There are fabled patches of troubled and dangerous water, such as the Bermuda Triangle and the entrance to Willapa Bay in Washington State.
We have our own patch of scary water in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.
Ours is called the Potato Patch — a gnarly, surging, troubled patch of big-wave water at the west end of Santa Cruz Island, where Ma Nature is known to practice deviant behavior.
Boaters should be very wary of the Potato Patch. Powerful northward-flowing currents constantly expand/contract in scope and velocity, just west of Fraser Point, where they oppose sets of jumbo swells coming from the northwest, forcing those open-ocean waves up and up and up.
The currents are inconsistent, creating sudden towering surprises whenever the velocity suddenly ratchets up and forces swells upwards.
I’ve seen faces of waves that seem to miniaturize my boat, which is better than 30 feet in length. They rise up as the wave comes over a reef, so it is sudden and scary.
How big do they get? I can recall one day on a charter, while rounding Fraser Point a good quarter mile off the island in relatively flat seas, when a monstrous swell rose up under my vessel.
I slammed the throttles of my big twin outboards forward to warp speed in order to overcome the raging current and the lift of the wave.
I was just able to stay ahead of that watery mountain and I’ll never forget the looks of awe on my passengers’ faces while they watched a thirty foot wave threatening to break on us from behind. With motors, as with politics, power has its advantages.
Weird things happen at the Potato Patch. For example, roiling underwater eddies occasionally collide to produce amazing aberrations of nature.
On another charter fishing trip, we were traversing the area on a calm sunny day with no apparent cause for wariness, when Ma Nature struck a surprise blow from below.
Fortunately, this salty ol’ skipper never lets my guard down, and I was ready to react. Multiple swirling eddies slammed together to force an 18-foot wave to rise up right in front of us. There was no time to alter course and run from it.
I bellowed “All hands hang on tight. Now!” I spun the wheel just enough to keep the bow climbing up the wave and gunned the engines just enough to hold our position.
The wave passed under us, and conditions remained calm and comfortable the remainder of the morning.
So why on earth would anyone want to take a boat into the Potato Patch? Good question.
Answers include:
1) The area is absolutely gorgeous.
2) The most natural course around the island lies right through the Potato Patch.
3) There are more fish there than you can shake a fishing rod at.
4) There is something in our human nature that makes us want to tempt the dickens out of Ma Nature.
Which answer works for you?
