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| More About Tide-Rips
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January 27, 2004
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D
ear Bob:
We're from the Philadelphia area, and used to sailing the Chesapeake Bay and offshore to Bermuda and the Virgin Islands (the BVI mostly). This August we're making our first trip to the Northwest and we're really looking forward to it. The last thing I want to do is go all the way out there with my family and not be prepared.
I'm truly enjoying the 2004 Waggoner Cruising Guide I just received, and feel it'll be a big help. Some pictures of those rip tides you write about might be nice. Except for the Gulf Stream we don't get them where I'm from. As you probably know, the Gulf Stream is very wide and without the definition of the Northwest tide-rips you describe in the Waggoner.
Ron Wildgust
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Response
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A photo wouldn't tell you much about tide-rips. Most rips are small, just a patch -- or sometimes a line -- of fairly low, pyramid-shaped waves. Occasionally, such as those described in the Point Wilson Rip sidebar, the waves are several feet high, but that's fairly unusual. I have, however, seen the rip at the south end of Rosario Strait as a mass of white water. It can be really bad. Read the article one or our readers sent us about that rip. It's scary.
If a little breeze is blowing you can find yourself in a rip unexpectedly. A couple summers ago we began rolling and plunging quite noticably outside Surf Inlet, far up the British Columbia coast. We simply didn't see the rip, and we had to alter course toward a small island to get out of it. The spray salted the boat down pretty completely.
It's better to go around a rip rather than through it. In addition to being bumpy, rips attract all kinds of floating stuff, and you can bang a prop. Many rips are hard to go around, however. They are a long but narrow line of waves, and you end up going through at a right angle. Don't live in fear of tide-rips, but do be aware of them, and treat the big ones with great respect (meaning stay away from them). And don't hang out in tide-rips, even the little ones.
-- Bob Hale
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