The International Rift

I love the Rift. You know, that narrow waterway between Wellesley and Hill Islands with the border that divides the US from Canada. With it being full of wildlife, navigating it makes you feel like you are in the Disney movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. While the narrowest part of the Rift is only 50 feet (17M), it is perfectly safe for mid-size boats, with no need to fear hitting a shoal or it being too shallow if you stay in the middle of the main channel.

Should you decide to wander off in an enticing looking back bay to explore, just know that “there be monsters out there”. There are shallow waters with many hidden rocks just below surface level. If you decide to go anyway and worse comes to worse, in most places you can easily climb out of your boat in waist deep water to free it from where you beached yourself. That “ping” you heard, was the sound of hundred-dollar bills being torn up. It is important to know what side of the shoal marker you should be on. Get it wrong and… “ping”.

We are pretty familiar with the Rift. Our Honeybee Island is the only inhabited island there, and we joke about the Rift being our private driveway. We gladly share it with a few hundred boaters each day who come within 20 feet (7 meters) of our dock. We have muscle aches from waiving at each one as they go by.

For many years, we have enjoyed anchoring the “SS Honeybee” between our Island and our dock. We took this small boat, about the size of a large bathtub, and filled it with flowers. It is kind of a waterborne garden of sorts. It has been extremely popular with endless boaters stopping to comment on it and / or taking pictures and videos.

Now we come to the point of this story. There is a posted 5 MPH speed limit through the Rift. On occasion, there is a patrol boat with a radar to enforce compliance. Most boaters and jet skiers are quite respectful and comply willingly to take the beauty of the Rift in. The real issue is not so much speed but wake. Many boaters ‘feel’ like they are going slow, unaware of the substantial wake that follows them.

They ARE going slow, but only relative to the speed they were going moments ago before on open water.

The wake they create causes our flower boat to bob like a cork. Fair enough. No harm, no foul. But it only takes one to leave a wall of water in its wake to flip our flower boat completely upside down.

It happened a week ago and all our flowers were lost in the River. We immediately went out and bought another "boatload of flowers" and put everything right. Twelve hours later, the boat was upside down again, and I was diving in the River to try to salvage what I could.

This story is simply to remind us all that speed limits on the water are not just to annoy us. Wake is destructive not only to flower boats but to docked boats, shorelines and other properties. Please, please, please be mindful out there!

By Michael Laprade

Michael LaPrade and his wife Janice are retired Californians, who spend the summer at their “Honey Bee Island” property. It is located in the International Rift, between Blacksnake Passage at the mouth of Lake of the Isles and the stone span of the US / Canadian Customs Bridge. Michael is a former prison administrator, and also is a Professional Magician. In October 2013, Michael and Janice wrote Honey Bee Island’s Little Free Library for TI Life. We are pleased to report that Michael has joined our regular team of authors. I encourage you to view his past articles here and here.