Friday June 1-3 2018
Trip Distance 71 nm
Since it started raining Sunday we ended up staying at John wayne Marina for three nights from Friday to Sunday.
We got out of Makah Marina at 1100 hours to catch the incoming current to Sequim Bay. Patty read some good stuff about John Wayne Marina which is run by Port Angeles which is a large commercial port just West of John Wayne. John Wayne donated the land back in the 60’s to Port Angeles with the requirement that they build a public marina at the site.
On the charts saw something new where you have the normal traffic separation zones in the middle for ships to pass port to port, like cars in the US. On the outside of the normal lanes on the US side you see traffic indicated for starboard to starboard passing zones as you can see in the photo below with the small arrows in the lower left below the normal traffic separation zones for ships. The NOAA chart notes barge traffic and fishing vessels pass starboard to starboard in the area. I followed this and all the small vessels complied to this on past Port Angeles.
We are used to pretty heavy large ship traffic in San Francisco Bay but the shipping channel in the Strait Of Juan de Fuca was very heavy with 300’ or larger ship coming one after the other in the main shipping channel as shown on AIS on our port stern quarter below.
We then had one ship cross our stern as he crossed us as he went in to Port Angeles then another cross our stern as they exited Port Angeles, exciting stuff.
Rules of the road or Chicken 😕
The entrance to Sequim Bay takes a pretty short dog leg to the starboard side with the natural sand spit to port protecting the bay as you go in then to port but is is easy and wide.
We ended up deciding to stay on the outside of the transient dock so we could have a view outside the marina break water.
Forecast was for light winds but even with light NW winds we got a little wind wave action from the entrance from NE.
The marina has very nice green manicured lawns on the 22 acres so is very pleasant and dog friendly with trash cans and doggie bags at the top of the ramp.
At high tide good pebble dog beach. At low tide mud and likely one could dig in the mud for clams and such. A stream empties right at the junction of marina and beach of RV park.
The next day Saturday we took a short walk past the John wayne RV park at the south end of the marina and up to a short cut across the back of RV park and up along the south side of Sequim Bay along Olympic Discovery Trail. The trail runs along the shore for many miles on the Olympic Peninsula along the shore and is a great hiking and bike trail. The RV park had small spaces parking lot stile but some did have nice view of bay from across road.
Sunday things cleared up rains wise and we went back up too Olympic Discovery Trail but this time took a right to head to the City of Sequim to see what is there.
Not much at downtown Sequim to look at so just passed through and turned around to go back over trail.
