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Chart puzzle 1...where in Maine?


mhabich

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Why do I feel like a lifetime of solving those Google capchas ("click on all images containing a stop sign") have been preparing me for this moment in life? This is one part pattern-matching, one part geography bowl, and one part trying to remember what stories each of you tell around campfires. 

Nancy's heavenly solution: "boatbow" island

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Answer in white: This is the deep water on the west side of Gurnet Strait, just north of Sebascodegan Island. Due to the meeting of a few bodies of water, the currents rip through here at mid-tide. Perhaps the currents create a whirlpool that made the deep hole?

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2 hours ago, Nancy Hill said:

Answer in white: This is the deep water on the west side of Gurnet Strait, just north of Sebascodegan Island. Due to the meeting of a few bodies of water, the currents rip through here at mid-tide. Perhaps the currents create a whirlpool that made the deep hole?

From Coast Pilot (with no mention of the mysterious hole):

The channel [east of the snippet chart] is narrow, has a depth of about 6 feet and has many dangers; the tidal currents are strong, and the thoroughfare should not be used by strangers. It is sometimes marked by bush stakes.

(607) A fixed highway bridge with a clearance of 30 feet crosses the southern part of Ewin Narrows.

(608) Gurnet Strait is crossed by State Route 24 highway bridge, which has a fixed span with a vertical clearance of 10 feet and a horizontal clearance of 42 feet. The depth at the bridge is reported to be about 6 feet. In 1979, shoaling to bare was reported in the northerly part of the channel.

(609) Currents 
(610) The tidal current through
Gurnet Strait is very strong at strength-estimated at 7 to 8 knots at times–and boats go through only at slack water. The ebb current runs eastward. Low-water slack occurs a little before low water at Portland.

(611) At the strength of the current, there is a difference of elevation of probably 3 feet in the level of the water on either side of the bridge. The flood currents meet in the reach between Prince Gurnet and Gurnet Strait.

 

Don't recall any convergence of ripping currents on my single trip through here. I think the only "current" mentioned here is the flow under the bridge. No mention of any whirlpool action. COULD IT BE EXPLAINED BY THE POWERFUL SIPHONING ACTION OF THE WATER FLOWING UNDER THE BRIDGE??? Looking for input from geologists/physicists in the viewing audience please.

Edited by gyork
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<I have always wanted to paddle through this when the current in running>

Paul, didn't we paddle through there, once upon a time, with Jed et al, after launching at Thomas Point?  We must have gone through there at slack, then...

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10 hours ago, Pintail said:

<I have always wanted to paddle through this when the current in running>

Paul, didn't we paddle through there, once upon a time, with Jed et al, after launching at Thomas Point?  We must have gone through there at slack, then...

I am sure I was not there and would have remembered given the significance of the spot. Jed probably heard of the spot from Tom B. and then had to go. 

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Any pics of said spot you passed almost 8 years ago on your way around, Gary? Your pic-url from that trip has expired. Rob, you can obviously also chime in.

I love and miss current play and would be game for this circumnav or just park-and-play if latter is an option.

 

P.S.: Hope I didn’t give as strong a hint at location as Pintail ?

 

Edited by Inverseyourself
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6 hours ago, Inverseyourself said:

image.jpeg.232546e950d7e8efe03e58ef97700ee3.jpeg

That's the spot, exactly, where your lead-line ought to sound to 15 fathoms. The water looks pretty slacky. The pic. is an E'ly direction, the same course I followed years ago, ~ 2h before slack at Cundy's. I remember a ~1-foot drop passing under the bridge, like paddling through a chute. No pix of the mystery hole area, because nothing was happening at the time. If you study the chart of this area, you see from the westerly side of the bridge 1 meandering "feeder" shallow passage (Long Reach) and 2 long, shallow inlets. I think it would be a stretch to think there is a convergence of 2 or more separate, fast-moving currents that would form a whirlpool (think "Old Sow", for example). Could this area have been dredged for some region? Doubtful. I still can't wrap my head around this peculiar feature, but I'll still work on it.  

hole.png.b9d19a0eb51e481184424dbaf82e80dd.png

 

Edited by gyork
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Thanks Gary! Yeah, quite the remarkable little white spot that makes locating it on a chart easy once you know the general area. Would love to see a photo of this spot when it’s ripping. 3 foot gradient from W to E side of bridge is impressive.

The N and S ends of the bridge probably make for nice eddies for current play. Unloading the boats from the roadside and finding parking close by should be possible.

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