Some pre-departure research informed us that the Upper and Lower Rapids between Quadra and Sonora Islands could get gnarly. In fact, when the water is at maximum flood or ebb tide, a standing wave is formed from a current of up to 9 knots, with “dangerous overfalls and eddies”. The memory of yesterday’s Beazly Passage fresh in our minds, we planned our voyage for when the current was slack. Slack current is kind of like the top of a swinging pendulum – for a brief moment before upswing turns into downswing, movement stops. It was this transition of flood current to ebb current and its calmer waters that we wanted to pass over.
As luck would have it, our Tide & Current Chart informed us that transitional time was at 9:30 am, when we usually get the day’s journey underway anyways. A sailboat and a power boat were ahead of us, and we watched as the power boat seemed to swing on a pivot up to 45 degrees at the current’s whim. Cap’n Adam and Thunderpussy had no difficulty at all however, navigating the swirling water with ease.
Once through the rapids, we continued through Okisollo Channel with its fish farms and logging camps. A brief motor through Discovery Passage between Vancouver Island and Sonora Island, then into Nodales Channel until Thurston Bay of Sonora Island. Winding our way through a shallow and narrow waterway, we anchored in an isolated bay where huge cedars and firs were sheared flat on their bottom boughs where they kissed the high water mark. We’ve reached that latitude where mosquitos have been usurped by horseflies. Oh stealthy horseflies, why can’t you be more like your blue-bummed cousins who we can hear coming from a mile away? Bug screens over hatches and Cap’n Adam armed with his insect killing dishrag, we were thankful for the cool northern breeze which took the edge off of the sizzling rays of the sun.
