In leaving Pillsbury Cove heading to Dundas Island, we
crossed Venn Passage and then out into Chatham Sound.
Venn Passage is just 3 miles west of Prince Rupert. This passage is narrow with strong currents
and shortens the route to Chatham Strait for us northbound boats. The passage is marked by a couple of ranges
and several buoys. Bruce carefully
plotted out our course the night before we left to make sure we could identify
turning points and line up with the range marks. While Bruce piloted the boat, I stood on the
deck with the mast to my back so I could line up the boat with the range marks
and tell Bruce to steer either to starboard or port to align us to the range
marks. Range marks (for our non boating
friends) are when you have a stationary mark on land and you line up another
mark so the two separate markers are lined up on top of each other when you are
correctly aligned in the channel. This
aid to navigation is used when you have unusually shallow water or rocks/shoals
that you need to steer clear of. Always
interesting when you have to use this type of navigation!
Here is a sample of what range marks look like:
We picked up Stan on motor vessel “True Love” while in
Prince Rupert. Stan is traveling on his
own from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan and wanted to be the trailing boat.
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