Nordhavn 47, Sea Eagle anchored in Totten Inlet.
With the promise of flat calm seas and lots of sun, we left the marina in pea soup fog. The radar was running, Sea Eagle’s AIS was broadcasting and the fog horn was doing it’s thing to let others know where we were. After about thirty minutes of slow headway, I spotted a whole cluster of boats ahead on the radar. Wondering who else was crazy enough to be out in the very thick fog (viz was down to about 100 yards), I stuck my head out the door to listen for fog signals and heard nothing but dripping silence.
I crept ahead, dead slow to discover about 30 sailboats, in some type of a race, with sails up, no wind and zero fog signals. I guess they figured the rules don’t apply to them!
The sailboats were pointing every conceivable direction due to swirling currents and a lack of wind, which made picking a path through them a bit of a challenge, but we putzed on through and continued making our way toward Totten Inlet and Wildcat Cove.
The entrance to Wildcat Cove is beautiful.
Once clear of Budd Inlet, the fog lifted, the sun came out and the day became gloriously beautiful and calm. The current was running against us through Squaxin Passage, which slowed us down to less than six knots, but we picked our way around Steamboat Island and turned south into Totten Inlet.
We arrived at Wildcat Cove (Little Skookum) at low tide (+3′) and noticed that all of my various charts for the region showed only 2 soundings of ten feet, one at the entrance and the other 1/2 mile inside the cove. That should be enough water, but I wasn’t sure what was between the two soundings, so proceeded VERY slowly into the cove. All the neighbors came out to watch the big Nordhavn 47 proceeding into the VERY shallow water. Methinks they were expecting a big crunch!
Time for some BBQ as the Sun Sets on flat calm waters.
The fathometer kept getting shallower and shallower and once it got down to 3′ of water, I chickened out and turned around. I could see the prop wash kicking up mud, so headed back out into Totten inlet to drop the anchor. We dropped the large dingy in and cruised up to the head of Wildcat Cave and Little Skookum Inlet. It’s a beautiful and quiet setting, but very, very shallow. Using the depth sounder in the dinghy, I determined that it would be possible to anchor in the cove if we came in on at least a 6′ tide. Maybe next time?
Once back on Sea Eagle, we enjoyed the calm water and sunshine, then fired up the BBQ as the sun set on another perfect evening of Winter Cruising!
Sea Eagle, Totten Inlet