Winter cruising from Seattle to Vancouver

We're planning on leaving Vancouver for Seattle on the 29th (or later if required).
 
Looks like you have all the bases covered.
The forecasted heavy rain for Sunday has eased up too...:)
Christmas in Whistler is always fun.
 
Same three words I used before; “at this time”…

Looks like Sunday just might be a decent day for a cruise and you could have some route options.

For the next 24 hours we have a gale warning with 1 mile visibility in the rain but it starts to settle down Saturday afternoon.

You can expect it to be lumpy and stacked up off the Sand Heads mid afternoon.
I’ll be surprised if you make your 25 knots so, factoring in locks, Swinomish (if you choose it) and weather, I think 2:00 might be a bit optimistic.

I have a place half a block from Quayside and am minutes from the other marinas in the harbour so I just might see KAYLA if I’m in town.

Good luck, be safe and let us know how it went.
 
We made it to Vancouver without any issues whatsoever. Wind and sea conditions were absolutely fine. Leaving Lake Washington at 6:45am was great. So serene.

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After locking through (we were the only ones there) we headed North and navigated toward Deception Pass. The conditions were so calm that we didn't need to consider going through La Conner.

It started raining at Deception Pass but that soon ended.

We encountered minor chop near Lummi Island, but nothing that was uncomfortable. With my wife at the helm I took a few moments to record the wave action:

http://youtu.be/GCS5-y5q6hI

So, it turned out to be a very pleasant trip up and we were able to average about 25 knots. The only thing keeping us from going faster was the price of fuel.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 

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Awesome pictures. How was the debris in the water? We went from Lake Union to Blake Island on Christmas Day and the debris was thick. You know they are big logs when there are seagulls sitting on them!!!
 
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Great photos. I have not been to your beautiful area for many years so more photos of Vancouver would be great.

It sounds like you are one of the few recreational boaters out. Is that the case in general during the winter in the PNW?
 
Awesome pictures. How was the debris in the water? We went from Lake Union to Blake Island on Christmas Day and the debris was thick. You know they are big logs when there are seagulls sitting on them!!!

Debris in Puget Sound was severe in place - with some massive logs that we had to navigate around. In some places there were whole debris fields.
 
There were others out, just not in the numbers you'd see in warmer months. We're heading out to watch the fireworks for New Years. I anticipate there will be a few hundred boaters in Seattle's Lake Union for the event.
 

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