Day 379 Princess Louisa Inlet

We left Harmony Island at 0630 just to make sure we would be at The Malibu Rapids by 1450 as that is the time when slack tide happens and if you miss that, we'd have had to wait till today at 0750 to go through. With there being just about no place to anchor any where near the rapids it was critical to get there in time.

As we headed up the channel and as we rounded a turn, suddenly there was a lot of sailboats--12 of them heading out of the channel. It was the group of Canadian we had run into at Boho Bay a few days before. They had all gone up to Princess Louisa Inlet. We found out later that they had taken up the entire dock and partied into the night. Glad we missed it. We knew they had partied hard at Bo Ho Bay.

We'd figured in the outgoing tide thinking that would slow us down. Nope, we sped up. It made no sense to us but we were making 7+ knots and had to slow down once it became evident to us that we would be there almost three hours early. We arrived at Deserted Cove-- the only place where you could even try to anchor and wait for the tide to change by noon. Down went the hook and luckily it caught. We had winds coming up the channel at about 10 knots so we were just fine there. We saw another sailboat heading up the channel several miles behind us. Then along comes two power boats. We wouldn't be alone crossing the rapids.

By 1300 hours, all three of them had vanished. We wondered if the time schedule we had was incorrect so we pulled up the anchor and headed the 6 miles farther up the channel we had left in our journey. As we got closer, we saw all three tied together just off the inlet entrance. So we powered back and SLOWLY drifted up toward the entrance. Behind us comes another sailboat just zipping along under sail. As he got closer, he dropped his sails and zipped past us under power. He just had to be in front of us. It was still an hour before it was set to be safe to go through. He was in a lot bigger hurry to get there than us.

About 1410, the two power boats that had been waiting took off for the rapids even though there was a good 40 minutes before "safe" time. They powered up and pushed through. The current going over the rapids can reach 9 knots. If we had tried, we would have never gotten close. They had a lot more power than we did and made it through. At 1430, the sailboat--a Beneteau 41 decided he just couldn't wait any longer and he took off for the rapids. We could see they were still running outwards but off he went. The other sailboat we had seen earlier--a Bucaneer 32, started up his engine and took off too. Ok, in for a penny in for a pound so we joined the group.

We all radioed that we were coming in just in case another boat was coming out. There is no room in there to pass. I pushed the throttle forward with Tracy keeping watch as we went in. The Beneteau got through fine. Slow but fine. So did the second boat and while our speed was dropping we got through just fine. After we arrived at the docks at Chatterbox Falls, I spoke to the skipper of the Beneteau. The tides tables are based on the tides at Port Atkinson with adding 35 minutes to their low tide and that is when you should cross the rapids. This guy says he disregards the 35 minutes and just goes through. We just got suckered in by another person that thinks they know better. We could have just as well waited the extra 20 minutes and gone in at the perfect time. Lesson learned--you don't have to follow the crowd.

As we entered the inlet, we were greeted by lots of falls and high rocky cliffs. It was just like being back in Colorado only they were higher. An incredible sight to see. I'll have to post the pictures later as I'm using a different program to write this blog and it doesn't allow me to add them.

We thought we might tie up to one of the buoys at MacDonald Island but only saw one of the six that were supposed to be there so we slowly motored over to the dock at Chatterbox Falls and tied up along with about 7 other boats. We later found out that of the 6 buoys, 5 had rotted away and the last one wasn't that safe to hook onto. We're glad we chose the dock.

As we docked, as boaters will, one of them came over to take our dock lines to help us in. We started talking to some people and found out they knew Randy and Sharon from down in Brownsville that are now somewhere up in Alaska. We'd even seen their boat--a trimaran--while we were getting fuel in Roche Harbor. We know we have been out here a while as we are beginning to see the same people as we enter different harbors and coves.

The Beneteau that had gone through the rapids before us pulled up to the dock so we took in their lines. Apparently the skipper was teaching the others on the boat how to sail and handle the boat. Tracy fended the bow away from the dock as they came in a bit close. She was amazed how light it was and how easy it was to push the bow away from the dock. Try that with Zephyr and it is not that easy a job to move her. Not a lot of weight behind the Beneteau.

So we are now at Chatterbox Falls(50 12.275 N 123 46.178W) for the next couple of days. Yesterdays trip of 39.6 miles took some time and we want to take a hike or two while here. Of course it rained over night and is still sprinkling. We'll just wait for the Sun to come out No rush.