The times move every day. The behaviour does not. Which way each pass floods, what rule governs it, and what makes it worse.
It depends on the narrows and on your boat, and two separate questions are involved. Can the boat make way against the stream? That depends on your speed, and a slow boat runs out of margin long before a fast one does. And what is the water actually doing? That does not depend on your boat at all. TidePush scores both and takes the stricter of the two. At the tidal rapids north of Desolation Sound a fast boat is given no exemption whatever, because engine power is not an answer to whirlpools and overfalls.
Because a fixed time would be wrong for most readers on most days. Slack moves roughly fifty minutes later each day, and the best departure also depends on how fast your boat is — a table would have to be a date-by-speed matrix, and any single cell lifted out of it would mislead. What does not change is how each piece of water behaves, which is what this page records. For an actual time, plan the passage with your own boat and date.
No. The channel is driven by the difference in water level between Skagit Bay and Padilla Bay rather than by the tide at either end, and the stream lags the tide by about five and a quarter hours. Skagit has the larger range and runs later than Padilla, so the cut can even be setting different ways at its two ends at once.
East, into Skagit Bay. It ebbs west into Rosario Strait. It is a few hundred feet wide under the bridge with standing waves and whirlpools below it, and the Coast Pilot advice is to negotiate it at slack.
Heading north the order is Yuculta, then Gillard, then Dent, and the established practice is to take the Yucultas about an hour before slack at Gillard so the building stream carries you through the set. Big Bay, where boats wait for the turn, lies east of Gillard — stopping there leaves the two fastest gates still ahead of you.
Malibu publishes no current predictions, so its slack is taken from the Sailing Directions rule: about twenty-five minutes after high water at Point Atkinson, give or take half an hour. It is a blind dog-leg transited one direction at a time, so plan to arrive early and wait rather than to arrive on the nose.
Every other gate here is a published current station: an agency measured the water and predicts it. The Swinomish has none — the nearest is about four miles outside the entrance — so its stream is COMPUTED, from the difference in water level between the tide gauges at each end, calibrated against the only current survey ever made inside the cut.
The practical consequence is the one that catches people: the channel does not turn at high or low water at La Conner, and timing it off a tide table will be wrong by hours rather than minutes. It is also the only place in the library where depth binds before current does, and where a bridge clearance moves against the tide.
How the Swinomish Channel behaves, in full →
15 pieces of water that have to be timed, with the rule each one runs on. The descriptions come from the same route table the planner uses, so they cannot drift apart from what it tells you on the day.
Slack is strongly preferred. It will go at other times for a boat with the speed for it, but that is not the easy way through.
The gate: 7 kt at springs under the Lions Gate bridge, and the ebb stands up against a westerly in English Bay. Outbound you are against the flood. Ships transit on a schedule and the channel is narrow enough that meeting one in it is the thing to avoid.
Outbound from Coal Harbour you meet the flood on the nose. The ebb stands up against a westerly out in English Bay, so the wind matters as much as the hour does.
Treatment follows the station’s own published current series.
No slack requirement in the guides. Timing here costs hours rather than safety.
Cattle Pass against a big ebb: overfalls, and you will not make ground under 7 kt.
The ebb setting south against a summer southerly is what makes this uncomfortable, rather than the speed alone — wind over tide in a narrow entrance.
Treatment follows: Strong-current passage; no slack requirement in the guides.
Slack is strongly preferred. It will go at other times for a boat with the speed for it, but that is not the easy way through.
Transit Dodd Narrows at or within minutes of slack — streams reach 9 kt at springs, the south entrance stands steep overfalls on a big ebb, and traffic alternates one way. Announce on 16 before entering; tugs with booms have right of way and no brakes.
Treatment follows: Canadian Sailing Directions: slack water recommended; confined and strong.
No slack requirement in the guides. Timing here costs hours rather than safety.
THE GATE. Short, shallow and bridged, and the flood sets southwest through it — into Poulsbo, against you coming home.
Treatment follows: Performance-limited passage; no slack requirement in the guides.
Slack water only. The published guidance says transit at or near the turn, and a capable boat gets no exemption — the limit is the water, not your engine.
THE FIRST GATE. Whirlpools and heavy swirls off Kellsey Point on a running stream. The Yucultas turn about an hour before Gillard.
