A real nail-biter, and Salish Sea Sea joins the crew

The bridge south of La Connor on the Swinomish Channel

After the Inter-Coastal Waterway (ICW) on the East Coast, we have seen our share of skinny water. We did our research on the Swinomish Channel, the narrow passage that makes Fidalgo Island an Island. We found the currents change at mid-tide, found the bridge-heights (75') and power-line heights (72'), and called the La Connor Harbor Master who also has a 38-foot sailboat and who was quite encouraging. We knew there would be a -3.5 foot record low-tide today. About 99.9% of the passage was fine and no worse than anything we saw in the ICW. Most of it was quite nice. The first half of the transit was against a mild and reducing counter-current and the second half was with an increasing current helping us along.

However, the southern exit of the channel is quite shoaled in. It ends with a pair of range markers that would have obviously left us aground had we followed that route. The green day-marker at the exit was high and dry, and the current had us going 9 knots when the depth sounder started falling, and falling, and falling. I slowed down the engine and watched the depth. I was not breathing as we watched 0.5 feet pass under our keel. At least the bottom at this point was mud. We did not touch. Whew!

Salish Sea Sea Joins the crew

She is powerful, big and joyful

Rewind a day back to Friday Harbor, Norma and I visited the Whaling Museum and learned lots. The first section was about the Native people who were here for thousands of years, always a great part of a museum. We watched an entire documentary on the harm that ocean noise does to marine mammals; it is serious and getting worse. And we learned a lot about the whales of the Pacific Northwest, especially about the Orca pods.

The crew learns the secrets of the Salish Sea from a true local.

When it comes to adding a new member to our crew, we are very selective. We must have seen the actual animal close up, and we have seen Orcas aplenty during our days before moving to Maryland. We have been wanting to add one, and the Whaling Museum in Friday Harbor was the right place to adopt an Orca Whale. Her name is Salish Sea Sea, and she is big, powerful and very joyful. The crew is pictured above learning all about the waters of the Salish Sea. Local knowledge is a blessing.

We are now in Langley as our planned stop in Oak Harbor was impossible for us at a -3.5-foot tide. UPS is estimating the delivery of our new anchor windlass tomorrow (Friday, so we hope to install it then join our Corinthian Yacht Club's planned cruise to Port Orchard over the weekend. After that we shall return north and try to catch up with our rally itinerary in a week or so.