Most Intimidating Tidal Gate?

Romeo

Romeo

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Well I have been through the Corryvreckan and the Grey Dogs in a well found powerful motor cruiser, and have done the Dorus Mor and the Cuan Sound in small sailing boats, swirling around in circles in the former. Oh, and I have rowed through Strangford Narrows.

However today I am looking at the pilot for the Falls of Lora in the entrance to Loch Etive. I am hoping to go into Loch Etive as part of a dinghy cruise in late summer. Flipping heck though, the guidance is pretty detailed and a bit scary. Is it in fact the most intimidating tidal gate that there is?
 
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Never been through the Falls of Lora but as far as I know it is straight forward and no where near as tricky as Grey Dogs or Corryvreckan.

Various canoe sites have the details for passage which is also regularly done by small cargo ships.
 
Its not a problem at slack water, which is 2-2.5hrs after HW or LW Oban. Avoid after heavy rain as Loch Etive receives the run-off not only from surrounding hills, but also from Loch Awe via the river Awe so there may only be a very narrow window of slack water.

Been through both directions in my yacht at low water on a neap tide and the most nerve wracking thing is the clearance under the Connel bridge. The channel itself was as still as a duck pond.
 
ianj99 said:
Its not a problem at slack water,
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The instructions leave slack water as a very short and very moveable feast, affected by strong SW winds and by barometric pressure.

I think I have been on your boat in previous ownership...... the strongest ship I have ever been on, and I would really not have a problem going through anything on it! Slightly more nervous in my open boat.
 
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Romeo said:
The instructions leave slack water as a very short and very moveable feast, affected by strong SW winds and by barometric pressure.

I have been on your boat in previous ownership...... the strongest ship I have ever been on, and I would really not have a problem going through anything on it! Slightly more nervous in my open boat.
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Provided you check the weather, tide and previous few days rainfall then I'm sure you shouldn't have too much trouble.
The slack water window does vary and so best to choose a neap tide - if you do get your timing wrong then at least the currents won't be too fierce!
If you get the opportunity, visit by road and see for yourself - see photo.
 

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Used to sail through Dorris Mor, We put the motor on for Cuan Sound its lovely I'd swear there is a incline to the water surface right at the narrows. I've never gone through Corryvrechan, sailed past many times.

Seymour Narrows?

There is a u tube video of kayakers rescuing a tug crew after it succumbed to Skookumchuck, even the orca wait for slack water.
I transit Polier regularly, I used dive there its a spectacular dive site.
Never tried Boat Narrows.
 
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Looks like fun!:encouragement:
Rainbow_e.jpg

http://www.fallsoflora.info/
 
They are all doable with great care in the right weather and choosing the right tide. My father kept his 1936 26' Gaff cutter at Ardfern and we took her through Cuan and Dorus Mor regularly and a couple of times through Corryvreckan and Lora with great care. We even anchored in the bay halfway through Corryvreckan and landed, and then watched from the cliffs as a fishing boat used the inshore eddies go through against the tide.
 
A couple of years ago I visited the Needles and did the two batterys. It was blowing a good F8 wind over neapish tide but the wind hadn't been strong enough for long enough to build up huge seas.

The sea in the needles channel was horrendous, wall to wall large confused seas and made me swear to avoid the place in anything of a wind over tide blow. On other days it can be a pussy cat.

The point is that many places can be a killer if you act like a knob.
 
I once sailed through Corryvreckan against the tide (no engine running) by hugging the Jura shore, and south of that little island on the south side. It was half way between neaps and springs, and not much sea running. It was a bit slow though!
 
jac said:
A couple of years ago I visited the Needles and did the two batterys. It was blowing a good F8 wind over neapish tide but the wind hadn't been strong enough for long enough to build up huge seas.

The sea in the needles channel was horrendous, wall to wall large confused seas and made me swear to avoid the place in anything of a wind over tide blow. On other days it can be a pussy cat.
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Funny you should mention the Needles as I was just thinking the same. Have many times been
through all the tidal gates so far mentioned but would still consider the Needles in a full blown SW gale the worst. Many many years ago did an overnight passage from Falmouth to Gosport intending to enter the Solent via the Needles channel. When we got there at first light the weather had got up to a SW F7. Horrendous is to calm to explain it. At the time my wife was quite new to sailing. Didnt let her come on deck to even see it from a mile off.
 
Nothing as scary as any of the previous. Riddle of the Sands.

The watersheds (wantij) pron. (vont eye) inside the Frisian Islands are good. The tide range is small. You sometimes join the other boats as you work your way up to the high point, sometimes bumping on bottom if you are impatient. Heart rate increases if HW-1 and you are still not over. ie. What do I do? Should I U turn and go back? Or do I stay with it?

My best was 3 wantij on the same tide. But I needed counselling afterwards.
 
All you UpToppers ought to try sailing in the Cook Strait which runs North-South and divides the North and South Island of New Zealand. Crossing from Wellington to the Marlborough Sounds, is an approximately NW course, so best tackled in a southerly. But then you come up against the entrance to the Tory Channel, which is about a 200m gap in SW facing cliffs, so if there is any swell running, the backwash off the cliffs makes it a bit interesting.

Not to mention the tidal gate - as Tory Channel drains a lot of the Sounds, through a fairly narrow channel, tidal streams run up to six knots each way, with a rather short slack period. However, if you time it wrong, you are stuck off the iron-bound coast, bouncing around in the southerly swell and wishing you were somewhere else, the only alternative being a four or five hour detour to the Queen Charlotte Sound entrance, which is easier, but much further.

And then the ferries - the InterIslander and BlueBridge run passenger and car ferries through Tory Channel and they wait for no-one. All in all, a nice little collection of hazards to test your nerve and passage-planning skills. Small wonder that I'll only tackle it on a fine day!
 
I sail Rathlin sound a lot which can be hairy when theres a swell running but worst I've seen was Strangford Narrows.

We timed our run at exactly 'slack water' but there was still about 0.5 knts of tide. Just that tide alone threw up huge steep waves. We broke _every_ bit of glass inside the boat including the oil lamp chimneys!
 
Romeo said:
I think I have been on your boat in previous ownership...... the strongest ship I have ever been on, and I would really not have a problem going through anything on it!
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I believe the previous owners kept her on the Forth as they were from the Edinburgh area although she ended up on the west coast at Ardfern.
Yes, she is a tough old girl and almost 40. I installed a new engine two years ago (a Chinese MP446) which is a lot smoother and quieter, as well as a bit more powerful than the Perkins 4108.
She needs a new suit of sails but that can wait until I retire, if it ever happens.
 
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Raz de Sein anyone?

Went through in benign conditions but still nasty random waves. A real feeling of "I don't want to be here on a bad day"
 
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