or so, arrived a little early. The Dreamspeaker guide said to transit the narrows between and hour before and an hour after slack, so I went ahead and approached the channel. There was a tug that had just picked up a stray log and was powering full speed up the channel and, figuring he was going for a transit, I decided he’d be a good lead for me so I powered up and followed him apace.
Well, he was only hauling his log to a raft of strays he was collecting and dropped off before we actually entered the channel. Still, I was on my way and my adrenaline was up, so on I went. It didn’t look so bad. From the difference in my speed over ground and my speed through the water, I could tell that I only had about a knot of current against me. Of course, as the channel narrowed, that current increased. I could see a small working boat about 500 yards ahead that seemed to be maneuvering more stray logs in the current, and one about the size of a large telephone pole came drifting by. Sharing the channel with that log set my adrenaline up another notch.
As I saw another sailboat, about a 40 footer, enter the channel southbound, there was a call on channel 16: “Dodd Narrows. Dodd Narrows. Dodd Narrows. This is the 60ft trawler Aphrodite. I intend to enter the channel from the north in approximately one minute. All concerned traffic please respond on channel 16.” Hopefully concealing my rising panic, I responded that I was a 50ft sailboat already entering the channel from the south and would probably exit within a couple of minutes. Aphrodite kindly agreed to wait.
The head current was soon up to about 3 knots and quite swirly. I had plenty of power to overcome it, but the swirly was making Mabrouka squirrelly, so I kept my speed through the water down to about 4-1/2 or 5 knots. Perhaps not frantically, but at least with intensity, I spun the wheel back and forth to keep the bow pointed in the right direction through the swiftest race of the current. As things started to calm down, I (think) I kept the quaver out of my voice when I radioed to Aphrodite that I was through the worst of it and she could come ahead.
So, as opposed to my over-anticipation of the currents of Canadian customs procedures, I had under-anticipated those of Dodd Narrows. All went well, but I wish I had waited south of the channel for an hour or so and let the current cool its jets. The rest of the trip went well, though, and I was tied up at Nanaimo Yacht Club’s guest dock before 10:30.
Since here, I’ve dovetailed laundry, varnishing, and blog update chores, had dinner, and gotten in some lazy time. Among various other chores to do today, I’ll also plan my crossing for the Straits of Georgia, hopefully with just the right amount of anticipation.