We made it through the “dreaded” Dodd Narrows and are now in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island. Dodd Narrows is one of those places that is a “constriction” in the passage in more ways than one. Because it goes from hundreds of feet deep to 40 feet and half mile wide to a hundred yards, the current can be ferocious and scary. This contributes to the second “narrowing”; that of the narrowing of the crowds. A lot of people just don’t want to deal with doing it, so once past it, the crowd thins. It’s called one of the “Gateways” heading north. The reality is, if you hit it near slack tide, it’s not so bad (of course if you don’t, really bad things can happen side the tidal speeds can hit 9 knots!
Today, we came through on the flood heading northbound and the tide at the narrows shot us though at a leisurely 4 knots plus our 6, meaning 10 knots. And that’s near slack water. OK, glad to have that one behind us. Coming up in the weeks ahead are some spots that they call the rapids. I hate to think of 13 ton Charisma going through rapids, but that’s a story for a future day.
Here's the narrows coming up. It also has a blind curve to the right, so as you approach the constriction you call in the blind on the VHF to let others know you are coming through. Good thing. As we were preparing to go through a boat called from the other side (who we couldn't see). We slowed down and avoided a difficult situation.
Once through Dodd Narrows it was a pretty straightforward couple miles up to the second largest city on Vancouver Island, Nanaimo. On the way in though we saw our friends from Tumbleweed on the AIS. They were leaving. We called them on the VHF to find they were heading north. Sad. But, as our luck (not theirs) would have it, they had a problem with their raw water pump and had to turn back. We’re anchored next to each other and got together for sundowners this evening. Great to catch up with a fellow cruiser. We met them in Port Townsend. They gave us their cruising guides to BC and we gave them our PDFs of cruising guides for the South Pacific which is where they are headed a little later this season (via the west coast and Mexico). They sourced a new water pump today which they will install tomorrow, so all’s good.
A look out at our anchorage (can you see Charisma?) from Nanaimo.
EagleCam!!
Another eagle sighting!
Be sure and try the fish & chips at the Dingy Dock Pub!
We’re going tonight!
Gee, I didn’t know you were up there doing a little rafting in the rapids! I hope you brought really big paddles to steer through the raging river. 🙂
Glad you shot through in good condition.
You’re getting a little giddy and goofy stretching that Eagle Cam experience. Some of those eagles look a touch weird.
You sailors are like the early western explorers in this country, swapping maps and info about the country you’ve seen. I’ll bet your maps aren’t etched on deerskin though.