Tide Action

Well, this was just interesting to us. The Pacific Ocean comes into the mainland through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and over into Puget Sound at Seattle. When we were going back to Port Townsend on the Whale Watching Trip, the Captain kept talking about "the flood," and we figured out that we would call it high tide. Anyhow, the tide goes in, the tide goes out four times a day -- so about every six hours. We went out at 9:30 in the morning as the tide was out. When we returned to Port Townsend from Friday Harbor, we left about 3:00 and got back about 5:00, but it was during "the flood." When the tide comes back in, the water is just churning because of all of the different movements. As in this picture, you could look out and see some areas of relative calm and other areas with the white caps indicating a lot of movement. Even though we were moving in the same direction as "the flood," it was quite turbulent. I thought it was really a rough ride going back, but Dave didn't think it was too bad! He doesn't know how lucky he is that I didn't lose my lunch!