Labor Day is traditionally a busy boating weekend, and this year is no exception. The inside of F dock is reserved for a yacht club and the outside was filling up by mid-afternoon Friday. G dock is almost entirely reserved, both inside and out. This is probably the busiest weekend of the year.

One of the reasons G dock is so heavily reserved is the presence of the largest vessel of the year calling on La Conner. The Sea Jewel has 114 feet reserved for a single night, taking up over 20% of the dock. This is the largest vessel to dock at the marina this summer by about 20 feet. We have had a few other large vessels, two that come to mind are regular visitors at 96 and 88 feet, and their sheer size makes me think about the channel and the waters our visitors operate in.

The Corps of Engineers works hard to keep the channel clear of obstructions and dredged to 12 feet below Mean Lower Low Water. Mean Lower Low Water is where a tide level of “0” is set, so a minus tide is anything below our average lower low tide. This of course only makes sense if you consider we have two low tides per day, and one is lower than the other – hence the “Lower Low.” The Corps of Engineers surveys the area regularly and plans dredging when they see sediment start to accumulate in the channel. They are currently working to set up dredging for November 2023, if all the permitting goes well and the funding is in place.

If you want to see for yourself what the Corps is looking at as they plan you are more than welcome to see their bathymetric data. They post it at: https://navigation.usace.army.mil/Survey/Hydro. This links to a database organized by “USACE District” and “USACE Channel.” We are the Seattle District, and the Swinomish Channel. The latest data is from the survey they did in June of this year, so it is very current. It shows a few areas of concern, especially for deep draft vessels like the larger yachts that got me thinking about this in the first place. This is a very good resource for anyone with a draft over five feet or so to review before going through the channel.

– Chris Omdal, harbormaster