Washington Park to Friday Harbor

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Conditions: bright sunny day, winds SW 5-10




 The group of 7 NSSKA paddlers met at 7:30 am at Washington Park, unloaded boats then moved a couple of our vehicles over to the Washington State Ferries (WSF) Anacortes parking lot. We took WSF free ride on our return.
 Once back at Washington Park we reviewed the trip plan for our journey to Friday Harbor. We got on the water at 8:30 am, called Seattle Vessel Traffic to get a status of shipping traffic and to let them know we were crossing Rosario Strait. We took advantage of a 3-knot ebb at times our speed hit 7 knots.
 Once safely across the shipping channel we again called Seattle Vessel Traffic as they requested to let them we had crossed over to Lopez Island. Stopped at Pt Colville on Lopez for a quick 5-minute bio, stretch and electrolyte break. Next stop was at Iceberg Point for lunch. This is the jump off point for our journey thru the challenging waters of Cattle Pass.
 Cattle Pass at a max flood current of 4.7 knots was jump’n, with big standing waves, huge back eddies, whirlpools and general chaotic conditions. Soon the 15 minutes of challenge was behind us and we made it to a very busy Friday Harbor with the help of a strong flood current which propelled us along at one point hitting 11.9 mph!




Thanks Sam, Beth, Rob, George, Andy and Jim for a great day on the water!


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