Canoe Journey Journal

Tribal Journeys canoes left Fort Worden State Park at 7 a.m. Thursday, pulling through fog and choppy water. Fifteen minutes later they were all coming back.

Shortly after rounding Point Wilson, word spread over the radio that a canoe had flipped over in high waves. The U.S. Coast Guard was on scene and ordered all Journeys canoes back to the beach.

The canoe turned out to be from Elwha. Its crew was pulled into a support boat and evaluated for hypothermia symptoms but apparently everyone was OK.

The canoes slogged back to the beach and most were loaded onto trailers to be pulled to Jamestown, the next stop on the Journey. A few canoe families opted to tow their canoes behind support boats and rounded the point again.

Among those being towed on the water was a fiberglass canoe from the Suquamish and S’Klallam Tana Stobs family. The canoe began baning against its tow boat in the rough water and was eventually cut loose for fear of damaging both vessels. The canoe was recovered in the early afternoon but it’s still unclear how much damage it sustained.

In the end, the morning was a reminder of how unpredictable the straits can be. Morning predictions had called for light to moderate wind but canoes encountered swells cresting to 10 feet.

“It was the worst I’d seen it,” Port Gamble S’Klallam skipper Dennis Jones said.

The canoe families are now camped in Jamestown and are preparing for a pull to Elwha tomorrow.