Seymour Narrows

False Bay, Quadra Island (L to R): Rubicon, Bonito, Akeeva and Airship.

The day dawned bright with sun and blue skies and calm seas. Another gate was ahead at the most famous narrows of the Inside Passage: Seymour Narrows. The Strait of Georgia is either calm and smooth like it was today or blowing and snotty like yesterday. There’s rarely in between.

Looking across the Strait of Georgia to Desolation Sound.

We left a little earlier than the rest of the group to get fuel in Campbell River.

Slack at Seymour Narrows was late in the afternoon, so there was plenty of time. Discovery Passage was difficult with current against us matching our max speed, but there is a backeddy near Cape Mudge where the current was actually with us to the lighthouse.

Cape Mudge Light Station.

While motoring slowly, waiting for slack at the narrows, some friends came to play with us.

Seymour Narrows is famous for swift currents (12-14 knots) and its history of shipwrecks. A large rock, called Ripple Rock, was right in the middle of the channel and twenty large vessels and 114 lives were lost in the narrows between 1875 and 1958 trying to navigate the swift currents and whirlpools. In 1958, after tunneling under the narrows to get to the rock, Ripple Rock was blown up. Here is a link to YouTube of the detonation of Ripple rock:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYzaTZ232ts

You can see the swift current and rough water in Seymour Narrows before the rock was blown up. We fell in behind a tug and tow and our passage was not so dramatic.

We met the Alaska Ferry Matanuska southbound for Bellingham.

We slipped in to Kanish Bay, anchoring behind the Chained Islands. A little further in is Small Inlet, which is a short half-mile hike to Waitt Bay in the Octopus Islands Marine Park, one of our favorite anchorages. No hiking or exploring today, though.

We settled for Gin & Tonics with cribbage.