Boat Passage

Boat Passage, originally uploaded by macatay.

Canadian Gulf Islands
26-27 June 2005

A winding puzzle route from the North around rocks and shoals is the only deep water entrance to Winter Cove, a shallow circular bay where we anchored for two nights. But there is a narrow back way in and out of Winter Cove, definitely not for the faint hearted. Boat Passage is about twenty feet wide between flanking rocks, and leads directly into the Georgia Strait. The tide fills and empties the big, wide-open Strait before Winter Cove. So the flood tide spills over Boat Passage into Winter Cove as a roiling whitewater rapids, and then the ebb rushes back out. Kayakers come here to play in the currents and waves; macho motor boats wait for high water, then run through at just the right angle with engines full throttle.

We thought this was not a passage for a sailboat - too rocky, too narrow, too much current, too shallow for our deep keel. So we sat at anchor and watched the dare devils run the narrow slot. Then after sunset when there was still some light – the time called Nautical Twilight – a big trimaran under a pale bronze sail ghosted into Winter Cove from the north at a good clip, skimming over the water without a sound. And without a sound, its two man crew turned their boat to just the right angle, trimmed the sail and ran Boat Passage to disappear out into the Georgia Strait.