Update (4-17-01):
Shilshole sandbagged us last Friday by renegging on the assurances they've been giving Bill for the past 2+ months that they would reserve two slips for us. We'll still go to Shilshole but docking will be catch as catch can, or haul at night and leave your boat on its trailer (rigged).
Tim
Shilshole
Bay Marina is in Ballard, a district of the City of Seattle. To
orient yourself:
Ballard is northwest of downtown, northwest of the Space Needle,
due west of
the University of Washington, on the eastern shore of Puget
Sound. Click
the first map for an overview:
Whether coming from the north or the south
on I-5, you take 45th Street due west to get to Shilshole. 45th is an exit off
of I-5. (Coming from the north, the exit is for both 50th and 45th Street.)
Click the second map for a larger image and directions.
Click on the chart segment below for a large overview, excerpted from Chart 18447, Lake Washington Ship Canal and Lake Washington, of the area where we'll be.
The ramps are just north of the
Marina. We will be staying at dock W, which is the northernmost dock, just south
of the ramp. We'll be using Slips 11 & 12, the slips closest to shore. Overnight
car and trailer parking is just to the north of the ramp.
The Ballard Locks (more properly known as the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks) are in the lower right, just below the text that says "Salt Water Barrier".
There is another small public ramp just east of the locks, the 14th street ramp; it's not visible on the chart segment. When I visited it a couple of weeks ago, there was no wait to launch, but I'm told it can get busy on the weekends. There is ample parking on the weekend, but there is general agreement that it's not secure overnight. I doubt there's much parking on Friday because of abutting businesses. If anybody decides to use this ramp, we'll be able to arrange to shuttle you to pick up your car and park it elsewhere (at Shilshole or where else you prefer, within reason).
If you were to continue east, beyond the edge of this chart segment, you would traverse the ship canal, an artificial channel that separates Ballard and Fremont to the north and Magnolia and Queen Anne to the south, and into Lake Union, at the north end of downtown. From there, you could continue east through another channel, past the University of Washington, and into Lake Washington.
All of Chart 18447, encompassing all of the areas discribed above and without my annotations, can be viewed here (western section of the Ship Canal) and here (eastern section of the Ship Canal) including Lake Union (one of our sailing options) and here (Lake Washington) from the NOAA web site. Another chart segment that you may want to look at, since it includes the other areas where we may sail, is from Chart 18449, Puget Sound Seattle to Bremerton (1:25,000). Shilshole is just off the chart at the top on the eastern edge. Eagle Harbor, where we hope to sail on Bainbridge Island, is west, in the approximate center of the Chart 18449 segment. South of Shilshole on this chart is Elliott Bay and the Seattle waterfront, another of our sailing options. Chart 18450 is a 1:10,000 chart of Elliott Bay and the waterfront.
Last modified 4/17/2001 (ts)
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