Cruising the Inland Waters of The Great Loop

These past 4 days have provided us with the most extensive hands-on marine navigation education we've EVER experienced! By choosing the 'Back Route', we've managed to stay off the beaten paths, avoiding the heavily traveled main artery of the Inside Passage, the steady stream of vessels from kayaks to cruise ships, the turbulent, fickle Surge and Seymour Narrows and the busy port city of Campbell River. Instead, we chose to transit this labyrinth through 3 Straits (Queen Charlotte, Johnstone and Georgia); 4 main passes (Dent, Gilliard, Yucultas Rapids and Whiterock Pass); 5 Channels (Wellbore, Chancellor, Cordero, Calm and Hoskyn including Whirlpool and Green Pointe Rapids)!! Each day's passage required calculations of ebb/flood tidal movement, currents (direction/speed), the tide tables (hi/low/slack), winds (direction/speed), to sail or motor?, ever-changing weather patterns, morning fog (often less than 1/8 mi. visibility), obstructions (floating debris/rocks) and sunrise/set.
This amazing water-maze demanded every bit of our attention and careful calculations DAILY to insure our safe travel. We encountered endless water hazards...turbulent rapids, extreme currents (both favorable and unfavorable), eddies, whirlpools, traveling log booms, upwelling, deadheads, sleeping whales, littered tidelines, stray logs (only hit ONE...hard), uncharted rocks, turbulent narrows, 'rogue' wakes, crab and shrimp pots, a longliners' fishing lines, breaching Orcas, mama bear and 3 cubs on the beach, a minor gale and a floating rooftop (with house still under it) in mid-channel.
Despite the drama, it's a stretch of water we're not likely to forget any time soon, and may even look back with a great appreciation for the education it provided us. Now we move on to the next great event and feel we are sufficiently prepared to survive the total eclipse of the sun next week!

PHOTO: Traveling log boom hazard