Unless you’re into winter sports, this is what we call the “off-season.” Nevertheless, now’s a good time to renew your annual passes and permits.
For recreational boaters in Puget Sound, this means it’s time to renew your Washington State Parks Annual Moorage Permit. At $3.50 per foot per year, the break-even point is just seven nights tied up to a float at any Washington State Park.
See, there are plenty of Washington State Parks with floats or mooring buoys. I tend to stay at the ones with floats, since my children like to disembark and run around ashore.
Many such facilities are located in the San Juan Islands, of course, but there are also plenty to be found further south.
For the Washington State Parks Permit, you can order online, and it arrives in the mail several days later. The hardest part is figuring out where to put the sticker when it arrives!
Actually, I’m serious about this. The instructions provided are a little unclear, but I followed them as closely as possible two years ago. I put my sticker on the cabin at the forward end of the port side. This seemed to be what they wanted.
But when I tie up to a float, I almost always tie up starboard-side-to, and every park ranger had to ask where my permit sticker was. A few of them suggested that I put it on the side that faces the dock.
So this past year, I put it on the starboard side, and I never had a complaint. If you’re getting one, I recommend that you put it on the side that normally faces the dock, and disregard the guidelines you’ll get with your sticker. Tell ‘em I said it was OK. 
