Where the routes go, why people go there, and the one timing question each place raises. Itineraries are assembled from passages TidePush actually plans, so the distances are the real ones.
What this is, and what it is not. These are short original notes on places the route library already goes, written to answer the question a passage planner raises and cannot itself answer: having worked out when to leave, what are you going to? They are not a cruising guide. Berths, depths, holding ground, approaches and shore facilities change season to season and need a recent visit and a surveyor's eye — carry a real guide for those, and see further reading below.
Each itinerary below is a chain of passages TidePush plans, so the mileage is the route table's own. The night counts assume at least one lay day in a week for weather, because you will need it.
The route library is hub-and-spoke rather than a mesh: it plans the long hops that need timing, and has no Friday Harbor to Deer Harbor leg. The island-hopping in the middle is left to you and the chart, which is where it belongs — nobody needs a passage plan for four miles across President Channel.
The trip most Puget Sound boats do first: up Admiralty Inlet, across to the islands, a loop of the good harbours, and home.
| Passage | nm |
|---|---|
| Shilshole Bay → Port Townsend | 41 |
| Port Townsend → Friday Harbor | 30.3 |
| Friday Harbor → Shilshole Bay | 59.4 |
Two hard bits at opposite ends. Admiralty Inlet wants the ebb under you going north and the flood coming home, and Cattle Pass wants to be met somewhere near its turn — worst against a summer southerly. The middle of the trip is easy water and can be reshuffled freely around the weather. Port Townsend is the natural first night out of Shilshole and the natural bailout when the day will not reach the islands in daylight.
Every mile of it inside Whidbey. No Admiralty Inlet, no Rosario Strait, no Deception Pass — and the same water carries on to Anacortes when you want it to.
| Passage | nm |
|---|---|
| Shilshole Bay → La Conner | 47.8 |
| La Conner → Shilshole Bay | 47.8 |
The sheltered way north, and the one to take when the Strait is up. The trade is not distance but a different constraint: the Swinomish Channel is a hundred feet wide, dredged to twelve feet at MLLW, and depth binds before current does. Give TidePush your draft. La Conner is worth a night in its own right, and Everett or Langley breaks the run for a slower boat.
Cross the border at Roche or Friday Harbor and work north through Trincomali to Nanaimo.
| Passage | nm |
|---|---|
| Shilshole Bay → Friday Harbor | 59.4 |
| Friday Harbor → Nanaimo, British Columbia | 56.4 |
| Nanaimo, British Columbia → Reid Harbor, Stuart Island | 44.7 |
| Reid Harbor, Stuart Island → Shilshole Bay | 68.9 |
Dodd Narrows is the gate that shapes this trip, and it is not a place to arrive early: enter on or just after the turn in your favour and let the stream carry you out. Pirates Cove is the classic place to lie and wait for it. Clear customs before anything else — Bedwell Harbour on the way NORTH into Canada, and US customs at Roche or Friday Harbor on the way home.
North up the Strait of Georgia to the warm water: the long trip, and the one most worth doing.
| Passage | nm |
|---|---|
| Nanaimo, British Columbia → Hornby Island | 35.1 |
| Hornby Island → Nanaimo, British Columbia | 35.1 |
| Nanaimo, British Columbia → Lund | 62 |
| Lund → Nanaimo, British Columbia | 62 |
The Strait of Georgia is the whole problem. It is 24 to 40+ nm of exposed water with no shelter in the middle, so this is a sea-state decision rather than a current one — and TidePush gates it on wave height, period and the angle the sea meets your course. Cross early, cross on a forecast you have watched for two days, and be willing to sit. Whiskey Golf can close the direct line; check its status yourself, because the app does not yet route around it.
Under the Narrows and round the bottom of Puget Sound — quiet water, short hops, and almost no crowds.
| Passage | nm |
|---|---|
| Shilshole Bay → Gig Harbor | 26.4 |
| Gig Harbor → Olympia | 28.1 |
| Olympia → Tacoma | 31.6 |
| Tacoma → Blake Island | 17.7 |
| Blake Island → Shilshole Bay | 10.1 |
Two gates on one trip, and they do not line up: the Tacoma Narrows and then Dana Passage further south. That is the interesting planning problem here, and it is why the recommended cast-off for the Olympia leg is often earlier than it looks like it should be. Everything else is short and forgiving.
