Fraser River Outflow November 29th 2014

The experiment for this trip was to become more familiar with the Fraser River Outflow. I’d only encountered it briefly or by accident in the past but never really put together and carried out a plan specifically designed around this local wind. The idea was to feel out some boundaries of the event, test out some hypotheses, and hopefully get a ride in gale force winds without having to become too committed or get exposed to any serious risk.

If you watch the Wundermap on Weather Underground during these events you can get a feel for how they behave and it’s usually the case that the Fraser River Outflow has its maximum velocity NE of the San Juan Islands in the area where the Fraser River meets the Straits of Georgia. This wind can blow hard through the San Juans accelerated by local terrain and down the shore of Whidbey Island into Admiralty Inlet. But it seems to weaken as you go towards the Olympic mountains as you might expect with the flow splitting around the mountains, some heading west into the Straits of Juan De Fuca and some heading south down Puget Sound.

So the plan was to overnight in Blind Bay the day before the event and then go out through Cattle Pass into the Straits of Juan De Fuca and cross over to Sequim Bay where I was expecting we’d be out of the wind. Blind Bay didn’t look as sheltered as I remembered when we arrived and it wasn’t a relaxing night with the violent gusts and the small chop coming through. But I didn’t have a better plan for a place sheltered from the NE that would provide a state park buoy to tie to. Buoy’s are key for this kind of sailing because when the wind is howling you just have to slip the lines to get out not struggle bringing up an anchor or risk collisions getting out of a marina.

In the morning the wind was blowing a full gale. The previous nights freezing rain had set everything solid and it was a chore just working the lines. We got ourselves out in the channel and were getting ready to sail when we were met by a small pod of Orcas heading the other way. It’s rare you’ll see Orcas in such close proximity and it’s yet another of the many reasons to sail in the off season. We struggled getting the sail unfurled with everything frozen in place. Even the gusting wind wouldn’t open it. You know you’re having a good trip when the sail and lines are frozen so stiff that you need to use the winch handle to get the sail unfurled.

You could see the Islands were filled with the expected strong wind and random furious gusts. We’ve seen this before from other directions and because of the terrain the wind is fiercely chaotic. The way I look at it is: sure it’s blowing 30 – 35 knots, zero in one place and 70 in another. It’s nerve wracking enough to make you cuss out loud some times. I briefly toyed with the idea of trying to go out Thatcher Pass and get into where I figured the real business was happening out in Rosario Strait, but quickly dismissed that as likely leading to unwarranted suffering and possible failure. So we stuck with the plan, Upright Channel to Cattle Pass. As we began to sail down the channel a 50 knot blast came across with a blanket of spray and foam, this subsided and we sailed out past Flat Point and through Cattle Pass in 25 – 35 knots of wind.

As we got into the Strait the wind began to ease and we tried to stay in it by heading east. But with the boundary of the gale trending east and our destination west we eventually slipped out of the wind until it was so light we ended up motoring the remaining distance. The wind came back weakly from the West inside of Dungeness Spit which makes sense when you think that whatever NE flow remained had to choose a route when it met the Olympic Mountains. Some headed west into the Straits and some East to join its brethren raging down through Admiralty Inlet.

As we got closer to Sequim Bay the waves got progressively larger until they were quite remarkable in size for an inland sea. I wasn’t aware the North wind could create such waves and was intimidated by but secretly longing to see whatever was occurring back towards Rosario Strait to cause such large seas. But for us it was 5 – 10 knots of wind and rolling hard motoring with the steep seas on the quarter.

There was some concern that the seas might become an issue heading into Sequim Bay close along the sand spit but, rather than cross ways to the entrance as I’d expected, the waves were quartering and in addition to that of such size that they were breaking in the shallow water seaward. As a result the channel was relatively calm compared to the waters just beyond.

Inside Sequim Bay back where the state park buoys are it was, as predicted, blowing about one knot from the North. This supports the prediction that Sequim Bay represents shelter from the NE wind. It’s a great destination in most cases anyway and we always have the buoys to ourselves.

Sequim Bay is always beautiful but today even more so with the surrounding trees covered in snow and a faint sea smoke rising from the relatively warm water. There is no flatter surface than a windless sheltered bay and it was certainly noticeable after the previous 24 hours.

With a night of gentle offshore breeze blowing the sea smoke over us we woke to a half inch of ice formed on the deck and running rigging, and with the bright sun typical of the Fraser River Outflow the scene was spectacular and unique. What a great way to wrap up the trip and another successful experiment dabbling with the gales of the Pacific North West.