Sailing Fidalgo Bay, Anacortes WA By Steve Orsini

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1 Sailing Fidalgo Bay, Anacortes WA By Steve Orsini Anacortes, Washington is the venue for the 2012 Lido 14 Class Championship Regatta(CCR). Anacortes is the hub for boating into the San Juan Islands of Northwest Washington State. The Washington State Ferries leave from Anacortes sailing to a variety of San Juan Islands and to Sydney, British Columbia, Canada. Anacortes is located 89 miles north of Seattle, Washington. Anacortes is about a 15 minute drive west of I-5 taking Exit 230 from I-5 onto Highway 20 and its four lane spur directly into Anacortes. By air, fly into Seattle Tacoma International Airport or Bellingham International and connect to Anacortes via the Bellaire Airporter Shuttles. 1 (866) Lying just to the east of Anacortes, Fidalgo Bay is the sailing venue for the Lido CCR. On its northern end it is about a mile and a quarter wide as it flows into the Guemes Channel. It narrows to about a 1/4 mile at its southern end which is about two miles from the mouth. The depth averages about 15 feet. A large rock outcropping, called Cap Sante, is at its northwestern corner. In the small bay partly formed by Cap Sante is Cap Sante Boat Haven and Seafarer s Memorial Park. Anacortes Yacht Club, with club house located at the north end of Cap Sante Boat Haven, is the co-sponsor, along with Lido Fleet 78, for the 2012 Lido 14 CCR. Fidalgo Bay stretching south from Cap Sante head. 1

2 View of Fidalgo Bay looking slightly west of south. The jetty to the right(west in the picture) is part of Anacortes Marina, not to be confused with Cap Sante Boat Haven. This view, just to the west of the upper photo shows Anacortes Marina at the left. At the right is one of two breakwaters sheltering Seafarer s Memorial Park. 2

3 Above is the Seafarer s Memorial Park small boat basin formed by two recently completed stone breakwaters placed to shield the curving beach and dock from prevailing winds. Once the Lidos have launched, they will sail to the floating dock extending from the over water pier. Additional docks will be floated to this area, attached to the floating portion, so that the Lidos can pull up on these low, floating dinghy docks each evening making it unnecessary to haul the boats at the end of each day s racing. More on this in another article. 3

4 Above is the Seafarer s Memorial Park small boat basin formed by two recently completed stone breakwaters placed to shield the curving beach and dock from prevailing winds. Once the Lidos have launched, they will sail to the floating dock extending from the over water pier. Additional docks will be floated to this area, attached to the floating portion, so that the Lidos can pull up on these low, floating dinghy docks each evening making it unnecessary to haul the boats at the end of each day s racing. More on this in another article. 4

5 Wind: The biggest factor in small boat sailing on Fidalgo Bay is the wind, both its direction and velocity. By mid-summer, the winds are generally from the west in the 90 mile long Strait of Juan de Fuca with Anacortes located at its eastern end.. The cool marine air over the strait moves inland to replace the air heating and rising over the land. If there is a high pressure, then the wind will flow into and across the bay from a northeasterly direction. This tends to be a constant wind that blows throughout the day and can be as low as 5 knots and up to 15 knots. If there is a low pressure system over the region, than the winds will blow in from the south to southeast. The challenge is to read the wind as it spreads into the bay. There is no pat answer to the bay like sailing to the Boy Scout Camp at Huntington Lake. The first three pictures above show how the wind hits the bay from the west and fans out. Yet exactly how it hits the Bay depends on its velocity and whether it is a southwesterly, or a pure westerly. Velocity of a westerly in the afternoon can quickly build from 5 to 12knots or higher. If it is above ten knots the wind is very shifty as one sails closer to the western shore of the bay. Generally speaking, no matter what the direction of the wind, keeping away from Cap Sante head is a good idea, but in all likelihood, the Principle Race Officer (PRO) will not set the race courses close to Cap Sante. Lido 14s sailing south with Cap Sante in the background in a summer northerly. Last but not least, you will be sailing with majestic Mt Baker looming over the bay to east. 5