Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
In Pacific Northwest boating, there are pieces of water that some call “gates”. These are large bodies of water with a reputation for changeable weather conditions leading to challenging sea states. They act as both physical and mental barrier for some mariners—not worth the risk due to their snarly reputation for taking the pleasure out of pleasure boating
There are also narrow channels with large tidal movements that some also consider “gates”: they produce Class III/IV rapids with tidal bore holes and tidal overfalls that can stop some boats dead in their tracks.
I’ll admit that for the last two decades of boating, rather then take my boat across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to fish Ucluelet and Barkley Sound, I chose to put the boat on a trailer, take the ferry to Nanaimo, then either trailer to Ucluelet or run Port Alberni Inlet to Barkley Sound. This was always done to avoid the anxiety of a Juan de Fuca crossing. It was a gate for me.
Or I’d trailer to Port Hardy to avoid crossing the Strait of Georgia and having to deal with the Johnstone Strait wind tunnel---both were gates, better to be avoided by sub-contracting out the crossings to an experienced ferry captain
This year I made the decision to do my annual trip to the north country without truck or trailer. I’d provision the boat from my dock and, with a bit of luck, return the boat back to the same dock a month or so later. To do this, I’d be going through a whole host of “gates”, the places I’d steered clear of for my last decade or two of boating
In late June I started to feel the slow-boil of anxiety gnawing away at my stomach lining as my departure day approached. I spent day after day studying charts ——until I reached Port Hardy, this would all be new water for me in an untested boat. Straits of Juan de Fuca. Harro Strait. San Juan Channel. TrincomaliChannel. Dodd Narrows. Strait of Georgia. Then the Yuculta rapids between Sonora and Dent Island. Then the Greene and Whirlpool rapids in Wellbore Channel. Then Johnstone Straits and finally, Cape Caution. Gate after gate after gate.
And the sophisticated electronics and navigation systems in the boat I had just purchased were unnerving precisely because they were so sophisticated—- if I had any issues I’d have zero idea how to address them while out on the water —-electronic servo-motors steered the boat——do these servo motors ever go down and if they did, what would be the outcome if they went down going through a Dodd or a Surge Narrows passage on a big ebb?
I lay in bed tossing and turning, night after night, second guessing myself, second guessing my boat, second guessing the routes I’d planned.
But the morning I‘d decided to throw off the lines from the dock I decided to forget all the “gate” stuff and stay focused on one thing and one thing only for the next month—
Keep the boat off the rocks.
That, and bring the puppy back home alive.
There are also narrow channels with large tidal movements that some also consider “gates”: they produce Class III/IV rapids with tidal bore holes and tidal overfalls that can stop some boats dead in their tracks.
I’ll admit that for the last two decades of boating, rather then take my boat across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to fish Ucluelet and Barkley Sound, I chose to put the boat on a trailer, take the ferry to Nanaimo, then either trailer to Ucluelet or run Port Alberni Inlet to Barkley Sound. This was always done to avoid the anxiety of a Juan de Fuca crossing. It was a gate for me.
Or I’d trailer to Port Hardy to avoid crossing the Strait of Georgia and having to deal with the Johnstone Strait wind tunnel---both were gates, better to be avoided by sub-contracting out the crossings to an experienced ferry captain
This year I made the decision to do my annual trip to the north country without truck or trailer. I’d provision the boat from my dock and, with a bit of luck, return the boat back to the same dock a month or so later. To do this, I’d be going through a whole host of “gates”, the places I’d steered clear of for my last decade or two of boating
In late June I started to feel the slow-boil of anxiety gnawing away at my stomach lining as my departure day approached. I spent day after day studying charts ——until I reached Port Hardy, this would all be new water for me in an untested boat. Straits of Juan de Fuca. Harro Strait. San Juan Channel. TrincomaliChannel. Dodd Narrows. Strait of Georgia. Then the Yuculta rapids between Sonora and Dent Island. Then the Greene and Whirlpool rapids in Wellbore Channel. Then Johnstone Straits and finally, Cape Caution. Gate after gate after gate.
And the sophisticated electronics and navigation systems in the boat I had just purchased were unnerving precisely because they were so sophisticated—- if I had any issues I’d have zero idea how to address them while out on the water —-electronic servo-motors steered the boat——do these servo motors ever go down and if they did, what would be the outcome if they went down going through a Dodd or a Surge Narrows passage on a big ebb?
I lay in bed tossing and turning, night after night, second guessing myself, second guessing my boat, second guessing the routes I’d planned.
But the morning I‘d decided to throw off the lines from the dock I decided to forget all the “gate” stuff and stay focused on one thing and one thing only for the next month—
Keep the boat off the rocks.
That, and bring the puppy back home alive.
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