Shallow day, Shallow Bay, Sucia yesterday!

Looked like the green port buoy was out of place. Whether he moved it or tried to go thru the moved buoy, I don’t know. I had seen him safely on a buoy the day before. He was probably leaving the next day. It was rolling to the slight waves coming in, no nasty noises. So hopefully not on rock. When I passed Shallow Bay about 2pm yesterday he was afloat and Sea Tow was there.

Rebel112r said:

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Looked like the green port buoy was out of place ...

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Agree.

Bummer. That would be really unpleasant to be right in the middle of the red and green buoy and run aground. I know that the tides swings have been really big, but... where on Sucia was this?

BTW, I ran aground going into inner Oro Bay on Anderson Island a number of years ago with my sailboat. The tide was low and I was between the red and green buoy. The green must have been displaced because I grounded in the mud. I was going slowly and was able to back off. The spade keel was the only thing hit. I moved 10’ to starboard and went through just fine.

Hard to tell from that angle, but it appears the red is marking the shoal. I vaguely recall that being a pretty tight channel.

Extremely minus tides the past few days. Shallow Bay is a well known low low tide grabber. It appears he was on wrong side of red buoy, picture compression a bit misleading in this very narrow fairway. Silva Bay another area low tide grabber. Fortunately the vessel is near the builder’s haul out.

A large charter vessel grounded in Tracy Arm last week. Just yesterday a local pro in Petersburg told me there are many rocks out there with your vessels name on them. Locally 24 foot swings with current -4.5’ lows, be careful.

The Port, Green Buoy should be int the approx 2 o’clock position from the red buoy.

A super minus tide will lead to buoys being off station especially if helped along by wind/current

It certainly is a narrow fairway!



Jim

You enter any anchorage called "Shallow Bay" on a falling tide at your own risk.....

JDCAVE said:

It certainly is a narrow fairway!

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Jim

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Those are meters?

OldDan1943 said:

Those are meters?

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Fathoms I believe.

I picked a fine day to run the Wrangel
Narrows!

OldDan1943 said:

Those are meters?

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As Dave said: Fathoms. It's a screen capture from NOAA chart 18431.1: Rosario Strait to Cherry Point, Revision 8/20/2016.

Jim

I would skip Shallow Bay and go on to Deep Water Cove. [emoji23]

ouch! looks like a newer american tug.

Waterford said:

ouch! looks like a newer american tug.

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Now you broke his heart.

AlaskaProf said:

I picked a fine day to run the Wrangel
Narrows!

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Yeah, this weekend I am taking the boat down to Olympia on Friday, picking up a staff member and her family and taking them out for the day on Sturday, then back to Olympia and then back North. Fortunately, with such large tide runs, the timing is working out really well. Much nicer to have 4+ knots of current with you, instead of against you. Just need enough water at the -4 tide.