The north-end alternative to leaving from Seattle, with a choice of two ways through.
| Passage | nm |
|---|---|
| Everett → Anacortes | 43.5 |
| Anacortes → Everett | 43.5 |
| Everett → Friday Harbor | 52.9 |
| Friday Harbor → Everett | 52.9 |
Everett gives you a choice Shilshole does not: Deception Pass or the Swinomish Channel, both inside Whidbey, and within a mile of each other in distance. What separates them is the CONSTRAINT: Deception carries the strictest current gate in the library, the Swinomish no tide gate at all but a depth limit instead. On a big tide, one of them will be shut and the other open — which is precisely why both are in the app.
Across the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca to a genuinely foreign harbour.
| Passage | nm |
|---|---|
| Port Townsend → Victoria Inner Harbour | 36.8 |
| Victoria Inner Harbour → Port Townsend | 36.8 |
A short passage in exposed water, which is a different thing from a short passage. The eastern Strait is open to the Pacific, so swell reaches in whether or not there is local wind to explain it, and a westerly over an ebb builds fast. TidePush gates this crossing on sea state rather than current. Clear customs at the Inner Harbour on arrival.
Short hops from Commencement Bay for a boat that does not have a week.
| Passage | nm |
|---|---|
| Tacoma → Gig Harbor | 6.6 |
| Gig Harbor → Tacoma | 6.6 |
| Tacoma → Blake Island | 17.7 |
| Blake Island → Tacoma | 17.7 |
None of these is long enough for the tide to cost you an hour. What the timing decides is whether you meet Dalco Passage civilly and how you cross the ferry tracks — which is a real question even when the clock is not.
Friday Harbor · Roche Harbor · Deer Harbor, Orcas Island · Reid Harbor, Stuart Island · Port Townsend · Blake Island · Poulsbo · Gig Harbor · Olympia · La Conner · Anacortes · Everett · Neah Bay · Victoria · Sidney · Nanaimo · Pirates Cove, De Courcy Island · Hornby Island · Powell River · Lund
The county seat of San Juan County and the busiest harbour in the islands, with the state ferry landing right in the middle of it. That combination makes Friday Harbor the least demanding arrival in the San Juans — a wide, well-marked entrance, a large marina, and a town you can walk off the dock into — and it is why most first visits to the islands start here.
It is also the customs port for the group, which shapes a lot of trips: boats returning from British Columbia clear here, and the timing of that has a way of deciding where the previous night was spent.
Passage planning: The approach from the south runs through Cattle Pass, which is a genuine gate: the ebb runs to about three knots and is at its worst against a summer southerly. From Puget Sound the whole trip is usually shaped by Admiralty Inlet first and Cattle Pass second.
A resort harbour on the north-west corner of San Juan Island, built around the remains of a lime works, and the second customs port in the group. The colours-down ceremony at sunset is either the charm of the place or the reason to anchor elsewhere, depending entirely on the boat you are on.
Its position matters more than its facilities: Roche sits at the top of Haro Strait, which makes it the natural last stop before crossing to the Gulf Islands and the natural first stop coming back.
Passage planning: Reached by Haro Strait or by Spieden Channel and Mosquito Pass. Haro carries real current and real traffic; the inside route past Spieden is shorter on the chart and fussier in practice.
A small, sheltered harbour on the south-west corner of Orcas, tucked behind Fawn and Double Islands. Much quieter than Friday Harbor, and a better base if what you came for is the islands rather than the town.
Orcas itself is the biggest of the group and the most vertical — Mount Constitution is the high point of the archipelago, and the view from it takes in most of the water this app plans.
Passage planning: Usually approached through Wasp Passage or round the top of Shaw. The passes between the islands run harder than their size suggests, and the ferries use them.
A long, narrow, well-protected inlet on Stuart Island, entirely a state marine park, with mooring buoys and a dock and no ferry service of any kind. Stuart has no public road connection, which is exactly the point: the island is reached by boat or not at all.
