Sport Today

by **Kevin Shores, UO Law Schoo** » Thu, 18 Mar 1993 01:26:00

I am moving from Oregon to Alaska this summer. Does anyone out there
sail Turnigan Arm near Anchorage? What are the conditions like? Will
a gorge quiver, 4.2-6.0 cut it up there? I've heard rumours that it
is dangerous for some reason. Got an 8.0 jump board and a 9.0 slalom
board, hows this gonna work up north? Please reply if any AK sailors
are logged on, liked to hook up with you.

Kevin

by **Kirk Lindstr** » Mon, 22 Mar 1993 15:54:58

I've met some sailors from Alaska and it seems they usually sailed
the Tournaquet Arm with 1.9s to 3.9s. It is VERY dangerous and you
should sail with an experienced sailor for that place as the rescue
craft can't help you.

Kirk out

by **Chad Pri** » Tue, 23 Mar 1993 23:05:45

Quote:

>I've met some sailors from Alaska and it seems they usually sailed
>the Tournaquet Arm with 1.9s to 3.9s. It is VERY dangerous and you
>should sail with an experienced sailor for that place as the rescue
>craft can't help you.

The place is the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet. The reason for the danger is the
bore tide. The whole thing is very shallow - it mostly "dry" at low tide, and
the tidal currents are very strong at both incoming and ougoing tide. I've
watched the bore tide, and its very impressive to see a small wall of water
moving up the inlet with mud-flats in front and open water behind!

The high winds are generated by thermal differences: the head of Turnagain Arm
has glaciers in all canyons. The mouth of Turnagain Arm is Cook Inlet, which
gets ice floes during the winter, but remains mostly ice-free. The walls of the
canyon in which Turnagain Arm exists are 1,000 meters high. Its a real
wind-tunnel!

--
chad

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