Tag Archives: dent island lodge

Navigating Tidal Rapids in the Inside Passage

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canoe pass slack

Canoe Pass is a narrow passage that flows alongside Dent Island Lodge. I took this photo at slack water from our boat shortly after we arrived. At slack water, the current is calm and the sea is flat. The side deck of the lodge is visible at the right in the photo, and offers a great place to watch the current ebb and flood.

The Inside Passage is famous for big tides and fast currents. As the water floods and ebbs from the Pacific Ocean, it is constricted when it forces its way through narrow passages, called tidal rapids. There are many tidal rapids all along the Inside Passage. When we were at Dent Island, we had a chance to watch the tidal rapids in Canoe Pass from the shoreline and see how the water changed throughout the day as the currents changed direction.

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June 25 – Dent Island to Prideaux Haven

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sonora lodge

As we left Dent Island, we navigated through the rapids…first Gillard and then Yuculta. The Sonora Resort is a fishing lodge that is located on one side of Yuculta Rapids and is a rather large facility.

It rained hard all night and we had lots of noise from the Canoe Pass turbulence, when waves splashed against our stern as the current reached peak velocity. Between the rain on the deck and the waves on the hull, it wasn’t a great night for sleeping! Our barometer was still low this morning (1008 millibars) and it was foggy again and raining hard. We had our choice of leaving Dent Island when the current was slack at either 0600 or 1200. We decided to wait for the 1200 slack, hoping the fog would clear out and the rain would let up.

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June 24 – More Eagles at Dent

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dent island low tide

It rained hard most of our second day at Dent Island Lodge. During one of the rain breaks, we walked around on some of the paths. Looking back at the marina, this photo shows the beach at low tide and some of the larger boats that came in today.

It rained hard overnight and was still raining when we woke up this morning. It was also very foggy and the forecast called for southeast winds of 15-25 knots. Decided we’d spend a second day at the comfortable Dent Island Lodge docks. It seemed like a better alternative than trying to navigate through the rapids in fog!

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June 23 – Our 40th Anniversary Dinner

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alice & jim at dent island lodge

Happy 40th anniversary to us! We had the entire dining room at Dent Island Lodge to ourselves, and enjoyed the wonderful food at a table with a view of the marina. A perfect celebration!

What a wonderful place to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary! Our anniversary was actually earlier in June, but this was as soon as we were able to get to Dent Island. And we immensely enjoyed our delayed celebration. Dinner at Dent Island Lodge is always special, and this time we even had the entire dining room to ourselves. No other guests came for dinner tonight. They set up a large table for us that overlooked the marina. What a perfect setting!

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June 23 – Arrival At Dent Island Lodge

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dent island sign

Hooray! We made it to Dent Island Lodge to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. A nicely carved sign identifying the lodge is posted at the top of the ramp up from the docks.

We arrived at Dent Island Lodge around noon, and it was still sunny. Clouds were approaching on the horizon, and filled in later in the day. How nice that we had a gorgeous day for our arrival and for the cruise from Squirrel Cove! After we got Phoenix tied up and things put away, we spent some time exploring the lodge and walking on the paths of the surrounding grounds. Some of the rhododendrons and azaleas were blooming, adding a nice touch of color. It’s such a pleasant place to be.

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Balancing Work and Play

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sunset anacortes refinery

As we arrived in Anacortes, the steam from the Anacortes refineries appeared to be on fire from the light of the golden sunset.

Life occasionally interferes with what we want to do. This is one of those times. It’s cruising season, and we’d rather be out on the boat, on our way north to cruise the Inside Passage and spend more time exploring Alaska. But a long cruise isn’t in the cards for us this summer.

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