Cruise to WBF--Gig Harbor to Kingston

The trip north from Gig Harbor to Kingston is usually pretty relaxed, with boats and ships over 65’ moving in Coast Guard monitored VTS shipping lanes that we can see on our GPS chartplotter, our radar and AIS, which puts an icon of a larger vessel with an AIS transmitter on our chartplotter and reveals its name, speed and heading .  Smaller vessels are not allowed in the shipping lanes except when crossing to the other side of the lanes.   But the biggest problem in cruising from the Tacoma area north to Port Townsend is meeting large Washington State Ferries that operate seven east-west routes on Puget Sound that cross our north-south route.  Sometimes we’re lucky and they cross in front or behind us but they always have the right of way, and from time to time we have to slow or even stop to allow them to cross ahead.   

 

The Washington State Ferry system is the largest ferry system in the United States with 10 ferry routes including one international route than runs from the northern port of Anacortes, WA to Sidney, British Columbia, Canada.  Currently there are 22 ferry terminals and 23 vessels.  These ferries carry 10 million vehicles and 22+ million passengers per year!  And these are major vessels with the largest being 460’ in length with a 90’ beam transporting up to 2500 passengers and over 200 vehicles!  And as you’ll recall from an earlier blog, our boat, M/V WANDRIAN, is a 7 knot boat while the typical ferry runs between 16 and 18 knots!  It’s not smart to race a ferry!

WSF Tillikum

It’s usually about a 4 hour trip from Gig Harbor to Kingston, unless we have the tide against us, which takes a little longer.  Here’s the route.  We leave Gig Harbor and turn left facing Point Defiance, a prominent point on the westernmost part of the City of Tacoma.  Then we move north into Colvos Passage, a wide inside passage away from the big ship traffic lanes.  But we’ve often met tugs with large tows moving through this passage also, so we pay attention. Colvos Passage is about 15 miles long and ends at a line between Pt. Vashon and Pt. Southworth, both of which have ferry terminals.

Next landmark is Blake Island, which has a marina at its NE end for pleasure boats plus the dock where tour boats bring passengers from downtown Seattle to a recreated Indian village for dances and salmon barbeques.  There is an iconic Northwest longhouse at this site which is very visible from the water. 

Continuing north about 2.5 miles, we pass Restoration Point, which is the closest point to the VTS traffic lanes—about ¼ mile away.  Heading north, there are several shoal or shallow areas and a large rock close to shore, so you must stay off in deeper water.  While moving north, it’s interesting to observe all the different types of vessels transiting Puget Sound.   Soon the Seattle skyline is visible.

The Space Needle rising up behind tugboat

On this trip, our photographs tell the story—lots of tugboats with tows of various types, tankers & towed fuel barges, automobile carriers bringing new cars from Japan & South Korea to the Northwest, container ships from all over the world, cargo ships and log ships,  the Victoria Clipper, a high speed tour vessel from Seattle to Victoria, B.C., large Navy vessels from guided missile destroyers to the biggest nuclear aircraft carriers, many pleasure vessels both power and sail and of course, lots of ferries!

WSF Puyallup

Next is Eagle Harbor, which is a ferry terminal for Bainbridge Island plus the ferry system’s shipyard and several pleasure boat marinas.  About 9 miles further north, we pass President Point, and start heading NW towards Kingston, watching for the frequent ferries on the Edmonds/Kingston route.  On most of these routes, there are 2 ferries and they meet somewhere in the middle, well apart, then head into their terminals on either side. 

The Kingston ferry terminal is tricky though, because the Kingston Marina is just a couple hundred yards beyond the ferry terminal and coming in or departing you have to watch a ferry at the dock constantly to see if he’s reversing his engines to depart!  It’s not that scary as you may only have to slow down a bit! 

Ferry at the Kingston terminal

Kingston Marina is nice for boats like ours that belong to a major yacht club as the marina has 2 long slips controlled by Kingston Cove Yacht Club and available for “reciprocal” moorage, so if either slip is available, we only have to pay $3 for electricity with no moorage fee which is about $35 a night normally.  Sometimes we’re lucky and sometimes we pay!  On Saturdays, there is a nice farmer’s market here and there are several good restaurants, including an excellent pizza place a few blocks walking distance.   The marina also has an electric vehicle about the size of a Smart Car that they lend to go to the grocery store or other distant errands.   Another very nice feature is free showers as some marinas have coin-operated showers.  During the daytime, being at the dock in Kingston feels like being in a major port with the sounds and vibrations of the ferries coming and going and sounding 3 short blasts on their air horns to signal their departure from the terminal.  In our next blog post, we’ll transit from Kingston to Port Townsend and discuss some of the excitement to be had on that route!

Wandrian at the dock in Kingston