Strait of Juan de Fuca

Strait of Juan de Fuca and Olympic Peninsula

Port Angeles

One of many Cargo Ships on Juan de Fuca Strait

We departed Friday Harbor on San Juan Island May 1^st at 12:45 and crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  We had 2-4 foot seas and 7-8 knot winds, a little lumpy but nothing out of the ordinary.  We arrived at 17:30 in Port Angeles, Washington and spent the night at the Boat Haven Marina.  We departed for Neah Bay the next morning at 10:45 and encountered gentle ocean swells almost the entire way.  The only ships in the Strait besides us that day were cargo ships, tugs, the Coast Guard, and a military ship on maneuvers.  After seven hours of motoring, we finally arrived at Neah Bay located on the Olympic Peninsula near the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca – our exit to the Pacific Ocean.    The Strait is approximately 12 miles wide and 90 miles long, named in honor of a Greek sailor, who reputedly explored it for Spain in 1592 in search of the fabled Strait of Anian believed to be the "Northwest Passage" linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The English Captain Charles Barkley discovered the Strait in 1787 and named it Juan de Fuca (the Spanish rendering of Loannis Fokas), which today serves as the western boundary between Canada and the United States.  Fuca described the Strait's location at 47 degrees N, which is close to the more accurate 48 degrees North.  Fuca's discovery of the Strait was controversial in its time and continues to be so today.

Coast Guard Station - Port Angeles

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