Blue Water Sailing — June-July 2017

http://www.bwsailing.com^29

W

e moved aboard
Skibo, our Con-
tessa 26, in April
of 2012 and by
July had twice
conquered the
challenge of sailing across Georgia
Strait from our False Creek marina
slip in downtown Vancouver, Brit-
ish Columbia. We were eager for the
delights and sights of summertime
Gulf Islands sailing. But first we had
to contend with a tidal pass.
We had replaced Skibo’s original
diesel engine with a well-mannered
electric motor with a top speed of just
two knots. While motor-sailing had its
allure, we wanted to sharpen our pur-
ist sailing skills. Thus, the challenge
of transiting a pass under sail.
Gabriola Pass, Porlier Pass, False
Narrows and Dodd Narrows are all
within relatively easy sailing dis-
tances from our stopover anchorage
in Nanaimo. We opted for the closest
though perhaps more challenging
Dodd Narrows for our first attempt.
As the water passageway between
Vancouver Island and Mudge Island
sitting just south of Gabriola Island,
the currents in this pass are known to
reach nautical speeds of nine knots
amid spinning whirlpools and swirling
eddies, creating a potentially raucous
whitewater sailing adventure.
Steerage would be critical in this
particular pass, which shrinks to only
60 yards wide at its slimmest point
between the bold rocky crags that
line the nearly one nautical mile long
channel. Short of a workable wind, we
would have no recourse for steerage
through opposing currents with any
force beyond 1.5 knots.
Enter our need for a slack tide,
that short period between tides when
tidal water stops flowing before the
direction of the tidal stream reverses.
At slack tide, we would have the least
amount of adverse current and thus

the best chance of helming through

the passage under sail power alone.

Slack tide at Dodd Narrows generally

lasts for about 20 minutes. Timing was

everything.

We awoke the morning of our de-

parture to a mild 10-knot southwest

wind. We set sail in light airs under

main and Genoa and we handily made

the jaunt from our protected anchor-

age off New Castle Island in Nanaimo

harbor to Dodd Narrows in less than

two hours.

Our newly purchased Current Atlas:

Juan de Fuca Strait to Strait of Geor-

gia put Dodd Narrows slack tide at

approximately 4:30 pm on July 11,

2012, well after our arrival at the pass.

Looking ahead through the binoculars

to the churning waters at the mouth of

the pass we knew we had to wait for

slack. But where? The waters we were

in were far too deep to consider an-

choring and to sail beyond the mouth

of the pass to an anchorage of a decent

depth would put us too far away to be

Skibo tied to a log boom on north side of Dodd Narrows, awaiting slack

tide; below, the author helming aboard Skibo on Gulf Islands sail