May 10: Blind Channel


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Log Entry: Monday, May 10th, 1999

Octopus Islands to Blind Channel: 21 nm

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(Chart: route)	(Chart: anchorage)

The next morning we got up at 6, and left at 6:30 to catch the rapids at Upper Rapids and Lower Rapids. Jane has become a whiz at calculating times of flood tides, ebb tides, slack times, max current times, spring tides, neap tides. All this is necessary to determine the correct time for going through a rapid. These, at the wrong times, can actually resemble rapids, with fast running white water, whirlpools, and dangerously unpredictable currents. Calculating the times of tides and currents also helps to predict the sea state. So, today was well-timed: we passed through the rapids uneventfully. It was our intention to put in at Blind Channel for fuel, as one tank was running low, and the other tank showed full, but I felt that was suspicious. The trip turned out to be across a mirror-smooth Discovery Channel and Johnstone Strait. Johnstone Strait is notoriously rough and windy, but today: no wind, not a ruffle in the water... The speed log moved now, but only slightly: more work is needed there.

	So, we arrived at Blind Channel at 11:45. We moored against the current, at a dock (room for a dozen boats, all slips available), as a motorboat was at the gas dock. After he left, we docked at the gas dock, and filled up. After 40.5 liters in the "full" tank, it overflowed: full after all! Put 230 liters into the other tank. After returning to the slip (three dockings in under an hour!) we had lunch, then took a walk up through the forest behind the resort: we came across an 800-year-old cedar tree, took photographs. [When we returned, we took the fuel filters apart. They were full of sludge! Changed both, primed the engine, and then shut off the port tank and ran the engine from just the starboard tank for 15 minutes. No problem. So, we'll run from one tank and then the other for a while, see what happens.]

A couple of other boats spent the night here. We expect to be out of here around 6 tomorrow, to take advantage of the no-wind attribute of early mornings.

[ April 28: Bellingham ] [ April 29: Double Island ] [ April 30: Sidney ] [ May 1: Wallace Island ] [ May 2: Vancouver ] [ May 3: Vancouver ] [ May 4: Smuggler Cove ] [ May 5: Ballet Bay ] [ May 6: Chatterbox Falls ] [ May 7: Harmony Islands ] [ May 8: Gorge Harbour ] [ May 9: Octopus Islands ] [ May 10: Blind Channel ] [ May 11: Port McNeil ] [ May 12: Miles Inlet ] [ May 13: Codville Lagoon ] [ May 14: Bottleneck Cove ] [ May 15: Khutze Inlet ] [ May 16: Otter Shoal ] [ May 17: Lowe Inlet ] [ May 18: Baker Inlet ] [ May 19: Prince Rupert ] [ May 20: Prince Rupert ] [ May 21: Prince Rupert ]