My father and I visited Princess Louisa Inlet for the first time last week. Our transit through Malibu Rapids went extremely well and was stress-free, thanks to some planning.

Since it was our first time there we approached it with an abundance of caution. Slack time, for the day we planned to enter the Inlet, was going to be at 16:30, based upon tide readings from Point Atkinson.

We arrived early and was waiting when some other boats that we had passed earlier in the day showed up and decided to head in to the “rapids” 90 minutes before slack.

They reported calm water and mild current, so we followed them in and found the conditions similarly non-eventful.