Jay,
Thank you for such a delightful--and tragic ending--video clip. Beatifully done!
Marie and I took "Thataway" our Cal 46 into Ford's terror twice. It is one of our favorite places in Alaska. Since the Cal 46 is a 6 to 8 knot boat, with 5 1/2 foot draft, we timed our arrival at the entrance to be just before high slack. Well, there is no slack! We launched the RIB, and Marie handled the Cal, when I ran thru the entrance in the RIB--I quickly realized that there was no slack--it was already turning to ebb inside, although it was still flood at the outside, so I radioed Marie to start thru--and we had the RIB set up so we could put it aboard when underway with an electric winch over the transom. No problem getting thru, but there were two Kayakers who tried to make it, but could not make headway against the ebb half way thru and had to line the kayaks thru--complete with bear on the bank. We had gone past them, not realizing the difficulty they would face. Later we took the RIB up to the rapids, so see how much force and speed there was at full flood. We had a 12 1/2 foot Avon with a 25 hp--could do about 32 knots.
We could not make head way at a certain point against the flood--part was the wave pattern and part was the volicty of the current. I guessed that the full flood velocity was over 20 knots.
For those who have not been in Ford's Terror, it is a fjord with an entrance only about 100 feet wide and several hundred yards long of turbulant water. At low water, the depth is only about 2 1/2 feet and at high water that plus the tide--in the mid to high 20's deep. The fjord is about 30 miles long, with two arms at its extreme. One is steep and the other more gentle and we took the dinghy several more miles up the river at high water. We climbed the face near the waterfall--and hiked the back country up there. The walls of the fjord can be as muc as 1500 feet high and are sheer. We anchored in 100 feet of water just below the water fall--and the current kept the boat off of the banks.
The first time we spent 3 days in the fjord--and saw one charter boat and two kaykers--the second time we spent 7 days in the fjord and saw no other boats or people. Even ham radio was difficult to get signals out because of the high walls. It is an extremely isolated place.
We think it is one of the highlights of an Alaskian cruise--about 50 Miles S. of Juneau and 90 miles N. of Petersburg on Endocott Arm.
Ford's Terror is named after the naval crew member, John Ford, who, in 1889, rowed a dinghy into the narrow entrance of the fjord at slack tide. The tide began to rise, forcing its way through the bottleneck entrance into the fjord, and Ford was trapped in the turbulent currents for the next "terrifying" six hours. It was said that he could not talk for several days after the experience.
Thank you for such a delightful--and tragic ending--video clip. Beatifully done!
Marie and I took "Thataway" our Cal 46 into Ford's terror twice. It is one of our favorite places in Alaska. Since the Cal 46 is a 6 to 8 knot boat, with 5 1/2 foot draft, we timed our arrival at the entrance to be just before high slack. Well, there is no slack! We launched the RIB, and Marie handled the Cal, when I ran thru the entrance in the RIB--I quickly realized that there was no slack--it was already turning to ebb inside, although it was still flood at the outside, so I radioed Marie to start thru--and we had the RIB set up so we could put it aboard when underway with an electric winch over the transom. No problem getting thru, but there were two Kayakers who tried to make it, but could not make headway against the ebb half way thru and had to line the kayaks thru--complete with bear on the bank. We had gone past them, not realizing the difficulty they would face. Later we took the RIB up to the rapids, so see how much force and speed there was at full flood. We had a 12 1/2 foot Avon with a 25 hp--could do about 32 knots.
We could not make head way at a certain point against the flood--part was the wave pattern and part was the volicty of the current. I guessed that the full flood velocity was over 20 knots.
For those who have not been in Ford's Terror, it is a fjord with an entrance only about 100 feet wide and several hundred yards long of turbulant water. At low water, the depth is only about 2 1/2 feet and at high water that plus the tide--in the mid to high 20's deep. The fjord is about 30 miles long, with two arms at its extreme. One is steep and the other more gentle and we took the dinghy several more miles up the river at high water. We climbed the face near the waterfall--and hiked the back country up there. The walls of the fjord can be as muc as 1500 feet high and are sheer. We anchored in 100 feet of water just below the water fall--and the current kept the boat off of the banks.
The first time we spent 3 days in the fjord--and saw one charter boat and two kaykers--the second time we spent 7 days in the fjord and saw no other boats or people. Even ham radio was difficult to get signals out because of the high walls. It is an extremely isolated place.
We think it is one of the highlights of an Alaskian cruise--about 50 Miles S. of Juneau and 90 miles N. of Petersburg on Endocott Arm.
Ford's Terror is named after the naval crew member, John Ford, who, in 1889, rowed a dinghy into the narrow entrance of the fjord at slack tide. The tide began to rise, forcing its way through the bottleneck entrance into the fjord, and Ford was trapped in the turbulent currents for the next "terrifying" six hours. It was said that he could not talk for several days after the experience.