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Friday, July 22... Pickering Passage is an odd body of water, at least to me. Even though we launched on a flood tide, the main current was flowing south. Because of a back eddy, the current at the launch was flowing northward at about one knot. Weather at launch time was windy, with strong southerly winds with frequent heavy gusts. The combintaion of the south winds and south-flowing current in the middle of Pickering Passage created a steep chop with breaking whitecapped waves.

Jan helped me rig and launch Whisper from Latimer's Landing on Pickering Passage around 5:30 pm. Low tide was at 1:07 pm at minus 3.71 feet, and there just wasn't enough water to launch before late afternoon. With high tide at 8:25 pm, we launched with flood tide in full swing.

Immediately after motoring away from the launch, I began having some trouble controlling the boat. These were the most interesting conditions I'd encountered so far in Whisper, and we were both learning our limits. The kick-up rudder blade wouldn't stay all the way down, and with it kicked up about 1/5 of the way, steering became very difficult.

Some waves were striking the stern, breaking against the boat halfway up the transom, enough so that I was getting splashed from time to time.  I adjusted the outboard throttle so that the boat roughly matched the speed of the waves to run with them instead of allowing them to break against the boat.

Pickering Passage acts like a saltwater river, so I used my old river rafting experience and sought out pockets of less current near the shoreline. I found a counter current flowing northward along the eastern side of the passage. That helped push my actual speed from 3 to 3 1/2 knots to more than 4 knots, with occasional bursts of speed exceeding 5 knots.

Wind gusts were occasionally so strong that with no sails up and the dodger stowed below, the boat was getting rocked as if sails were raised.  I shifted my weight to the upwind side to help balance the boat.

Although my plan had been to make Fair Harbor Marina that night, the gusty wind had me concerned.  Perhaps they were stronger in Pickering Passage than they would have been where Pickering opens into Case Inlet...or maybe the reverse would have been true.  Since I was having trouble keeping the rudder blade down I pulled into Jarrell Cove State Park and tied up to a mooring buoy, arriving at about 7 pm. I was too tired to do much so I ate a cold dinner.

Later, I inflated the raft so I could row over to the dock in the morning and pay the moorage fee. Technically, one is required to pay within 30 minutes of arrival, but I was just too tired.

I should note the boat sailed around the mooring buoy most of the night because of the wind.  As darkness fell, a +40-foot sailboat tied up to the buoy closest to me.  It looked like they were swinging at a different rate than little Whisper, and I woke up several times in the night to check the position of the boats.

Saturday, July 23... In the morning, I tuned into NOAA radio to catch the weather report. I wasn't going to do much sailing if the weather was going to be like it was yesterday! NOAA was predicting south 10 knot winds in the morning, shifting to north 10 later in the day. The morning was very calm and overcast, with occasional sun breaks. The lower pressure front that hammered me all night had passed in the wee hours of the morning.

I had a good breakfast and rowed around the cove, then docked the inflatable raft to pay my moorage fee. The plan for the day was to transit north past Dougall Point and peek between Stretch and Reach islands to become familiar with that approach. Then I planned to turn south and sail or motor down Case Inlet to Joemma Beach, glancing at McMicken Island on the way.  A possible overnight location is Joemma Beach.

Once I got to Joemma Beach, I found the docks were gone, missing, kaput. (Had I checked the State Parks and Recreation website I would have known the docks had been removed for repair/replacement!) All mooring buoys at Joemma Beach were full, although two of the buoys were occupied by ski boats. So...I backtracked past McMicken Island to Fair Harbor and spent the night there.

To catch the tide at the right stage to pull the boat at Latimer's Landing, I figured I needed to get there no later than 10:30 am on Sunday.

Sunday, July 24... The distance from Fair Harbor to Latimer's Landing is about 8 1/2 nautical miles. I calculated that by averaging 3.5 knots, the passage should take about 2.4 hours.

At 8 am, the current off Graham Point was predicted to be close to zero, and at 9 am, it should only be 1/2 knot or so. But this will be an ebb tide -- and this is Pickering Passage! -- so the current will probably be flowing north against me. Thus, I subtracted the 1/2 knot from my boat speed. That means I would need to make 4 knots over water, but 3 1/2 knots over ground for a 2.5 hour passage. Thus, if I leave by 8 am, I would arrive at the ramp by 10:30 am.

Everything went like clockwork, and I arrived at Latimer's Landing a few minute before 10:30 am.