AMB: Midship! Midship. Steer course 285.

Captain Larry Walter guides the Matanuska on a calm winter night. He's taking the Alaska state ferry into a two-mile stretch of the nastiest water on the Inside Passage.

Seymour Narrows has some of the world's fastest ocean currents. Like a thumb on the end of a garden hose, it squeezes the tides streaming between Vancouver Island and the North American mainland.

WALTER: Currents are tremendous in there, they can be up as much as 14 knots.

That's about fast enough to stop a huge car ferry dead in its tracks. But if the current reaches just 8 knots, the captain will wait for the tide to change, rather than fight it.

As water speeds up, it starts to act crazy. Long chains of standing waves form. Water boils up like mushrooms. And whirlpools can appear without warning.

WALTER: I've seen nights with the ship, where we've gotten...
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April 5th marks the 50th anniversary of one of the world?s largest non-nuclear explosions. The blast removed the greatest hazard to navigation on Canada?s West Coast. CBC Television broadcast it nationwide -- Canada?s first live national broadcast.

The site of the explosion is still one of the most treacherous parts of the Inside Passage from Washington state to Alaska.

John Ryan of station K-T-O-O in Juneau, Alaska, joined the crew of the Alaska state ferry, the Matanuska, [MAT-a-NOOSE-kah], as they navigated British Columbia's Seymour Narrows.