Fool me once...

Departure: 1:00pm
Return: 5:00pm
Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy and light breezes
Tide: Flood tide and strong currents (14 ft range)
Boat: Club Boat (red)
Crew: 4 (Woody, Tom, Paul,Carol & Sophia)

We've all heard the saying "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me". What do you do with someone that never catches on? I'm afraid that's me. This is going to be yet another story about underestimating the currents in the sound. I'll try not to dwell on it too much though.

We ended up with 5 people on the boat this time. I brought Sophia because there was supposedly a free spot on the boat, but it wasn't so. Everyone was a good sport about it though and didn't mind her along. The tidal range was -2ft to 12 feet meaning it produced some of the strongest currents you can get in the narrows, and we were sailing right in the middle of it.

Leaving the harbor we knew we should head north to compensate for the current, but there didn't appear to be any wind in that direction. We had a motor so we all agreed to head a "little" south where there did appear to be wind. Well, there was wind, but it turned light on us and before we knew it we were within sight of the bridge.

Again another conference and we decided to let the current sweep us under the bridge. It was quite and impressive and a lot of fun and there was some great wind south of the bridge. But alas, we needed to head back. What a fight.

We motored for at least 1.5 hours and used 3/4 tank of gas creeping back home. We had to stay really close to shore to make any progress at all (probably about 25' from shore).

It was a fun trip, and worth the struggle with the current, but the lesson is this. The 22' boats cannot exceed speeds of 6.43 knots (or 7.4 mph). At it's fastest the Narrows can just about match that speed so even with a motor, we can't just zip against that current.

Enjoy the pictures.