On the way down the sound, we ran into the boat
named Bob. Bob is skippered by Rick; he runs charters out of Sitka. We met him
down in Bellingham, where he was refitting a new Bob. We talked for a bit on the VHF
…Once out into the ocean, we found the going very rough. We thought about
taking Piehle Passage into Khaz Bay - it would have saved us about 10 miles - but
visibility was too bad to attempt it. (We later read in Northwest Boat Travel that they
didn’t believe it was worth the risk, even in good weather …)
Once in the calmer waters of Khaz bay, we went through the auto-compensation process
for the new autopilot, and it immediately began performing flawlessly!
Waterfall Cove was beautiful. We put out the crab and prawn traps. No luck.
Went for a short visit on shore. The cove has an enormous tidal zone: it was about
a half mile wide in places!
We constantly run across whirlpools (or rip tides, as they are
known on the charts): these are formed when two strong currents run into one
another. There are several approaches to whirlpools, the most strongly recommended
one being: avoid them! They can suddenly, without warning, turn your boat around 90
degrees. You can see them in the water, but you can't accurately assess the turning
power of a whirlpool until you're in it ... We used to avoid them, but as the trip
has progressed, we have become emboldened in our whirlpool procedures, and basically now,
we enter them and face the consequences ...
Everywhere we go now, we see sea otters. They lie in the water
on their backs, twiddling their toes, and frequently appearing to wave as we pass by! We
have come across dozens all lazily congregated in one place … It’s easy to see
how they would have been hunted almost to extinction.
