BRING IT ON!

ClaraALLEGRO points to the head of the Agamemnon Inlet on her approach to the infamous Skookumchuck Narrows

I got seasick the second day out. My stomach had been roiling ever since we’d slipped out of Howe Sound that morning, but we were all busy on deck working an easterly blow through a finicky strait just above Typhoon Songda—which had put the lights out in nearby Vancouver the night before. Nature comes at you quickly. I jumped to the leeward gunwale to unload my business, but was jerked to a fast stop by my tether and found myself scrambling back up to the high side rail just in time to get my head under the lifelines to the collective “Ewww!” of my four crewmates.

We were on a tough run up the coast in a broken rain, scampering in and out of the cockpit and chasing lines across the foredeck. Our wind gauge clocked 29 knots as our boat cut through waves up to 10ft . Even against a formidable ebb tide, our speed readout was bobbing around 7 to 8 knots over the ground. We were proud of that.

Another day of this would bring us to the infamous rapids at Skookumchuck Narrows, the fastest saltwater tidal change in