Bring It On!

FIVE SAIL ING FRIENDS GO IN SEARCH OF HEAVY WEATHER — AND FIND IT

- Marc Hess

I got seasick the second day out. My stomach had been roiling ever since we’d slipped out of Howe Sound that morning, but we were all busy on deck working an easterly blow through a finicky strait just above Typhoon Songda—which had put the lights out in nearby Vancouver the night before. Nature comes at you quickly. I jumped to the leeward gunwale to unload my business, but was jerked to a fast stop by my tether and found myself scrambling back up to the high side rail just in time to get my head under the lifelines to the collective “Ewww!” of my four crewmates.

We were on a tough run up the coast in a broken rain, scampering in and out of the cockpit and chasing lines across the foredeck. Our wind gauge clocked 29 knots as our boat cut through waves up to 10ft . Even against a formidable ebb tide, our speed readout was bobbing around 7 to 8 knots over the ground. We were proud of that.

Another day of this would bring us to the infamous rapids at Skookumchuck Narrows, the fastest saltwater tidal change in North America. If we hit it on a flood tide, we’d face a standing wave that could reach over 6ft high. Ebb tides are no less treacherous with their gluttonous eddies and 16 knot currents. This was the gateway to our destination. We were going to take a 36ft sailboat through Skookumchuck. What we were going through now was the easy part of this cruise.

Clara ALLEGRO knows these waters well. She is the Beneteau First 36.7 that, among other things, won the Round Southern Straits Classic in 2014. She is also the mistress of Carl Richardson, a richly credentialed sailing instructor and racing skipper with the Vancouver Sailing Club. Carl’s announcement that “Skookumchuck Rapids is our obstacle to get through into Sechelt Inlet for a week of heavy weather sailing” had attracted four sailors who were familiar with both the northern straits and