Category Archives: Liveaboard Topics

Topics related to liveaboard issues

Opening Day

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The first of May is generally considered the opening of boating season in Puget Sound.  The weather warms and dreams of getting out on the water come to fruition.

The Seattle Yacht Club has a hosted an opening day event since 1913. The University of Washington hosts a rowing regatta in the Montlake Cut in the morning with a parade of decorated boats going through in the afternoon.  It is great family fun to watch from shore or from your boat moored along the parade route.

This year it will be held on Saturday, May 3rd. Get details here…Opening Day – Seattle Yacht Club

Earth Day -April 22nd

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Earth Day is an annual event celebrated worldwide on April 22, to demonstrate support for environmental protection.  As boaters, with our close relationship to the water and its environs, this a great opportunity to review our boating habits and work with our neighbors to ensure that we all can enjoy cleaner water and air!

Some things to consider:

  • Keep your boat engine tuned up and operating properly to reduce smoke and oil discharge
  • Use environmentally safe soaps for cleaning the decks
  • Use tarps and vacuums to keep boat maintenance debris out of the water
  • Switch from zinc to aluminum anodes for your prop shaft/hull
  • Report all diesel spills immediately to the office so they can quickly be contained
  • Use the marina provided Haz Mat containers for old oil, gas, batteries, and coolant disposal
  • Keep your car tuned up and fix oil leaks so they don’t make their way from the parking lot to the marina waters

History of Earth Day

Shilshole Required Best Management Practices and Flare Disposal

Spring is Here! Check out these upcoming events..

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4/12         Fisheries Supply Swap Meet (in their parking lot)

4/22         Earth Day

5/3           Opening Day Parade-Montlake Cut/Lake Washington

5/17         Syttende Mai Parade-Ballard, 24th&Market St, 6-8pm

5/16-18    Poulsbo Viking Fest-Liberty Bay, Poulsbo

5/24-25    Swiftsure International Race-Victoria, Canada

6/28       WA360mile -Sailboat Race around Puget Sound-Port Townsend

6/30          WA St. Registration Decals due

Weekly Sailboat Racing and Monthly Cruises-now through Aug-check out CYC and STYC for details and/or crew positions (links on this Shilshole Blog).

2025 Shilshole Sea Lion Deterrent Program

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In January 2025 the Port of Seattle started testing a new device to deter Sea Lions from the docks at Shilshole. Broox Ultrasonic Pest Repellent.

The port employees have put the devices in problem spots temporarily and moved them to new locations as needed.

The sea lines seem annoyed enough by the devices that they have spent more time on the seawall than the docks. An independent university researcher has reported that the seals were spending more time on the breakwater than the docks.

There is an internal presentation by a Port of Seattle employee documenting many of the deterrents that have been attempted in the past, as well as both the damage and dangers encountered. Hopefully it will be publicly shared as a resource available to other marinas dealing with similar issues.

Public Auto Charging at Port of Seattle

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To have a comparison with the public charging station in Ballard that I looked at on Friday I took pictures of the north facility at Shilshole.

Working device

One of the two devices has no charge cables. The second device had both charging points in use.

I took pictures of the charging state on each of the vehicles. The PoS devices charge by time plugged in. The Seattle charger I looked at seemed to charge by KWh. Charging by power delivered seems to make a lot more sense. I was trying to get an idea of how much power these devices can deliver.

I’m learning about electric vehicle economics right now.

It looks like each of these cars is charging at about 1 kWh / 10 minutes. Because the rate at PoS is based on time, $5 and 4 hours might get 30 kWh delivered. The rate at the Seattle charger in Ballard was listed at $0.21 / kWh, with a maximum parking time of four hours. If the charge speeds are the same, 30 kWh in Ballard would cost $6.30. While the pricing structure is different, at least PoS doesn’t appear to be more than nearby.

Please leave comments about how usable the system is and how often you have to wait for available chargers.

Public Auto Charging in Ballard

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Public Charger on 57th Ave east of 17th

While walking to the post office I noticed changes to the public charge point nearby. When the charge point was initially installed it had long cables hanging down to charge two cars at the parking spots on either side of the utility pole.

Retracted Cables

Today I initially thought that the cables had been stolen for $5 in copper. Then I noticed the standard plug up high and out of reach.

This design seems a great idea to reduce cable theft. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone that has experience with this system as to if it works well or otherwise. Simply not having the inactive cables stretched out on the ground seems like it would reduce wear, though the need for the motor to lower the cable on demand from the app is one more thing to go wrong.

For the Port of Seattle to install something like this would require moving the existing charging spots to be at the lighting poles or installing significantly taller poles at the current locations, but it’s the first real solution to cable thefts I’ve seen.

Shilshole Billing Update

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Accountants at the Port have been painstakingly connecting moorage payments to customer’s accounts manually for months to get caught up. They tested out billing with Fisherman’s Terminal recently and found a couple errors, but making progress. Shilshole Bills could be sent out as early as this Thursday the 20th.

Everyone should receive one bill with line items for each month plus utilities. Please check bills with your past payments to ensure accuracy.

No late fees or penalties will be issued for past months until March at the earliest.

Please be patient and courteous with staff if you see any errors. This hasn’t been easy for anyone involved and they’re working hard to get it right.

Welcome To Our New Neighbors!

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We have many new neighbors and families on our docks, so please introduce yourselves around!  We have a great community here at Shilshole and as liveaboards, we also provide a high level of security by knowing who should be on the docks and watching out for each other.

Get to know your dock captain and make sure he/she has your contact information for marina updates, security issues and upcoming events.  Ask questions if you are unsure about hazardous waste disposal, pumpout service, parking or pet issues.  And…please review the pages and links on this website for items of interest to us here at Shilshole.

Here’s some other helpful info…

Renewing Your Vessel Documentation

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If your boat is documented with the US Dept of Homeland Security, (NVDC-National Vessel Documentation Center), then you have received, in the past, a notice approximately 45 days prior to your documentation expiration.  The fee is $26 for a 1 yr renewal and can be done completely online.  NVDC is now also offering a multi-year renewal up to 5 yrs.  See their website for more details.

Last year, several boaters got a letter from a company (there are several) soliciting renewal prior to the regular letter they receive from the NVDC.  These companies’ fees were approx. $70 for 2 years.  Their paperwork and websites look very “official” and have caught many boaters off guard, including a neighbor of mine who had direct conversations with one of them.

These are 3rd party companies that have obtained the publicly available information on documented vessels and their owners.  They may be legit companies and are counting on us boaters to quickly make a decision or not verifying our GOOGLE search.  (Please read the NVDC site about 3rd party awareness information.)

If you want to remove yourself from any (non-political) solicitations, you can contact these opt out options posted on the Federal Trade Commission’s site.

Lat38 article regarding documentation scam