Some Foggy Pictures of Rosario Strait and Thatcher Pass in the San Juan Islands

       Is there summer fog in the San Juan Islands?      

Yes, and the best thing you can do is run with extreme caution or wait it out at the dock. 

How to deal with fog in Rosario Strait.

In my opinion, the most important decision you can make when caught in the fog is to slow down to the point you can stop in the distance you can see.  If you must risk navigating in fog, wear pfd's, turn on nav. lights, sound the horn or bell as required, stay out of high traffic and shipping lanes, watch your compass and sounder, listen to Ch 16, and periodically announce your position to others.

These pictures were from late July, so they are in the middle of a normal season. Don't let them scare you away, just be aware, plan ahead, and enjoy your outing.

This is looking southward at Rosario Strait, taken from the top of 

Eagle Cliff 

on Cypress Island, Thatcher Pass is the first inlet on the right, Lopez Pass is further down a ways past James Island. Notice the fog is in the middle of the strait. This is a light fog, probably only a mile or so wide, but if you were in your boat on either side of Rosario, it would look like a solid wall of white. This fog formed in about thirty minutes. In another few minutes, it could be almost gone or much, much, well, you know.

This is Rosario Strait from James Island (basically Thatcher Pass) looking across towards Cypress,  and up Guemes Channel.

 We cast off and entered this fog thirty minutes after the picture was taken. Two miles out we could no longer see James Island behind us, but we could see Anacortes in front of us. The ferry was really laying on the horn which is a little unnerving. See the boat at far left just entering the bank. This is the other side of the same fog bank as the previous picture, but from a sea level view.

This picture is looking towards Deception Pass and we are in the middle of Rosario Strait, up around Bird Rocks. 

I think the pass is behind what looks like a low white mountain to the right of the railing stanchion. I wanted to go through the pass and on to La Conner, but changed my mind after crossing over and finding the fog tight against the shore from Skyline Marina south. We were finishing up a relaxing five-day cruise, and I saw no reason to add a foggy finish. Notice how nice the water is on Rosario. Just two weeks earlier at this exact same place, we were slammed on the beam for forty-five minutes while crossing in warm sunny weather. We eventually took refuge by ducking behind Allan Island.  

You can have fog, you can have sunshine, flat water or big seas, and as a bonus, you could have it all together or any combination in a one-hour crossing.

The purpose of this posting was to suggest that you be prepared for whatever comes your way.  On this trip we simply went a different way home. For others, perhaps a good gps and lots of Dramamine is the answer.

Click below to see a satellite view of James Island