November 2010

Marty McOmber has the story at Three Sheets: The Steamship Virginia V Foundation is hosting three holiday cruises aboard its historic 125-foot ship, with proceeds going to help make the season a little brighter for struggling families. The cruises leave from South Lake Union Park and are scheduled as follows: Thursday, Dec. 2 – Depart [...]

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Deborah Bach has the story at Three Sheets: [A sign of the times? Brokers and dealers struggle through another abysmal quarter.] Boat sales in Washington remained stubbornly sluggish in the third quarter of the year, suggesting a continued tough slog for the state’s boat dealers and brokers. A strong first quarter seemed to point to [...]

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Deborah Bach has the story at Three Sheets: [The Swinomish Channel is due to be dredged in 2011, but funding for the project is uncertain. Photo by Joe Mabel] The Swinomish Channel, used by thousands of boaters each year, will silt in and become impassable by 2015 unless it is dredged — but funding for [...]

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Cliff Mass has this item at his weather blog: Now that the weather has calmed down a bit and nothing serious is on the weather horizon (except for some good snowfalls in the mountains), its a good time to talk about some new powerful local weather websites. New UW Weather Radar Interface The first is [...]

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Deborah Bach has this story at Three Sheets: [The Argosy Christmas Ship Festival starts tomorrow and runs through Dec. 23. Photo courtesy of Argosy Cruises] Forget the biggest shopping weekend of the year; for Northwest boaters, the holiday season gets underway tomorrow with the start of the Argosy Christmas Ship Festival. In what’s become a [...]

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This announcement appears in the Pacific Yachting blog: [An early morning motor through Seymour Narrows on the way to the start of Leg 4 in Deepwater Bay. Uncredited photo] Get your boats and crews ready, the dates for the 2011 Van Isle 360 have been set for June 4 – 18.  Interested boats should contact [...]

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Josie Garthwaite as this story at Earth2Tech: Columbia Power Technologies believes it has a better way to tap the power of ocean waves for clean energy: Good-bye steel turbines; hello fiberglass, a lighter-weight material that requires less maintenance. The five-year-old startup is now gearing up for the final small-scale test of its generator ahead of [...]

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Scott Wilson has this story at Three Sheets Northwest: It’s an eery thing to watch a boat die by moonlight. Any time, if you are not accustomed to such things, it is jarring to see any vessel in extremis… the carefully designed lines canted at odd angles, water invading places where no water should be. [...]

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Deborah Bach has the story at Three Sheets: The Recreational Boaters Association of Washington (RBAW) considers that discrepancy unfair, and is launching a campaign to lobby for the elimination of the state’s watercraft excise tax, which is charged annually when registration is renewed and amounts to one-half of 1 percent of the vessel’s value. “We [...]

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Marty McOmber has the story at Three Sheets: [Al Felker, who lives aboard his 36-foot Express Cruiser Morego at the the Port of Everett's 12th Street Yacht Basin sent this lovely shot of the icy docks.] From a 747 sliding off the runway at SeaTac Airport to commuters stuck on I-5 for hours, the year’s [...]

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This notice appears in the PACIFIC YACHTING blog: [Forty-three buoys have been installed for boating convenience.] In a joint project with B.C. Parks, the City of Nanaimo and the Snuneymuxw First Nations, 43 buoys have been installed in the Newcastle Island Provincial Marine Park. Read more

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Migael Scherer has this story at Three Sheets Northwest: [View of Eastsound from the county dock. Photos by Migael Scherer] By San Juan Island standards, Eastsound is a “big” town, with sidewalks and a supermarket and even its own newspaper. Unlike Friday Harbor, its big brother, Eastsound is primarily focused inland. With no marina and [...]

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Amy Daybert has the story in the Everett Herald: EVERETT — Sara Bloom lifted her 2-year-old daughter, Grace, onto her shoulders Tuesday afternoon while the USS Rodney M. Davis pulled up to a crowd gathered on the pier of Naval Station Everett. A homemade sign welcoming home her husband, Mike, was passed between members of [...]

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Ed Friedrich has the story in the Kitsap Sun: KINGSTON — The Port of Kingston’s SoundRunner fast ferry service has stumbled out of the gate. Since the route started up five weeks ago, it has been plagued by rough weather, a bum engine and personnel issues. The ferries Spirit of Kingston and Victoria Express have [...]

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The Associated Press has this story in the Seattle Times: EVERETT, Wash. — The Navy says the guided-missile frigate USS Rodney Davis will return to its homeport in Everett on Tuesday after a six-month drug war deployment off Central and South America. Read more

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Deborah Bach has the story at Three Sheets: The railway bridge near the Seattle locks will reopen four days later than expected, due to construction and weather-related delays. The Burlington North Santa Fe railway bridge has been closed since Nov. 10 for a major overhaul of its lifting system. It was expected to reopen on [...]

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Deborah Bach has the story at Three Sheets: [An oil spill in Quartermaster Harbor off Vashon Island Nov. 6 was among 45 reports of oil spills and sheens in Puget Sound over a two-month period. Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Ecology] A rash of sunken boats and oil spills over the past two months [...]

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TRAVIS PITTMAN has this story at KING 5 News: This is a lesson to never say “that could never happen to me.” I had planned to ask Kim, my girlfriend of just over a year, to marry me. The plan was to do it on my birthday – a day she wouldn’t expect because she’d [...]

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John Stang has this story in the Kitsap Sun: [The Bravest, a new 64-foot fire boat built by Safe Boats International for the New York Fire Department, cruises off Elliot Bay. Port Orchard-based Safe Boats built the Bravest to be faster than the New York department’s bigger fire boats while packing a bigger punch than [...]

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