S/V Ripple

Seeing is believing May 21, 2015 When I crawled into my berth in the quiet of Waddington Cove, I didn't expect to sleep well. Each of the early days of the trip had been marked by one or another crisis -- mostly small things, but issues that eroded the confidence of a skipper on the most ambitious trip of his life.  I had engaged the imagination of both of my children, and three of my closest friends, and each had committed time and treasure to sharing in the adventure. What was I thinking, to campaign a 26 foot boat to the northern reaches of the Inside Passage, meet a complicated time schedule in the face of Spring weather, and keep crew and vessel safe in waters and conditions new to me? For all my doubts, I did sleep that night, but in wakeful intervals I also thought about our problem and the resources available to solve it. Mathias had twice been in the water on the trip, albeit in hot sun, and for a couple minutes at a time. The circumstances now mitigated agains...

Entry to Waddington Cove (I think). At any rate, somewhere in the Broughtons May 19-20, 2015 Tidal schedules and our pre-ordained stopping places had kept our daily distances relatively short for several days, and this day would be no different.  Shoal Bay to Forward Harbour covered only 20 miles, but necessitated another wait of several hours (at Whirlpool Rapids).  An easy day, warm and sunny (and another swim for Mathias). We got through Greenpoint Rapids easily, but reached Whirlpool 2 hours past slack water, the tide flooding against us.  I thought we might be able to sneak through on the strength of Ripple's 9 horse iron jenny, and we easily crept up to the rapids in the back eddies off to the side.  We pulled into the slipstream of the rapids at full throttle and got almost to the nav marker on the shore that marks the narrowest point in the rapids.  Speed over ground dropped quickly to zero, and we peeled off and circled back to the side where we...