Sailing in the Puget Sound is not great

[FremontSailor]

I am somewhat new to sailing and have spent a year sailing in the central(seattle, bainbridge, whidbey island) Puget Sound(washington state) and I have found that the sailing is way too variable and light to be considered good. Specifically during the summer months. Fall and winter are a different story, as we do get good days with cold sun and strong winds in these seasons.

I have not made it yet up to the San Juans, so up there in the summer it might be different. Probably is as it will get winds from the Straight of Juan de Fuca.

I am curious what you all think? Am I wrong in my opinion that its just not great sailing?

[Cheechako]

Sailing in Puget Sound can often be motoring in the summer! I've had great sails in the summer in the afternoon IF the wind builds. But with tidal currents etc, if you want to get anywhere, you are probably motoring a lot because there's a 50/50 chance you are going against the tide. But beam reaching across from Seattle to Bainbridge etc has been some wonderful sails. It's N and S that's the issue!

In the San Juan's the summer afternoon wind coming in the Straight can be stronger than you wish. But inside the islands it varies.

[Panope]

FreemontSailor, you are correct.

San Juans also light, variable.

Admiralty inlet/Port Townsend bay has decent wind for day sailing.

Steve

[Sand crab]

The Narrows gets good wind as does Case and Carr inlet. Henderson Bay is known as one of the best windsurfing/kite boarding locations in the sound. The wind funnels up from the southwest. I drive by HB just about every day and it seems like it's whitecapping more often than not.

[Adelie]

I lived and sailed in Seattle for decades. I’ve been in San Diego for 13-1/2yr.

I’d rather sail up there.

There is wind more consistently in San Diego and LA but there aren’t a lot of places to go.

From Seattle there are a plethora of interesting anchorages and even little towns to visit at several hour intervals.

From Mission Bay I can sail around to San Diego Bay in about 4hr. If I go the opposite direction I can go to Oceanside in 6-8hr, Dana Pt in 8-10 or the nearest part of Catalina Island in 12-14hr which you can’t get mooring at from Thurs evening to Sun evening. 3-4hr further north mooring is easier to get.

[wingssail]

I spent 20 years sailing in Puget Sound before we left to go cruising, and many trips to and through the San Juans, out the Straits, and up the inside passage.

Elliot Bay or other places in central Puget Sound are often light in the summer, but can be very nice in the afternoon, until 6-7PM. As mentioned, some spots in South Sound are predictably windy (from the SW) and in Admiralty Inlet very predictably windy (from the NW) most afternoons. More so the first day of a hot spell. I can't tell you how many times we have returned to Seattle from up north, catching a great building breeze from Pt Wilson to Seattle, on a day with a big flood tide, spinnaker all the way, (three jibes) arriving at Shilshole flushed, windblown, and happy, with empty bottles rattling around in the cockpit only to find the marina full of people sitting in their cockpits scared to go out because it was too windy.

The San Juans in the summer is patchy but if you learn the area I am sure you can count on winds in the right places.

Straits Of Juan de Juca and Straits of Georgia, often very windy in the summer.

Fall Winter, and Spring you can get anything, watch the forecasts.

Here is a log book page from July 1989, Victoria BC to Shilshole, three persons on board. Typical of our sailing trips down the sound.

[Captain Puget]

As a 3rd generation local, you are correct. Winds are variable and challenging, often light in the summer and exciting in the spring and fall. Couple this with the complex tides and currents and it takes some skill and planning. The experience you get here make you well versed and ready to handle much as a sailor.

However, with a decent heater is is a year round environment and it’s gorgeous with thousands of nice Anchorages and good fishing

I was raised that we go boating - which includes sailing, lots of motor sailing, and motoring.... often in the same day😉

[Volkeno]

The islands can block or funnel wind, so going around a point can take you from calm to strong winds in the blink of an eye.
I think I was in dead calm in Active Pass, while few miles north a boat was dismasted. Another time I was getting 40 knot gusts off Saturna island, but a few miles further in Georgia strait I was motoring from lack of wind.
So I bought a trawler and everything seems closer together because I am not trying to sail all the time.
I’ll buy a sailboat for the Caribbean and keep my trawler for the PNW

[toddster8]

There are a couple of books that purport to decode the secrets of sailing the Salish Sea. I don't recall that they speak much about the southern end except in general principles though.