The walk to Turn Point light on the western tip is the thing people remember — it looks straight down Haro Strait into Boundary Pass, and the shipping goes past close enough to read.
Passage planning: The last American harbour before the border. Boats bound for the Gulf Islands often use it to stage for Boundary Pass and the crossing to Bedwell.
A Victorian seaport at the corner where Admiralty Inlet meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the centre of wooden-boat work in the Pacific Northwest. The Wooden Boat Festival each September is the largest of its kind in the country.
Geographically it is the hinge of this entire cruising area. Almost everything leaving Puget Sound for the islands passes it, and almost everything coming back does too — which is why TidePush uses it as the standard bailout when a day cannot reach further in daylight.
Passage planning: Point Wilson, immediately outside, is one of the more consequential corners in these waters: a westerly over an ebb stands up short and steep exactly where you turn. It is not a current gate — the passage is wide — but it is a serious wind-over-tide hazard, and TidePush treats those as separate things.
An entire island given over to a state marine park, with mooring buoys, a dock and a beach, and no permanent residents. It sits close enough to Seattle to be an easy first night out and far enough to feel like somewhere else.
The moorage fills early on a summer weekend, and the shoal running off the north spit catches people every year.
Passage planning: Ten miles from Shilshole with no gate on the way, so the tide cannot cost you much. The crossing of the shipping lanes is the thing worth timing well.
A town at the head of Liberty Bay with a Norwegian-settler history it has leaned into thoroughly. Sheltered, shallow, and an easy overnight from Seattle.
The approach is the interesting part, and it is the reason this short trip is in the app at all.
Passage planning: Agate Passage is short, shallow, bridged, and runs to five knots. On a passage this short the timing question is not how much time the tide saves — it is whether the pass is open when you get there, which is a different question and the one TidePush answers.
A small, almost completely enclosed harbour on the west side of the Narrows, with a fishing-fleet history and an entrance narrow enough that first-time visitors often cannot see it until they are on it.
Once inside it is as protected as anywhere on the Sound.
Passage planning: The Tacoma Narrows and Dalco Passage both bear on the approach. Dalco sets across the track and the Tahlequah ferry crosses it every half hour, so the timing here is about meeting the traffic and the stream civilly rather than saving minutes.
The state capital, at the head of Budd Inlet and the very bottom of Puget Sound. Getting there means threading the South Sound islands, and the reward is water that stays empty on weekends when the San Juans are full.
It is a long way from Seattle by boat and a short way by car, which is most of the reason it stays quiet.
Passage planning: Two gates that do not line up: the Tacoma Narrows and then Dana Passage. Satisfying both is the real planning problem on this route, and it often means an earlier cast-off than the distance suggests.
A small waterfront town on the Swinomish Channel, midway along the cut that joins Skagit Bay to Padilla Bay. The Rainbow Bridge over the channel is the town’s landmark, and the tulip fields behind it are the reason the place is busy in April.
For a boat, La Conner is both a destination and the natural halfway point of the inside route to Anacortes.
Passage planning: The channel is the constraint, and it is a depth constraint rather than a current one: about a hundred feet of usable width, maintained to twelve feet at MLLW, and shoaling between dredgings. Give TidePush your draft. Dock against the current, and note that the buoyage reverses partway through the cut.
On the north-east corner of Fidalgo Island, with the San Juan ferry terminal, several large marinas and most of the marine trades in the area. It is the most practical place in the region to leave a boat, provision it, or have work done.
Cap Sante marina sits in Fidalgo Bay on the east side of town, which matters for the approach: coming from the Swinomish you arrive round March Point, and coming from Rosario you arrive through Guemes Channel.
Passage planning: Two ways in from the south, within a mile of each other in distance, and they fail differently. Deception Pass carries the strictest current gate in the library; the Swinomish Channel has no tide gate at all but a depth limit instead. On a big tide one of them will be shut.
One of the largest marinas on the west coast, at the mouth of the Snohomish River behind Jetty Island. For boats kept here the trip north starts twenty miles closer than it does from Seattle.
The river matters: after heavy rain the outflow is the stream that counts in the first mile, which no current table will tell you.
