Summer moorage in the San Juan area

[evm]

I thought that putting this in the regional area would be best....

I'm considering bring my E39 up to the San Juan area for the summer. June through end of Aug. I'm from the Portland area. I hope that this thread will for an informative source of suggestions for finding summer moorage and all that that entails.

SO How does one go about finding summer moorage somewhere around Bellingham, the San Juans, Anacortes?

What pitfalls are there and other things to be aware of?

How often do you go up to inspect your boat?

Do you hire someone to look after it?

And anything that you can think of that I have left off....

Thanks

 

[wurzner]

First of, most of the marina's have a sublet list. I subletted for a while from folks who were off doing a 2 year cruise and they tend to open up in the spring time. If I were you, I would try and find someone on the list who is live aboard at best, or active sailor who could keep an eye on things. I'm in Everett which is located about 25M north of Seattle, so I'm not in your geogpraphic area. I would be willing to add your boat to my stable of sailing vessels I check in on. I have a few friends who live in Eastern WA who's boats I keep an eye on over the winter.

I would consider Anacortes or Bellingham based on your desire to cruise the san Juans. Since you are coming up from the south, POrt Townsend and Sequim would be viable options as well, but you have the straights to cross. Anacortes and Bellingham eliminate that as a worry. Lastly, La Conner is really great, but it is a 45 minute motor to get to Anacortes or into Saratoga Passage.

Have folks check the bulletin boards...that is a great source of information.

Good luck.
shaun

 

[Cory B]

Port Ludlow

When we brought up our old boat a few years ago from Portland, I had some difficulty finding moorage. Things fill up fast in the summer, and not being "there" did not make things any easier. We ended up parking the boat in Port Ludlow. They have decent facilities, and being on the W side of the sound we avoided most of the traffic when driving up. Its also possible to catch a bus from there to the ferry terminal, take the ferry to Seattle, and take a train down to Portland if you don't want the hassle of dropping off a car. Its a long day trip to the San Juans from there though.

When are you going up? We are planning on heading "North" sometime in May. We're taking about 6 weeks off and will be sticking with the boat, and are not planning to head into Puget Sound this time.

Where do you keep your E39?

EDIT: I just remembered, the other problem we ran into was most places wanted us to sign a 1 yr lease, which didn't work for just the summer. The places other than Port Ludlow that would accomodate us as I recall were Swantown in Olympia, and Blaine (Semiahoo?) on the border.

- Cory

 

[trucknrn]

moorage

Hi

seen your post an as we baught our E39 in blaine and the moorage avail was none to very far off we searched long and hard and finally landed in tacoma where there is moorage also port orchard.

Bring your boat on up we need more E39`s!

Dick and Carol
E39 #73
partnership

 

[evm]

When we brought up our old boat a few years ago from Portland, I had some difficulty finding moorage. Things fill up fast in the summer, and not being "there" did not make things any easier. We ended up parking the boat in Port Ludlow. They have decent facilities, and being on the W side of the sound we avoided most of the traffic when driving up. Its also possible to catch a bus from there to the ferry terminal, take the ferry to Seattle, and take a train down to Portland if you don't want the hassle of dropping off a car. Its a long day trip to the San Juans from there though.

When are you going up? We are planning on heading "North" sometime in May. We're taking about 6 weeks off and will be sticking with the boat, and are not planning to head into Puget Sound this time.

Where do you keep your E39?

EDIT: I just remembered, the other problem we ran into was most places wanted us to sign a 1 yr lease, which didn't work for just the summer. The places other than Port Ludlow that would accomodate us as I recall were Swantown in Olympia, and Blaine (Semiahoo?) on the border.

- Cory

We are thinking about heading up in the end of May. We keep the boat at RCYC.

Thanks to all for the information.

--Ethan

 

[Cory B]

Location

Ah. That explains why I hadn't seen you. We're in Hayden Bay... there is another E39 next to us in the marina... although it doesn't look quite ready right now to venture past the mouth of the river.

-Cory

 

[mark reed]

Port Angeles

We've subletted slips at Canoe Cove (near Sidney, BC), Blaine, Elliot Bay (Seattle), and Port Angeles. Of the four, we have been happiest with Port Angeles. Even though its not technically in the Sound, it's the shortest passage from Astoria, the wharfinger and his staff have been very helpful, and we have had some rousing sails to and from the San Juans (too-strong winds can also be a drawback to PA). Blaine was OK, too, but we got tired of the long slog up I-5, the wharfinger was more of a stickler for paperwork (we had to have the marina added to our insurance policy as an interested party, so they would be notified in case our insurance lapsed) and regs (we got hassled several times about our dog). On the plus side you can take Amtrak from PDX to B'ham and a city bus to within a block or so of the Blaine marina.