A voyage between Wrangell and Petersburg is 40 nautical miles and includes one of the world’s great piloting exercises—navigation of Wrangell Narrows. The Narrows enables passage between Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island in the Alexander Archipelago. The heavily used route has confounded many haplesss vessels.
A project to revive the Tlingit cultural art of carving is underway in Wrangell. The town’s Carving Shed and an empty lot behind are a hub of activity with master and apprentice carvers working on restorations and new poles. The tribe raised five poles in Wrangell last summer.
The Narrows
The Narrows is a constricted, tortuous passage 22 miles long that serves as the primary longitudinal marine route connecting Sumner Strait and Frederick Sound. Sixty red and green aids to navigation mark a plague of shoals, reefs and rocks, and the entire channel is swept by swift tidal currents.
Tides up to 25 feet in height flood from Pacific waters north and south simultaneously, meet at a seabed summit, shake hands like grizzled prospectors, then about face and retrace their journeys downward. This tidal trek occurs twice daily roughly 12½ hours apart on a cycle determined by the moon’s gravitational ambitions. The pattern progresses 50 minutes later each day, and mariners take notice.
Ride the Tide
The most efficient way to transit Wrangell Narrows from either end is to depart at the second half of a flood tide, arrive at the summit at high, slacktide when currents briefly pause and reverse direction. Using this approach a vessel is first carried up-tide, adding 2-5 knots of current to its speed, then down-tide gaining the same assistance.
Low Water
Nevertheless, this is NOT how Jupiter recently transited Wrangell Narrows. Faced with inconvenient tides requiring early morning or evening departures, the crew starts our midday transit at the very beginning of a flood tide, gaining speed during the first part of the journey, but finding the summit an hour later with the tide still on the rise, and giving up all gains during the second leg. The summit handshake is more like a belly punch buffeting the boat on the incoming tide.
Green mark #1 shows the edge of the navigable channel as Jupiter enters the Wrangell Narrows.
A red over green indicates the preferred route where the channel divides.
This vertically striped red and white is a safe-water mark showing the northern terminus of the narrows and safe water beyond.
Low tide exposes every shoal, reef and rock, confirming the need for careful adherence to navigational markers. Reported depths at low tide are 17-24 feet over which Jupiter, with her 5-foot draft, is free to cross.
Current Events
Arriving at Petersburg, located within the northern channel of Wrangell Narrows, Jupiter now is concerned with a full-flood tidal current compromising the boat’s approach and landing at her assigned stall in commodious South Harbor. Fortunately the slips here are engineered for massive fishing vessels such that Jupiter can stagger in sideways pushing against the current like a drunken sourdough after a late night at the bar.
Navigating the Pacific Northwest is immersive and entertaining, often instructive, occasionally frightening, but generally a pleasure for a captain piloting his vessel in tidal waters. Wrangell Narrows is just one of an uncounted number of marvelous passages available to mariners enjoying freedom of the seas.
The acquisition of the knowledge of navigation has a strange effect on the minds of men.
Jack London
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Did you sing this while transiting Wrangle Narrows?
” The Tide Is High but I’m Holding On” (Blondie) Debra Harry
Yes, of course we did! What else would have been better suited to the situation?