Kalliope S/V: Princess Louisa Inlet

Monday, July 28, 2003

Princess Louisa Inlet

Princess Louisa Inlet is one of the most popular and premier cruising destinations in the Pacific Northwest. And we were soon going to see why. In order to enter the inlet we had to pass through Malibu rapids, a narrow tidal pass the we could only traverse at slack water. So in order to hit the rapids at slack, we got up at 5:30 am to sail down the inlet. Really we motored though, since there was not a bit of wind. The trip was kind of a schlep, I used Wanda, our Autopilot, for most of the trip. As we got down to the head of Jervis, the views really started getting impressive.

Heading towards Malibu Rapids

At noon, people started moving through the rapids. Everyone uses the radio to commmunicate between the inbound and outbound boats since only one boat at a time can get through. The whole process is really quite a zoo, with dozens of boats trying to navigate the rapids around slack. My favorite was the motor vessel Big Dog. It was about a half-hour before slack and Big Dog gets on the radio and announces that he is coming through. Damn it, he is in a hurry and he is going to get through those rapids come hell or high water (really low water in this case!). Well a half hour later (during slack), Big Dog, announces that he is coming back through the rapids (apparently after a pickup at Princess Louisa). Well it turns out, Big Dog, is just a small 24 foot run about. Doggey maybe. Big, no. After the rapids, we had another four miles to go before we got to the head of the inlet. We really lucked out since there was dock space available. This was the view from our cockpit.

The Dock at Princess Louisa Inlet

As an added bonus, the water was 70 degress, so swimming was in order. I even managed to replace a lost zinc on my prop. We spent three days here exploring the inlet. I even did the 1800' hike up to the trappers canyon. It was more of a climb than a hike.