….to the Port of Seattle Police and the marina staff for hosting the National Night Out. It was a great catered BBQ with about 100+ attendees, and the rain held off til after 8!
Category Archives: Shilshole Marina
National Night Out-Shilshole
National Night Out is an annual neighborhood security awareness event that Shilshole Marina participates in. Great fun for the family!
Tuesday, August 5th, 6pm-8pm
Shilshole Bay Marina Central Plaza | FREE
Join your boating neighbors for National Night Out at Shilshole Bay Marina for food, fun, and to strengthen our community!
Shilshole Boatfest
SATURDAY, JULY 12TH, 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM PDT
Shilshole Bay Marina
Shilshole Boatfest is an event dedicated to getting new people into boating. This FREE Shilshole Bay Marina event sponsored by the Port of Seattle invites the public to the marina to get out on a boat; learn how to get into boating, about boating safety and environmental practices; and to celebrate the Ballard Community!
Summer Events!
Sat/Sun Free Concerts at the Locks-weekends, 2pm
6/28 WA360- Port Townsend
6/30 WA State Boat Registration Tabs Due
TBD Crab season opens, usually @7/1
7/4 Fireworks-Lake Union, Everett, Tacoma, Roche Harbor
7/12 Shilshole BoatFest-Marina Plaza, 9am-5pm
7/11-13 Ballard Seafood Fest
8/1-3 Seafair Weekend- Lake Washington
8/5 National Night Out-Port of Seattle Police BBQ on marina plaza
9/5-7 Wood Boat Festival-Port Townsend
9/13 Fishermen’s Fall Festival-Fishermen’s Terminal
There are weekly sailboat races and monthly cruises-now through Aug-check out our local CYC and STYC clubs for details and/or crew positions (links to their websites can be found here).
Would your fire extinguisher pass a safety check?
Here are two disposable fire extinguishers that each have the gauge needle pointing at the green status indicator.
Serviceable fire extinguishers need recertification annually. Disposable fire extinguishers like these are good for 12 years and then need to be completely replaced.
The date code on the bottom of this reads 06, indicating it was produced in 2006. In 2025 anything less than 13 is out of date and should be replaced.
Because this is safety equipment, it’s best to remove old devices completely from your boat instead of risking that it won’t immediately work when you need it.
I went into the Shilshole Marina office and asked about disposal. Shilshole will accept your expired extinguishers via their hazardous materials service. Call the office for instructions 206-787-3006.
Spring is Here! Check out these upcoming events..
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
Spring Checklist
Winter is almost behind us and thoughts of getting away from the dock and going places are on our minds. Review this checklist to make sure you are ready and don’t run into any surprises this summer!
Shilshole Blog 
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