Liveaboard Marinas in Washington or Oregon USA

[Alfatipo]

Hi, new arrival at Cruisers Forum. Land-based until the beginning of December 2019. Currently on a 27' boat in Hayden Island, OR. Love it despite the boat. Basic and well past its useful life. Do have shore power though so heat and hot food. What's not to like?

So I'm looking for my own boat. Ideally found on Haydens Island. However, it appears there are many more boats in the Seattle area. Having read of the perils of sailing from Seattle to Portland in the winter I now tend toward living on a boat around Seattle area and bringing the boat down to Portland in the spring if a close-to-ideal boat becomes available.

The other option is to trailer it and there is a boat that is currently on a trailer and have a friend willing to tow it but it would be tight capacity-wise even with his 10K lb trailer/load rating. Not inquired about pricing a land move.

My question (finally!) is feedback on marinas around Seattle? Olympia, Bremerton and/or further north? Any offers and thoughts appreciated.

Now some tantalizing(?) background.....

While I have been on some very nice sailing boats (sister married into a very keen sailing family) and have been tasked with various low risk activities I am in no way a sailor. But I would want boat life to include sailing-not just living on board.

Pretty handy (already replaced the shoreline bulkhead connector on this boat) a project boat with good bones has appeal.

Anyway, any thoughts appreciated.

[disputin]

I can't answer all your questions, but if you want to sail on the Columbia river I would recommend checking out Portland Sailing School Portland Sailing Center: Welcome!. Their program isn't associated with any of the large sailing schools but is focused on the unique sailing challenges of the Columbia River, constant current, large barges, bridges, etc. They also offer several classes that cover going through the Bonneville Locks (good if you want to sail upriver) and going over the Columbia Bar (which I would think is essential before you consider moving a boat from the Puget Sound to Portland. If you can sail safely on the Columbia, a lot of other sailing challenges are easy.


We had our boat in the Foss Harbor Marina in Tacoma last summer and loved it. Commencement Bay is a very nice place to spend the day sailing. We also had an overnight at Gig Harbor and Blake Island (looking at Elliott Bay).

We decided it was the right place, a couple hours from Vancouver, WA, easy to get to, Tacoma is in the midst of a downtown renaissance and there are a lot of great bars and restuarants right there.


Olympia's closer to Portland but very far away from the rest of the Sound by boat, and you have to go through the Narrows at the right time to avoid the current.


Take care,


Sean