Small Craft Route - Yuculta Rapids - Mile 212E

"Due to the strength of the tidal streams, navigation of Yuculta Rapids, Gillard, and Barber Passages, and Dent Rapids should not be attempted other than at or near slack water... Duration of slack water at all the rapids is very brief and does not usually exceed five minutes" - British Columbia Pilot

The captain of the 80 passenger small cruise ship below, might have kept his job a little longer if he had studied the above book before attempting to go through in 1987. It was the inaugural voyage for the ship with its owner and family aboard. Ironically, I was aboard as a naturalist, had given a slide show the night before, specifically mentioning Yuculta Rapids and the importance of going through at slack water. So the next morning there was some sort of presentation in the forward lounge and I looked out to see that we were approaching the Rapids and I could see from the current swirls that slack water was still at least an hour or more away.. I stepped outside and up to the upper deck to have a better look at what was going on. As soon I realised how hard the current was still running, I thought I'd better stick my head into the pilothouse and give them a warning.. But realised that it was unlikely that they would listen to a mere naturalist, even if he'd been through there half a dozen times and knew that big boats had capsized there...

A moment later the current hit our keel and we laid over far enough that all the glasses and bottles slid off the bar, passenger's cameras in their staterooms slid from table to floor, and worst of all, one of the big liferaft cannisters ejected from its rack, hit the water, inflated and spun away in the tide...

So take it from one who knows... slack water means slack water..

Left: oops.. over we go.. when the tidal current hit our keel at right angles.