Boating in Seattle area?
 

I am discussing a job opportunity in the Seattle area and of course boating would be part of the final decision. I am from the east and this would be a big change. I looked at the maps and it looks fantastic.

OK, what is it like out there?

Alot of good info on here for that area.

http://nwoffshore.com/modules.php?name=Jig

great boating in Wa.
You have the protected waterways of Puget Sound, and if you are a fresh water guy, you have Lake Washington, Lake Chelan. a couple hours south, and you have the Columbia River.
The water out here is colder than the east coast, and our season is a little shorter, but we still have some diehards that do a JAN 1 poker run every year.
Gotta love the coastline, and scenery, the mountains come right down to the ocean. Not the best for beaches, but great to explore.
Check out nwoffshore.com for local events, and powerboats nw in Fife Wa is our local performance dealership

I live a couple hrs south so Lake Chelan is only 35 minutes from my house and Columbia River, well I can see it from my back yard. 4 minutes away. Grew up on a beach with the pacific as my play ground. Always something fun to find exploring in around Puget sound, the San Juans Islands, even in around Canada's Gulf Islands, etc. Portland and boating along the Oregon coast can also be interesting. You can also make Lake Shasta near the Northern California boarder in 12 hrs or so from Seattle. This year was really the first of fresh water for me. On the pacific, running both a 22 Boston Whaler and 17 Sea Ray runabout, never really encountered conditions that those boats could not handle. Port Angeles, Friday Harbor, Orcas Island, and in around Blaine Bellingham on the American side. Up British Columbia's sunshine coast, all around Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands. Pretty much my entire life. Its a short season, hence why I'm pro global warming. Best boating really is around the Pacific Northwest! How many places can you see awesome scenery and see Killer Whales?

I don't have pictures but just look at the first and last pictures in this ad. Scenery does not get better than that from a boat and did I mention you can see Killer Whales. :cool-smiley-027:

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1283612/0

Can you guys define a "short season"?

Around here we typically run from March/April to Sept/Oct. This varies from year to year. This year I was late October.

The season is short for the really good weather but depending on how immune you are to cold weather you can boat year round. My Layup for insurance is from November 1st to March 31st and it's too long for me. The official opening day of boating season is the 1st weekend of May(the University of Washington Huskies Crew Race is that weekend) but there is plenty of nice weather earlier in the year. Today would have been a nice day to go boating, only 60 degrees but it was sunny and nice. There is a lot of nice days even in the winter, the really nice weather is from Memorial Day to Labor day, but we usually boat up until the end of October. Sounds like your season is pretty close to ours.
As was said check out nwoffshore.com there are quite a few performance boats up here.

Caleb

Caleb is right, if you can take a little cold you can boat year round. We were just saying a hour ago that we should have put the boat in. One of the big differences in our area is that the destinations seem to be a little more rural, meaning that every destination isn't a bar or resteraunt, but maybe a nice island or cove. I have boated in a lot of places in the world, and more times than not they make me appreciate what we have in our corner of the country.

This picture taken on south Puget Sound two weekends ago at about 5pm. Wearing sweatshirt, shorts and Lifeline. Air temp OK but I wouldn't want to get wet.

I'm interested, too. Looks great, but what's the poop on rain and cloudy weahter? From what I hear the weather can be pretty cloudy for 8-10 months of the year?? Thansk

We don't get heavy rain very often but it will drizzle for long periods. Central WA is a desert and not far to get to (2 hours). We live in a dense forest because of the precipitation.

By biggest beef is the short days in the winter. But conversely, they are extra long in the summer. July 4th sunset around 10pm.

I live 30 odd miles South of Seattle