Today were fun.  The location sent on the Spot Locater doesn’t look like much, but Seymour Narrows, about 10 miles north of Campbell River, B.C. on Vancouver Island is one of the most powerful tidal passes in the world.  It’s not as violent as Skookumchuck 1½ weeks ago, but still is very powerful and is very deep - several 100 feet - and I was able to run around and play without worrying about tearing the bottom out of the boat.  Here’s the Spot location again…………
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.1363,-125.3507&ll=50.1363,-125.3507&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1  and here’s what I found.  I had a very bad time with the camera today and will prob’ly hafta give up using it and go back to the old 8800 for the rest of the trip.  It won’t lock onto a focus or exposure and over 75% of my shots today were useless.  Here’s a few that weren’t.  First, here’s the GPS display of the trip…………….

Approaching Seymour Narrows, I was astonished at the amount of water moving.  Skookumchuck and Malibu Inlet are quite narrow and shallow and it’s not too hard to picture the river-like currents roaring thru as the inlets beyond fill and empty.  But here………..migawd, this is big water in comparison.  Race point is on the left here and you can just see the cantilevered building at the tip.  The left edge of Maud Island is almost exactly in the center, just above the middle here, so this’s about 1½ miles wide and right close to 400 ft deep.  Lots of water flowing here.  Starting to look interesting and I could feel the boat moving under me a bit - kind of a sliding, skidding feeling, something like driving on ice……………….

 
Just a couple of miles farther on, coming around the southwest edge of Maud Island and going into the Narrows.  The remains of Ripple Rock are off to the left, but I saw no particular sign of them.  I do remember the hullaballoo when the rocks were blown out of there in, I think, 1958………………

As I gained confidence, I got a little more daring.  Wouldn’t dare do this at Skookumchuck - that’s shallow and full of rocks.  Seymour Narrows is deep and there’s a feeling of huge power sliding and rolling and pulling below.  It’s a strange feeling in the boat - kind of like huge, powerful paws fumbling at the bottom of the boat, slewing it around, sliding it sideways, jerking it out from under me……..hadta hold on very tight, and brace my feet very solidly.  You can bet I had the motor kill cord hooked to my belt and my inflatable lifejacket on.  I wouldn’t want to be in that water very long - water temp was just 49º F……………..

Just about at the point of the Spot Location a huge whirlpool opened beside me.  It happened quickly and stood my hair on end……….and I was grinning hard by then.  The boat handled it fine.  I was careful to avoid the actual whirlpool because I didn’t know if it was all foam, nor how deep that foam was.  I don’t think we’d float well on foam.  Don’t think I’d breathe it well, either.  This was a fairly strong flow today……..measured it at a little over 10 mph with the GPS - it showed me going 12 mph up current and 33 mph down current.  This was on a tidal change of 12.5 feet.  I’m told current can get to over 15 mph with a larger tide, and whirlpools can suck big logs underwater.  What an absolute gas……but I was watching very carefully, too, and a couple of local boaters had given me specific instructions on how to go about this.  Look at this - and you should hear it, too……………….

This pass is about 1/4 mile wide and 6 or 8 miles long.  I may go back tomorrow - similar tides - and use the 8800.  Some very good shots were bad out of the D200 today and it’s very frustrating.  Dustbuster handles this well and easily and is great fun, tho’ care & caution are certainly needed.  On the way back out, I went to check out that cantilevered building stuck out over Race Point.  What on earth ??…………….

The camera was dying for real now and that was the 2nd from last shot I got from it.  Lasted just long enuf.  Here’s the last shot………look at the size of that house.  I guess the little one must be for rapids-watching parties, eh ??……………

The D200 went in to Nikon Canada next day and today I got the happy news - “not economically repairable.”  Sighhhh…………….                     Lar.

–
Larry Bourne
Santa Fe, NM
www.gogittum.com
www.gogittum.com/blog

Posted: July 29th, 2009 under 09 Vacation, 09-7-21 Seymour Narrows.
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