Port Washington Narrows 3
Open the map ↗

Port Washington Narrows runs about 3 miles, joining Sinclair Inlet to Dyes Inlet through the middle of Bremerton. Current can top 4 knots at times.

Timing

Port Washington Narrows runs about 3 miles, joining Sinclair Inlet to Dyes Inlet through the middle of Bremerton. Current can top 4 knots at times.

Port Washington Narrows
Port Washington NarrowsPhoto: michaelwm25 / Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-3.0)

Coast Pilot, In Plain Words

Here is what the U.S. Coast Pilot says about Port Washington Narrows and the water around it. The official text is below.

Read the official text

Sinclair Inlet to Bremerton

East Bremerton is the community back of Point Herron, on the east side of the Port Washington Narrows entrance. The fixed highway bridge crossing the narrows here has a clearance of 74 feet.

Port Washington Narrows to Ostrich Bay

Port Washington Narrows, 3 miles long, joins Sinclair and Dyes Inlets. Tidal currents in the narrows attain velocities in excess of 4 knots at times. 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.

Two fixed highway bridges and two power cables cross the narrows. The northerly of the two bridges has a clearance of 80 feet. An overhead power cable close east of the bridge has a clearance of 80 feet. The Manette Bridge, in the south part of the narrows, has a clearance of 74 feet. A power cable with a clearance of 90 feet is about 0.3 mile north of the bridge.

Phinney Bay, 0.8 mile long, makes into the west shore near the north end of the narrows. Bremerton Yacht Club has its moorage with floats on the west side of the bay. Rocky Point is on the west side of the north entrance of the narrows. There are tide rips off this point.

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

Local Knowledge

  • Watch out

    Phinney Bay opens off the west shore near the north end, home to the Bremerton Yacht Club. Rocky Point, at the north entrance, gets tide rips.

  • Tip

    The Manette Bridge, near the south entrance by East Bremerton, clears about 74 feet. A second highway bridge further north clears about 80 feet.

  • Watch out

    Petroleum storage and receiving wharves line the west shore between the south bridge and Phinney Bay — give them a wide berth.

Plan a Trip Through Port Washington Narrows

1. Start from

Nearest harbor on each side of the narrows. Pick a side to start there.

2. Cross to the other side of Port Washington Narrows

Dyes Inlet → Port Washington Narrows · 3.0 nm · ~0h 23m at · from the northwest

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 Port Washington Narrows?
Port Washington Narrows runs about 3 miles, joining Sinclair Inlet to Dyes Inlet through the middle of Bremerton. Current can top 4 knots at times.
What should I watch out for at Port Washington Narrows?
Phinney Bay opens off the west shore near the north end, home to the Bremerton Yacht Club. Rocky Point, at the north entrance, gets tide rips.
What does Class 3 mean?
Class 3 is BoatRoutes' own 1-to-5 rating of how costly a timing or judgment mistake is here — it is not a NOAA scale. Class 3 means real current or confined water — cross near slack or a fair stage; a mistimed run demands attention.

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.