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| Queen Charlotte Sound Crossings?
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July 29, 2003
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Queen Charlotte Sound is the body of open water that must be crossed between the north end of Vancouver Island and the Inside Passage protection of Calvert Island, some 30 miles north. The Sound can be nearly flat, or it can be filled with hellish and dangerous seas. Obviously, pleasure boaters opt for flat conditions -- or at least seas that aren't too difficult.
The 2003 Waggoner, for the first time anywhere, suggested a tip to help predict easy conditions: the West Sea Otter ocean buoy hourly report. If West Sea Otter is 1 meter or less, a raft of logs could be towed across Queen Charlotte Sound. The 2003 write-up asked for readers' experiences, to refine that tip if possible. Here is one exchange from reader Brent Walker.
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Mr. Hale,
My wife and I recently spent six weeks on a cruise from Bellingham to Southeast Alaska, our first trip north of Cape Caution. Since much of the territory was new to us we referred to more than one guidebook, but quickly came to rely almost exclusively on the Waggoner. If you ever decide to cover the area north of Dundas Island, I'm confident that you'll have an instant success.
While I had crossed Queen Charlotte Sound four times previously on others' boats, my wife had not. She scoured the guides as we approached the crossing, and paid particular attention to your comments about the West Sea Otter ocean buoy. We concur with your comments:
Northbound 5/29/03 WSO reported at 0.7 meter.
Gentle swell, no problems
Southbound 6/26/03 WSO reported at 0.3 meter.
Calm, foggy; we could have water-skied
(blindly) in Queen Charlotte Sound.
Let us know if you come up with a similar gauge for crossing Dixon Entrance!
Keep up the good work!
Brent and Cherie Walker
TYEE
Bellingham, WA
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Response
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Thanks for your report about West Sea Otter. I've pretty well decided that 1 meter or less is a no-brainer. My question now is how big can the number get and still be workable for people such as the two of you, and my wife Marilynn and me. On July 1 we crossed northbound with West Sea Otter at 1.2 meters, and it was fine. Not flat, but fine. Southbound on July 17, it was 1 meter or less (I forgot to write it down), and the sea was flat. Well, most of the time. We left Fitzhugh Sound (Cape Calvert) on the last of an ebb, and found a noticable ground swell outside Rivers Inlet. A little past Dugout Rocks the ground swell disappeared. After the turn to flood the water was virtually flat.
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Brent's Reply
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One recommendation I picked up from "veteran Queen Charlotte Sound crossers" was to make the crossing only on the flood. Whether the wind is from the NW or SW, any ebb current coming out of Smith Sound or Rivers Inlet creates confused seas at the very least. We timed both of our crossings to hit low slack at Blunden Harbor and Cape Calvert. That way, all of the swells came from the same general direction.
Brent Walker
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Response
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Brent, you're absolutely right -- in a perfect world. The problem comes up with an ebb that ends at noon or later on a warm day. Do you face some confused seas from outflowing current, or do you wait until the flood and face a developing 25-knot afternoon sea breeze? We chose to go with no wind and possible ebb-caused swells.
With eight trips (16 crossings) now behind us, I think I learned more about Queen Charlotte Sound this year than in the seven previous years. I plan to rewrite the Waggoner piece about crossing to include listening to the Pine Island and Egg Island lighthouse reports, the West Sea Otter ocean buoy report, and the general weather trend. The skipper's challenge is to combine all this information with the tide book to decide when to go and which way to go. A morning big ebb, for example, might argue for the Pine Island route, just to stay away from water flowing out of Queen Charlotte Strait, Slingsby Channel, Smith Sound, Rivers Inlet and Fitzhugh Sound. A nice flood might argue for a mainland route.
This is one of the fascinating and rewarding things about doing the yearly Waggoner. There is so much to learn and digest, and such an opportunity to share what I learn with other pleasure boaters.
Bob Hale
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