Re: [Paddlewise] tides and currents: reading the water

From: Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 21:18:18 -0400
So *that's* why they call it "Hell's Gate". I always wondered.

Tidal currents are very interesting. The San Juan Islands of Washington
State lie in the path of tides coming in from the Pacific Ocean down the
Straits of Juan de Fuca. The tidal current splits and goes north up the
eastern side of Vancouver Island and south towards Seattle.

One would reasonably expect the flood tide to move from west to east and the
ebb tide to move from east to west. One would be wrong.

In fact there is one place where the flood tide goes from east to west
through a channel and only 6 miles north it flows from west to east through
another channel.

Once we get used to an area and its complications we can easily forget that
a new area can have even more complications. Local knowledge is a wonderful
thing.

Thanks for this tidbit of information.


Craig Jungers
Royal City, WA


On 9/30/06, Jeff Hoyer <jkayak_at_sopoint.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Very interesting and informative thread...much appreciated.
>
> Here in the New York area, currents are king in terms of planning trips.
> Around Manhattan Island, the dynamics are very complicated.....
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************
Received on Sat Sep 30 2006 - 18:18:35 PDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:21 PDT