Colvos Pass is an oddball. The current almost always flows north in it. Even with the massive flood tide this past weekend the best we could get southbound was a knot or two boost. I think this happens because an inbound tide rebounds northward off Point Defiance and the currents passing the narrow north end of the Pass create a suction drawing water north.
Skagit Bay currents act similar it's south end. On May 26, 8:46 am, "Kerry Lebel" <[email protected]> wrote: > I know exactly what you mean. Due to personal time commitments, we were > coming through Colvos Passage against the tide yesterday. I was running an > extra 500 rpms higher than normal and still only going 9.2 mph. I counted > 27 boats headed North through the passage when we were one of three boats > headed Southbound. Sailboats under power were flying going Northbound. How > often do you see that? ;) Good feedback on the tables. I just bought a > Garmin 4210 for the lower helm. I will have to do some looking and see how > accurate the electronic current and tide tables are on the new chartplotter. > > Kerry > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > > On Behalf Of Rocco > Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 6:55 AM > To: UnifliteWorld > Subject: [UnifliteWorld] Tides and Currents > > Those of you who are here in the Pacific NW know well how important it > is to have correct tide and current information. This past weekend > was an excellent example. We went cruising in South Sound - a great > place to cruise! - and went with the current both going and coming. > > We rode a +6KT flood current through Tacoma Narrows! Sturdy Girl > normally cruises at 11.5 KTS at 2900 RPMs. On Saturday she was flying > at plus +18KTS and on Monday at +17KTS. That's a whole lotta fuel > saved! Of course my wife wants to know why we didn't just run at > lower RPMs and save even more fuel... > > Here's the real point, however. We have a Raychart C120 with > Navionics charts we used for navigation. Navionics has built-in tides > and current tables. DON'T trust them! I had heard the computer > programs for secondary stations are inaccurate because of how they are > calculated but, we found the same for Tacoma Narrows which is a > PRIMARY station. > > Fortunately, I buy annual editions of Ports & Passes, which is a > terrific resource, and use it for planning a trip. In the case of > Sunday's run, the Navionics data erred by THREE hours. Had I depended > on my computer program for current data, we could have been bucking > the tide instead of using it to our advantage.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/UnifliteWorld?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
