What should I watch out for at Hale Passage?

A boulder-strewn shoal sits near the middle of the channel, about 350 yards southeast of the bridge. A buoy marks its northeast side, and the channel runs on the buoy's northeast side.

What does Class 2 mean?

Class 2 is BoatRoutes' own 1-to-5 rating of how costly a timing or judgment mistake is here — it is not a NOAA scale. Class 2 means one thing to plan around (depth, a schedule, or mild current); getting it wrong costs time, not safety.

Hale Passage — Currents, Slack & Local Knowledge

Hale Passage 2

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Hale Passage runs between Fox Island and the mainland, linking Puget Sound near the Narrows to Carr Inlet about 4 miles away.

Timing

Current in Hale Passage can top 3 knots. The east-setting ebb runs stronger than the west-setting flood.

Hale PassagePhoto: PinchyCC / Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-4.0)

Coast Pilot, In Plain Words

Here is what the U.S. Coast Pilot says about Hale Passage and the water around it. The official text is below.

Read the official text

Caution

Hale Passage, between Fox Island and the mainland, enters on the west shore 5 miles south of Point Defiance. It is 4 miles to its junction with Carr Inlet. Near the west end the passage is crossed by a fixed highway bridge with a clearance of 31 feet. A shoal, marked on its northeast side by a buoy, is 350 yards southeast of the bridge and near the middle of the passage; the shoal is boulder strewn and bares. The channel is on the northeast side of the buoy. A good small-craft anchorage is on either side of Tanglewood Island. The current in Hale Passage attains a velocity in excess of 3 knots at times. The east (ebb) current is stronger than the west (flood) current. See the Tidal Current prediction service at tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov for specific information about times, directions, and velocities of the current at numerous locations throughout the area. Links to a user guide for this service can be found in chapter 1 of this book.

Fox Island is a village in the small cove near the northeast end of Fox Island. It has a store and service station. Tanglewood Island, in the center of the cove, has a boys’ camp, the buildings of which are prominent.

Wollochet Bay is a small inlet about 2 miles long extending north from Hale Passage, about 1 mile inside the east entrance. The upper part is narrow and shoal. It affords an anchorage in midchannel about 0.3 mile inside the entrance in 11 to 12 fathoms, sticky bottom. There are many private piers and mooring buoys in the bay. A small-boat launching ramp is on the east side of the bay near the entrance.

Horsehead Bay, about 1 mile long, is directly north of Green Point, at the west extremity of Hale Passage. This is a residential area with many private wharves.

Source: U.S. Coast Pilot 10, Chapter 8, 7 ed. (NOAA, Office of Coast Survey). Updated weekly. Official Coast Pilot ↗

Local Knowledge

Watch out
A boulder-strewn shoal sits near the middle of the channel, about 350 yards southeast of the bridge. A buoy marks its northeast side, and the channel runs on the buoy's northeast side.
Timing
Current in Hale Passage can top 3 knots. The east-setting ebb runs stronger than the west-setting flood.
Tip
A fixed highway bridge crosses near the west end with 31 feet of clearance. Small boats anchor on either side of Tanglewood Island, in the middle of the channel.

Plan a Trip Through Hale Passage

1. Start from

2. Cross to the other side of Hale Passage

Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard → Hale Passage · 6.0 nm · ~0h 45m at · from the northeast

Full departure plan →

Stations & Data

Times are NOAA predictions, not live readings. Open a station for its full tide and current charts.

Questions

What is Hale Passage?: Hale Passage runs between Fox Island and the mainland, linking Puget Sound near the Narrows to Carr Inlet about 4 miles away.
When is the best time to go through Hale Passage?: Current in Hale Passage can top 3 knots. The east-setting ebb runs stronger than the west-setting flood.
What should I watch out for at Hale Passage?: A boulder-strewn shoal sits near the middle of the channel, about 350 yards southeast of the bridge. A buoy marks its northeast side, and the channel runs on the buoy's northeast side.
What does Class 2 mean?: Class 2 is BoatRoutes' own 1-to-5 rating of how costly a timing or judgment mistake is here — it is not a NOAA scale. Class 2 means one thing to plan around (depth, a schedule, or mild current); getting it wrong costs time, not safety.

Predictions, not observations · U.S. Coast Pilot 10 (7 ed.)

U.S. Coast Pilot text is a work of the U.S. Government and is in the public domain. Per 17 U.S.C. §403, no copyright is claimed in that text. BoatRoutes is not endorsed by NOAA.