Chapter 6—Beating the Tide: Port Townsend to Seattle
Map of the north Puget Sound--Port Townsend to Seattle The next morning I take the Avon over to Point Wilson to explore. The south side of Point Wilson has a beautiful sandy beach, which would probably make for a great picnic lunch stop with a day hook down. However, I am more interested in exploring around the end of Point Wilson where we had our near disaster rip tide experience in 1996. One of my potential strategies on that ill-fated evening was to try and catch the back-eddy on the north side of Point Wilson (inside the #6 Point Wilson Buoy) and then hug the point very closely (as you go south) to avoid the worst of the rip tides. Today, I attempt that same strategy in the Avon—only the conditions are very different (two knot ebb, dead calm). While my explorations are non-conclusive, it appears that there might be enough depth to make the strategy feasible as a last resort. Bottom line, it would take big some cahones to get that close to Point Wilson in bad conditions.
Point Wilson, Admiralty Inlet in background--Washington State. Back in Point Hudson Amy and I have a good breakfast at the nearby Otter Crossing Café. We return to the boat and prepare to get under way. Back in 1993 when I first bought the Patience, I made the mistake of trying to fight my way from Port Townsend to Seattle against an ebbing tide and a strong southerly wind. What should have been a six-hour journey took over twelve hours. Ever since that day, I have always tried to time the tides in the Puget Sound so that we leave on a favorable current. Unfortunately, today, that is just not possible—the tide is ebbing from about 6AM until 1PM. Our 10AM departure means that we will be fighting the ebb for a good three hours. I decide to try a little “ebb avoidance”. I look to try two things:
1. Stay in as close to shore as possible where the current should be weaker.
2. Look for back-eddies behind points.
Point Hudson Marina--Port Townsend, Washington State. I had always somewhat smugly considered these type of strategies really only applicable to sailboat racers—the gain is not worth the time they take to implement. Surprisingly, the strategy pays huge dividends. What would have been a very slow three-hour drag up the east side of Marrowstone Island turns into a reasonably quick journey. We leave Port Townsend and head for Marrowstone Point. Getting around Marrowstone Point is predictably difficult. After rounding Marrowstone Point, we follow a little inside the 10-fathom line the whole way up Marrowstone Island. Using this strategy we average between 4 – 7 knots the whole way up Marrowstone (Patience’s normal motoring speed over ground is 5.5 knows). We seem to be getting caught in back eddies behind the small-unnamed points that are on the east side of Marrowstone. Sometimes we get going as fast as 8 – 9 knots over the bottom.
Looking west at Foul Weather Bluff. Entrance to Port Ludlow in background--Washington State. Finally we make enough southward progress so that we have to cross from the Marrowstone shoreline over to Foul Weather Bluff. This requires crossing the ebb that is flowing out of Hood Canal. This slows our speed to about 3.5 knots for a couple of hours, however, once we get to Foul Weather Bluff and Skunk Bay, we start seeing 6 – 7 knots over the bottom again. By the time we get to Point No Point the ebb has pretty much died and we round the point in good time.
Contrast this experience with what was probably going-on in the middle of the Puget Sound at the same time. Our tide program indicated that the ebb was running between 3 and 5 knots in the middle of Puget Sound east of Marrowstone. This means that our speed over ground probably would have averaged 1 – 3 knots outside of Marrowstone had we gone straight up the middle of the Puget Sound. Using the “ebb avoidance” strategy we traveled 35.4 nautical miles from Port Townsend to Elliot Bay Marina and made the trip in 6 hours 45 minutes (average speed over ground was 5.25 knots). Had we taken my usual more direct route (center of the Puget Sound), we would have traveled a shorter 34.2 nautical miles, but I believe the trip would have taken us 8+ hours. In addition, this strategy has two other benefits.
Looking west at Point No Point. People fishing and playing on the beach--Washington State. First, you don’t need to cross the shipping lanes as many times as the (probably ill-advised) center channel route. Second, you get to check out the nice homes on the east side of Marrowstone Island. The only downside to this strategy is you have to be reasonably diligent in your navigation so that you don’t end up aground on the eastern shoreline of Marrowstone Island.
As we round Point No Point, the familiar site of Seattle’s skyline is visible in the distance. We spend the time from Point No Point to Elliott Bay Marina cleaning up and getting the boat out of vacation mode. The Sound is choked up with scores of powerboats roaring northwards. It is a Friday afternoon in the middle of summer, and everyone is in a hurry to secure their moorages and anchorages in the San Juans. We are practically the only boat headed south; which is a little depressing. Rounding West Point, we see the Seattle skyline in its full glory. Home sweet home. My mind is already wandering and starting to plan the next trip.











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