Deep in the D'Uberville Sound we'd had a super quiet night, no other boats in sigt, just us , the cicadas and the birds. Our goal today is to make a safe passage through French Pass. Why the fuss about going through a pass? The passage narrows from half a mile wide to a few hundred feet. On both sides the depth comes up sharply from 100m to 15m and 6m in one place. Adding a tidal range of 2m and current of up to 5 or 6 knots at it's highest creates serious eddies on either side. The locals recommend going through on slack water when the current will be least except this can be affected by a storm out to sea and doesn't always line up with the tide tables.
Slack high water was mid afternoon today so we enjoyed a quiet morning bottling a batch of lager. It would be wrong to say we were blasé as we approached the pass; blasé equals less concentration and opens up the possibility of a mistake. David was on helm. I was on lookout. We were motoring at 5.5 knots with sudden and unexpected 35 knots gusts on wind on the beam which magically ceased as we approached the shallowest and narrowest part. Our speed picked up to 9 knots as outgoing water picked us up and spat us through the other side into the eddies. All went well, smoothly and safely. A piece of cake. But if we'd got it wrong it could easily have been dropped cake.
We carried on for a couple of hours into the northern part of Pelorus Sounds and picked up a mooring ball in Homestead Bay under towering, tree covered slopes.
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