quote:Originally posted by salmon9
To get to any fishing spot up there when leaving the lodges you have to run the rapids and often during large tides and near max flows. It's easy to loose balance in a boat, then add cruising speed and crossing heavy current makes it even more challenging. I wouldn't say any guide up there is "hot dogging, ot jumping rapids", just getting back and forth around there you have to run the rapids in less than ideal circumstances. I would think Nordstrom's, the owners of the Lodge, are rethinking safety measures and their liability. Last time they had an accident they got new management, new guides and bigger boats. Larger boats are not much better as their deeper V hulls can be pushed around more easy than a shallower draft boat. Sad news, perhaps a reminder about being safe all the time.
x2 and Emphasis,"I wouldn't say any guide up there is "hot dogging, ot jumping rapids". Judgement?? It doesn't sound the "boat" was ever in peril, so I hope people don't second judge the operator, but the outcome was still not good! Everyone has different experience levels. I am quite sure his knowledge and experience level of that area, is A LOT higher than mine. He's probably done it 1000 times, where I probably wouldn't be comfortable doing it at all?
I think you really have to see it and experience it, to believe it! That area can get downright "nasty"! Don't get me wrong, as I have seen Race Rock get pretty ugly, but I have always had room to maneuver there. It is nothing compared to some of the other areas, where the rapids and whirlpools go all the way across the channel! And "Dent", is one of them!
x3 on the "Larger Boats are not much better..." They are actually worse a lot of times? I would rather be in my 12' Zodiac. But then again, I would rather not play at all, period! When you get a drop in a whirlpool, you better know what you are doing and stay away, or you very well could lose your boat and life!
I think "Robert Hale" probably explains it best, "In major rapids, it is common for the current to increase until it no longer is a smooth, laminar sweep, and becomes a boiling, crashing, upwelling maelstrom that looks exactly like a fast-falling whitewater mountain stream. White water is full of air, and less buoyant than green water. Boats float lower. Rudders lose effectiveness and propellers lose bite. When diminished buoyancy and lessened control are combined with strong currents, standing waves, deep whirlpools and boils of upwelling water, very quickly you can have a recipe for disaster. This is why good boats are lost in tidal rapids.
While the time and duration of slack water varies with the individual rapids, each rapids is quite consistent within itself. By long observation, relationships have been established. For example, slack water at Malibu Rapids, at the entrance to Princess Louisa Inlet, occurs 35 minutes after low water at Point Atkinson, and 25 minutes after high water at Point Atkinson. Other rapids, such as Deception Pass, Seymour Narrows, Yuculta Rapids and Dent Rapids, have their own current tables that predict the times of turn and maximum current.
Mariners experienced in these waters have those tables and live by them.</u>
We have enormous respect for tidal current rapids, and will not run a major rapids except during the narrow window of time that surrounds slack water. We study the current tables and make our travel plans with any rapids topmost in our minds. This book reflects our cautious approach. We discuss the various rapids frankly and without sugar-coating, and hope our readers will take our cautions seriously."
Very unfortunate accident!
I would highly recomment puting on your PFD or survival suit! At least you will get recovered sooner or later, one way or the other?