The three rapids do not turn together. The practice is to take the Yucultas about an hour before slack at Gillard, so the building stream carries you through the set rather than stopping you between two of them. Big Bay, where boats wait for the turn, lies EAST of Gillard — so stopping there leaves the two fastest gates of the three still ahead of you.
Treatment follows: Canadian Sailing Directions: transit at or near slack water.
Slack is strongly preferred. It will go at other times for a boat with the speed for it, but that is not the easy way through.
Active Pass: a dog-leg you cannot see round, running to 8 kt at springs, with BC Ferries transiting it on a schedule from BOTH directions. They cannot give way here. Call ahead on 16, keep hard to starboard, and do not attempt to pass one in the bend.
The ferries are as much the reason this is timed as the stream is. They transit on a schedule from both directions and cannot give way inside the dog-leg.
Treatment follows: Canadian Sailing Directions; CHS 07527. Ferry traffic on a schedule.
No slack requirement in the guides. Timing here costs hours rather than safety.
The Narrows runs to 5-6 kt at springs and stands up steep overfalls under the bridges when wind opposes tide. Go with it or wait — this gate decides the day.
Treatment follows: Performance-limited passage; wide and deep, no slack requirement.
A capable boat may work through the stream, but the state of the water is scored whatever your speed.
It floods EAST into Skagit Bay and ebbs WEST into Rosario Strait, which is worth fixing in your head because the bridge makes it easy to lose track of which way you are facing.
Treatment follows: Speed-aware: capable vessels operate through current, condition still scored.
Slack water only. The published guidance says transit at or near the turn, and a capable boat gets no exemption — the limit is the water, not your engine.
THE GATE. Gillard runs to 10 kt between Jimmy Judd Island and the Gillard Islands, with heavy overfalls below it. Slack is the only time to be here.
Treatment follows: Canadian Sailing Directions: transit at or near slack water.
Slack water only. The published guidance says transit at or near the turn, and a capable boat gets no exemption — the limit is the water, not your engine.
Dent runs to 9 kt and holds Devil’s Hole, a whirlpool big enough to have its own name. The lodge dock sits in the back eddy behind the island — approach on the slack, not on the stream.
Treatment follows: Canadian Sailing Directions: transit at or near slack water.
A capable boat may work through the stream, but the state of the water is scored whatever your speed.
THE GATE. Ripple Rock is under you here — blasted down in 1958, not removed — and the overfalls over it are the reason this pass has the reputation it has.
Treatment follows: Canadian Sailing Directions: slack water transit strongly advised for small craft.
Slack water only. The published guidance says transit at or near the turn, and a capable boat gets no exemption — the limit is the water, not your engine.
THE SECOND GATE. Two hundred metres wide, to ten knots, with overfalls at the eastern end. Slack is the only time to be in here.
Treatment follows: Canadian Sailing Directions: transit at or near slack water.
Slack water only. The published guidance says transit at or near the turn, and a capable boat gets no exemption — the limit is the water, not your engine.
THE GATE. Beazley Passage is about 150 m wide, runs to 10 kt, and boils with overfalls and whirlpools away from slack. Transit within half an hour of the published turn, favour the Sturt Island side, and do not attempt it in the dark.
Treatment follows: Canadian Sailing Directions: transit at or near slack water.
Slack water only. The published guidance says transit at or near the turn, and a capable boat gets no exemption — the limit is the water, not your engine.
Malibu: about 9 kt at springs through a dog-leg you cannot see round, with the Malibu Club dock immediately inside. Boats announce themselves on VHF 16 before entering and the first through reports back whether anyone is waiting. Slack only, and the window is thirty minutes either side of it.
Malibu publishes no current predictions at all: every series, every year, comes back empty. Its slack is derived from the Sailing Directions rule instead — about twenty-five minutes after high water at Point Atkinson — and TidePush says so rather than presenting it as a prediction. Plan to arrive early and wait.
Treatment follows: Salish Sea Pilot 2025: slack 25 min after HW at Point Atkinson, plus or minus 30 min.
Slack water only. The published guidance says transit at or near the turn, and a capable boat gets no exemption — the limit is the water, not your engine.
The Skookumchuck: 21 kt at springs, standing waves big enough that people drive out to watch them and a whirlpool field below Roland Point. Slack only, and slack here is a narrow window rather than an hour. Nothing about a capable boat changes this.
Treatment follows the station’s own published current series.