Well, there's not a lot of "big water" in Puget Sound, unless you consider 3-4' waves big water. Having said that, I bet it is pretty dicey in a 14' open boat with even 2' waves, no?

The location of the calmer areas obviously depends on the conditions -- tide, wind direction and speed, other boat traffic, etc. Shipwreck, the racetrack, and PNP are usually pretty calm, Possession is usually rougher than average, but any of these can suck if the wind has a chance to bunch up a lot of water.