Owen S. Lange, "The Wind Came All Ways." Environment Canada, 1999.
Marilyn Johnson, "Taken By the Wind: The Northwest Coast." CreateSpace Independent, 2016.

[jim King]

I sail on the Columbia where the winds are consistent all year from the NW. I've heard that in the Puget Sound it is better to have a motor boat in the summer rather than sail as you may sit in the heat and no where waiting for wind. The tidal range can be up to 20' in some areas so if you don't sail with the tide you may go no where even with wind. In the winter when the Sound has wind it's too cold for my bones. So i keep another boat in the BVI where winter weather and sailing is perfect.

[sepharad]

I grew up in Portland. The sound and inland passage always was the promised land to me. Retiring and cost of living make that impossible, sadly, or I would be back in the PNW in a heartbeat. I now live in Europe at a fraction of the cost...but it will never be home.

[redhead]

We often motor out an hour or so just to turn around and sail home. Last Sunday was sweet. And this is with our spinnaker from the last boat which is way too small but we still did 4.5 kts.

[Stu Jackson]

We bought our first boat in San Francisco in 1983, and this boat in 1998. I sailed it up to B.C. in 2016 when we moved to Vancouver Island.

The utter predictability of wind in SF Bay was a luxury I didn't really fully appreciate, although I certainly fully appreciated the ability to sail regularly, as in always. Even in winter, there were known regular weather patterns. Kimball Livingston's excellent book Sailing The Bay is superb in explaining things.

Now that we're entering our fourth sailing season, I have learned a few things that I didn't "need" to know back down in Northern California with its predictable daily wind cycles. There are definitely local areas here of consistent winds. Ganges Harbor all the way past the Pender Islands, Satellite Channel northwest of Cape Keppel at the southwestern end of Saltspring Island (called the Cowichan Doctor), and my home port of Maple Bay, all can be as regular as SF Bay. A mere mile away it can be dead calm.

I've learned that if you want to sail, you have to be ready to do so, quickly and pleasantly. On Monday last, we had a really nice wind all the way from Maple Bay north through Stuart Channel to Thetis Island, almost unheard of without a major weather front moving through. We took advantage of it and had a memorable sail.

Otherwise, we have the proverbial "trawler with a stick."

But it sure is gorgeous. I don't miss the city lights at all, the stars at night are big and bright and it ain't even Texas.

A friend had a sistership that he bought new for as long as I've had my older model. Last year he sold it for a trawler,, a Ranger 29. He recently wrote:

After an abortive effort to embrace power boating, Kate and I are looking forward to returning to the sailing world. The power boat, a Ranger Tug, works beautifully and is a delight to be on in anchorages and at the dock. But after one summer of cruising we found that we really missed sailing and the simple pleasure of working with the wind to get from one place to another.

So, it seems that it all depends on your perspective.

My first couple of seasons here were spent mostly motoring from place to place, with the deliberate intent to see as much as possible to learn what we liked and didn't, so as to be able to choose where we'd like to go back to. We found some "favorites" as well as some "never goin' back agains."

Now that we have a firmer grasp on distances, times and tides and currents, and local weather patterns, we can better plan our cruises to attempt, I say attempt, to maximize the time under sail.

But all in all, it's most important to me to simply be able to be on the boat.

Your boat, your choice.

Good luck, stay safe, be well, and enjoy being on the water.

[rbk]

what everyone else has said but I will add that you have to learn to motor sail. Like many said it can go form calm to 40knts (outflow) back to calm in under 30 minutes. If you furl out the headsail and skip across the outflow then simply furl back in on the other side you wont miss a beat, make better time and at least get some sailing in without the frustration of setting your main only to have to take it down again. That's just the way it is and continues all the way up the inside passage. If you want consistent winds you'll need to get to the outside.

[Dooglas]

Are you correct about lighter winds in the summer and stronger winds in the Fall and Winter? Certainly. Does that mean that sailing in Puget Sound is "not so great"? No, it means that wind patterns change with the seasons.

And yes, winds in the Strait of Juan de Fuca can be a handful for any sailor - especially when the strong Northwesterlies set up on the Coast.