Up at 4 am to listen to weather report and we both agree that today is the day to transit Juan de Fuca. We wait for first light and have the anchor up and are underway a few minutes before 5.
Our objective is Port Angeles which is 92 miles away. When your boat speed is 7 knots, 92 miles is a long way to go. We will start out pushing against an ebb tide until 1:30 this afternoon, so for the first 8 hours we hope to average at least 6 knots covering 42 nautical miles. The last 50 miles will be with a significant flood current so our speed should increase substantially and with luck we might average 8 knots.
We leave Bamfield in calm winds and calm seas. There is an ocean swell from the west but it is well spaced and inside of an hour we have made a turn to the south that puts the swells on our stern. As we enter the Strait, the water is like glass and we make better time than we had hoped. In the late afternoon as we are approaching Port Angeles, we start to see whales! These are humpbacks and we see 7 or 8 close by the boat. By 5 pm, the wind has started to kick up and we are grateful to have had such a good run.
Port Angeles is a major shipping port and there are no good places to anchor. We call the harbor master and are told that the guest dock is full but he has a space for us on another dock. We work our way into the back of the marina past many old boat houses and old boats that seem a bit forlorn. We have been assigned a space where we will be the only boat. Given the strong winds, we are glad to have the extra room to get into the dock. We are quickly tied up for the night.
We will listen to weather again in the morning and with luck will make it to Whidbey tomorrow.
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