Seattle Trip Day 16

Sunday August 30 

We left Friday Harbor about 7 AM in calm conditions.

Of course the destination for today was Seattle, however there is more than one way to get there from Friday Harbor.  I had mapped out a course that took us through Deception Pass, which is one of those places where you are supposed to transit at slack tide.  My neighbor at the docks in Friday Harbor told me he had been through there perhaps 20 times and had never paid the slightest bit of attention to the tides, so I was not too worried about it.

This is the route to Deception Pass, the first leg of our run to Shilshole Bay in Seattle.  I broke the route into two parts because my navigation software shows a very accurate ETA to your destination and I wanted to get there pretty close to slack tide.

 And here's the rest of the route from Deception Pass into Seattle's Shilshole Bay.

We arrived at Deception Pass about an hour before slack tide.  I started to go through but then lost my nerve and turned around and waited a bit.

But then some other boats started to go through, so I got in line and went through a little early with them.

It was indeed challenging, especially near the end.  I could see the boat in front of us, which was roughly the same size and weight, as he was tossed around like a child’s toy.  There were large standing waves near the exit that definitely got my attention.

There had been a small sailboat, perhaps 22’, with a small outboard motor behind us.  I was curious to see how or if he made it through with so little power, but frankly I was far too busy trying to control my own boat to look back to see how he was doing.

We made it through OK, and then ground out the last many miles on the approach to Seattle’s Shilshole Bay Marina.

Here is Faraway in her slip at Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle.  Finally made it!

This is a huge marina, with more floats than even I could walk, and we stayed here 3 nights.

According to the older GPS chart plotter we covered 768 miles to get here.

The engine hour meters showed about 102 hours for the voyage, and they never missed a beat.

Seattle at last!