Navigating Deception Pass (Whidbey Island, WA)

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 11:10 am Post subject:

I wish there were a "Like" button here - oh, wait, that is Facebook...Gary's photo is incredible, Deception Pass seldom looks like that.

We have not transited Deception Pass for a long time, but in earlier years we transited many times in both our CD22 (2003-2005) and our CD25 (2005-present). We never waited for slack tide. In our experience, the biggest hazard in Deception Pass was the big boats whose owners felt entitled to take their half out of the middle, the rest of us be damned. Now I am older, not necessarily wiser, but I have no desire to transit Deception Pass again.

Native American sacred places are always places of great natural power...and Deception Pass is my tribe's (Samish) sacred place.

hardee · Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:37 pm Post subject:

Pat said:

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2021 6:42 pm Post subject:

The Samish erected a story pole in Deception Pass State Park 38 years ago. This video tells how it came to be. The late Ken Hansen, tribal chairman at the time, was my cousin. I am close to many of the people in the video.

hardee · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2021 7:46 pm Post subject:

Thanks again Pat. I loved that video. Super nice and I love the history.

Harvey
SleepyC Moon

Marco Flamingo · Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2021 10:09 am Post subject:

It is the eddies that will get you. A 10 knot ebb can have a 10kn eddy next to it. Cross that line and, in a boat that has a hard chine, you can be headed for the beach in an instant. Or, it can catch the chine and flip you. On the boat now without good internet. Google "tug boat flips in BC" to see what I mean. Crew was rescued by whitewater kayakers who were there to play in the currents. Good kayaker can roll right back up. Not true for most boats.

smckean (Tosca) · Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2021 3:11 pm Post subject:

BIG thanks, Pat, for posting that link of the story pole in Deception Pass State Park. I was very touched by the "spirit" of the video. We ALL love this land/sea, do we not!

I was particularly taken when the lovely lady said that the Samish language was like the wind in the trees given the whooshing sounds. And then at the end, when the older gentleman spoke in the Samish language for a couple of minutes.....I was struck by the beauty of the sounds....yes, just like she said, like the wind in the trees.

This raised a question in my mind.....do you know if there is any effort scientifically or culturally to somehow preserve this wonderful language?