Passage planning: Leaving Everett you get a choice Seattle does not: the inside route up Saratoga Passage to either Deception Pass or the Swinomish Channel, or out via Possession Point and Admiralty Inlet. The stream turns over at Possession Point, which catches people going both ways.
A Makah tribal harbour at the western end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, just inside Cape Flattery. It is the staging point for boats heading offshore or down the coast, and the place to wait for a weather window doing it.
A marina permit is required. Enter east of Waadah Island and inside the breakwater; the west entrance shoals.
Passage planning: Eighty miles from Port Townsend down a strait that funnels tide and is open to the Pacific at its far end. Ocean swell reaches a long way in on a westerly ebb, and this is a sea-state decision more than a current one.
The provincial capital, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, with a working inner harbour surrounded by the city itself. Floatplanes land on the water and the customs dock is a short walk from the Parliament buildings.
It is a genuinely foreign port a day’s sail from Puget Sound, which is a rare thing.
Passage planning: The crossing from Port Townsend is short but exposed, in water open to the Pacific. A westerly over an ebb builds fast in the eastern Strait. Clear customs on arrival at the Inner Harbour.
A small town on the Saanich Peninsula north of Victoria, with customs clearance and immediate access to the southern Gulf Islands. For boats bound for Trincomali or Ganges it is a more practical entry than Victoria.
The water east of it — Sidney Channel, and the islands beyond — is some of the most pleasant day-sailing in the region.
Passage planning: Reached from the San Juans across Haro Strait, which carries the traffic separation scheme and real current. Cross it square rather than crabbing along it.
A city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, with Newcastle Island marine park directly opposite the harbour and everything a boat needs on the town side. It is the natural staging point for the Strait of Georgia and everything north of it.
Newcastle Island is worth the trip on its own: a whole island marine park a few hundred yards from a city centre.
Passage planning: Dodd Narrows, immediately south, is the gate that shapes every approach from the Gulf Islands. It runs to nine knots and is busy with tows that cannot give way; the practical strategy is to enter on or just after the turn in your favour. Pirates Cove is where people wait for it.
A snug anchorage on De Courcy Island, a marine park, and a favourite for stern-tying. The entrance is shallow and rock-strewn and needs to be taken seriously and on a rising tide.
Its real function on most trips is strategic: it is where boats lie to wait for Dodd Narrows to turn.
Passage planning: Fourteen miles from Nanaimo, and TidePush treats it as the staging harbour for the northbound Dodd transit rather than as a destination in its own right.
Hornby sits off the east coast of Vancouver Island near Denman, and Tribune Bay is a wide crescent of genuine sand — unusual on this coast, where beaches are normally shingle or rock. It is a fair-weather anchorage, wide open to the south-east, and it empties fast when the wind goes round.
Helliwell Provincial Park on the headland has the best cliff walk in the northern Strait.
Passage planning: Thirty-five miles from Nanaimo up the Strait of Georgia, in exposed water. This is a sea-state passage: wave height, period and the angle the sea meets your course matter more than the current does.
On the mainland side of the Strait of Georgia, historically built around its pulp mill, and now mostly useful to boats as a well-found stop on the way north. Westview harbour is the practical moorage.
From here Desolation Sound is within a comfortable day.
Passage planning: The crossing of the Strait of Georgia is the decision, not the arrival. It is 24 to 40+ nm of open water with no shelter in the middle, so cross on a forecast you have watched rather than one you have just read.
A tiny harbour at the northern end of Highway 101 — the same road that runs to the bottom of Chile — and the last provisioning stop before Desolation Sound. Savary Island, with more of that improbable sand, lies just offshore.
Beyond Lund the water changes character entirely: Desolation Sound is where the tides from the north and south ends of Vancouver Island meet, so the water barely flushes and warms up enough to swim in, which is why people come.
Passage planning: Sixty-two miles from Nanaimo outside Texada, which is a long day in exposed water and a passage to pick your weather for rather than your tide.
The notes above are deliberately thin on the operational detail a cruising guide exists to provide. For anchorages, depths, holding, approaches and shore facilities, these are the standard works for this coast and worth owning:
Nothing on this page is drawn from those publications; they are cited because they are the right tools for the job this page does not do.
Related: How TidePush works · About TidePush · Version history