Navigating Debris Fields - Help!

[Jeff and Julie]

Well, we had a great time at Bell Harbor this weekend but had a heck of time trying to navigate through the debris fields to get there!!
We left Tacoma and headed up East Passage and there was so much debris that we could not get around it. Can anyone help us with general guidelines on how you should navigate through this stuff? Should you slow way down to a crawl and try to dodge everything? Should you just go smoothly through the smaller stuff and the bow wake will brush it aside? There were some times where we were completely surrounded by all sizes of trees, limbs, sticks, etc. and we were really uncertain as to how to proceed through. Coming back today we had no trouble, thankfully!!
Appreciate any advice!!

Jeff and Julie

[Alyssa Jean]

I usually just slow down to 4-5 knots and then duck and dodge through the larger stuff. If you are on a plane and you even go over some smaller stuff it can get into your prop or lodge on the forward side of the skeg.

[Captains Cat]

Another advantage for twins..... Go to one engine, tilt the other up and navigate slowly!!

Charlie

[Sawdust]

Or tilt the kicker down, get the main up to safety and go slow with the kicker.

Dusty

[Hunkydory]

[Adeline]

I say GO SLOW! On two separate occasions I raced through what I thought was a hole in a s*** slick only to overheat my motor. Both times sea-grass had wrapped my l.u. and blocked my water intake. If you choose to blast through a debris field then check immediately your tell-tale.

[thataway]

Slow, with the motor tilted up to help to keep the material from hanging up on the pont of the lower unit--also tends to be less likely to have a prop blade hit a large piece of debris.

We try and avoid trees or any larger debris. Watch the "pee" stream of the outboard--and if it deminishes, many of the boats will allow you to back flush the cooling, thru the flushing port up in the upper part of the engine (place varies by motor). We have a Jabsco diaphragm pump, which will allow you to pick up raw water (or use the raw water washdown hose if you have one)--put a fine mesh screen over the intake--or a inline intake filter.

[rogerbum]

For starters, as long as it's not your own debris field, you've already had a successful day.

I do as David suggested, slow it down and dodge the big stuff. Also, a key thing to remember is that "where there is some sh*t, there's usually more sh*t". This is because debris tends to accumulate in the tide lines. Hence if you see much of any debris, it's often good to slow down as you transit the area. That small debris you see first, may be near a big dead head (and not the Grateful Dead kind although that is theoretically possible too!).

Sometimes if you pay close attention, you'll notice the debris field follows a single line at the tide line. When this is perpendicular to your course, it's no big deal - once you're through, you're in clear water. If the tide line is parallel to your desired course and loaded with debris, it's best to get off course a little.

[Robbi]

Boating out of Commencment Bay after flooding in the Puyallup River can be a real adventure. For some reason this last flood brought an incredible amount of debris into the local water ways. Some are pointing fingers at a local wood products company, I'm not sure of the details, but the debris field was more that just river wash. Two things to take note of in this area, as well as other large river mouths in Puget Sound. Flooding, and with the flooding, extreme high tides. These together wash debris from the rivers but also wash beaches of "high water debris". This debris can stay in the area waters for a long period of time, and can move with the currents many miles. Last year after a period of extreme high tides and strong winds, I got into junk in Hale Pass near Fox Island. I couldn't go more than a few feet without running into logs, etc. One log I ended up going over, was about 15 feet long and 1 foot in diameter. It was "floating" just below the surface. I was moving at a very slow speed and was able to avoid any damage. You just have to go slow and keep your eyes on where you are going. You will find most junk will be in the same area, and will follow current lines. This helps to navigate through it, but in the winter months especially, you just have to keep your eyes on the water ahead.

When you are traveling at speed, you also need to feel comfortable steering the boat in a fast turn "hard to one side than hard to the other" dodge maneuver, that will slide the boat and motor around a unexpected object that you can not slow down in time to avoid. If you find yourself doing this dodge, it is probably time to sloooow down. As others have said, where there is some stuff, there is usually more stuff.

From Tacoma going north, Colvos Passage tends to have less junk than East Passage, but my guess is that most of what you ran into was between Commencement Bay and Pt Robinson on Vashon Island. No fun going through this stuff.

I hope that your trip, other than the junk, was a good one. Robbi

[Sea Wolf]

We have debris lines even here on Lake Shasta, an inland lake.

They're mostly caused by the wind shifting directions after it's finished piling all the debris, which is mostly wood from downed trees and bushes along with some boards, against one shore.

The biggest caveat I can offer is that the really big logs and boards which are usually heaviily waterlogged, move more slowly than the smaller and lighter pieces, which means that the most dangerous objects are sometimes not on the debris line itself, but lagging behind somewhat.

All the more reason to slow down and keep a sharp eye out when you suspect floating objects.

One arm of the lake has never had the trees removed so as to provide fish cover, so there are underwater hazards there which don't show up on the surface.

We have our share of deadheads too, but ours are of the misplaced 60's genere. "Dr., Dr., Mr. MD, can you tell me what's ailing' me.......................

Joe.

[starcrafttom]

Just love that debri. Thats why the wendsay night sailboat race in everet iscalled the log dodge. slow down for the big stuff and after passing thru the little stuff, stop put the boat in reverse and pull a tight u- turn back wards. This will clear all the weeds and little sticks off the lower unit and the intakes.

[oldgrowth]

[Jeff and Julie]

Thank you all for your suggestions! We really appreciate the insight from this site!
Robbi,
We did come back Colvos and it was much better! Thanks for sharing that tip.

Jeff and Julie

[Byrdman]

Jeff and Julie.... what type of boat do you have? Not in your profile, no photo albumn... and I do recall meeting a couple at last years Seattle Boat show named Jeff and Julie that were buying on of the new CR-25 Tugs.

[Jeff and Julie]

Byrdman,
We have an aluminum with an outboard. We weren't the ones buying the tug, ...yet!!!
Julie