Gary wrote:

Not many good windows for this sort of thing. Just beware of the
winter storms and be prepared to pull into a spot if things look like
there going to get bad.

The problem is they close the bar crossings in any kind of sea. You
have to be committed.

Gary

Amen to all that. I wouldn't take any small boat in that direction in
November unless it had a powerful motor and I had a few months to spare.

We set sail from the Strait of Juan de Fuca Sept 22nd, heading south.
That was too late. Got smacked around for 3 days and headed for
Gray's Harbour which has a nasty bar crossing.

I called the CG for a bar report. They said "skipper, the bar is
closed to vessels under 36'". I replied, "oh, that's o.k., we're 30'"
(groggy from lack of sleep I think)

"Uh skipper would you like an escort coming in?"

Me: "Sure, that would be real nice." They sent out 2 self righting
surf lifeboats, one ahead, one astern.

The seas were 15' and breaking on either side of us. The channel
depth on the depthsounder ranged from 15' to 30'. Very high pucker
factor.

CG escorted in 5 other vessels that day. We were all there for a
week, waiting for a window to continue heading south (around Oct 1st
by now).

This can be a rough coast when the weather kicks up, and weather
predictions are actually pretty bad - very sparse data net in the N.
Pacific.

Evan Gatehouse