With two large marinas, Anacortes, WA is a popular boating destination close to the beautiful San Juan Islands. The city also is the gateway to the islands for those without a boat, with nearly a million arriving by ferry in 2021. That is how we visited the islands last fall. And Anacortes has been the home of the Trawlerfest in the Pacific Northwest for over a decade.
This year, we stayed in Anacortes for two nights while we presented at Trawlerfest. For past presentations, we’d stayed on our own boat. But boatless this time, we stayed at the Majestic Inn in a room with great view to Guemes Channel and towards the San Juan Islands.
We arrived the morning of our talk, and had lunch at the Brown Lantern Ale house before heading over to the seminar area. We had a little time before we started, and spent it amongst beautiful native art work at the nearby Samish Indian Tribe offices.
After our talk, we enjoyed lunch outside with John & Tina Philippson, previous owners of Nordhavn 7502 Sockeye Blue. We’d not seen them since Florida in 2016 and really enjoyed catching up. We walked the docks at Trawlerfest after, and had chatted with Yacht Tech James Knight, who did an amazing job of preparing Dirona for market and closing the sale.
Our final Trawlerfest event for the day was the “Trawlers at Twilight” cocktail party, where we had such a good time we forgot to take any picture. But we did get some great sunset views from the rooftop bar of our hotel later that evening.
The following day, we made our first foray back into boating with the rental of a Boston Whaler from Anacortes Yacht Charters. We had a fabulous time touring the San Juan Islands in the high-speed boat, visiting many of our old haunts. In between visiting various marine parks, we stopped for lunch at the Lopez Island Resort on Lopez Island, and had a drink at the Madrona Bar and Grill in Roche Harbor.
We had a fabulous time being out on the water again, and it got us more seriously thinking about what the next boat should be.
I hope you are aware of the tough, semi-custom aluminum fast cruisers made by Coastal Craft in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve often thought their big 40+ footer would make a fabulous walk-around like a Sargo, powered by triple Merc 400’s. It would be really fun to work with Coastal to have them build a coastal cruiser to your design and specs.
I agree John. In carefully reflecting on the last year, we would only have used the boat 2 or 3 times though with all the other trips we have been doing and enjoying. I think we’re going through a period of trying different activities and, as a consequence, we’ve been pretty busy but the Coastal Craft has an appeal. Especially the speed.
If you like buzzing around in a fast sports-car boat with limited accommodations, I just acquired a Boston whaler 350 Realm and find it to be a terrific day boat with minimal weekending potential. The slightly larger BW 380 Realm is similar. Take a look at the Wellcraft 355, a new commuter-style fast cruiser, and Targa boats sold in your area are top-tier fast cruising boats. Really great boats. Sargo boats are very similar to Targa and have a unique fold-out helm that is awesome.
Yes, you are right John. Modern center consoles can deliver up over 50 mph of performance with the comfort of wind and sun protection. The Targa and others in that class are bit more practical for the Seattle area where rain is more common but even they can reach up over 40 mph. There is no question we would enjoy having one ready to go in Anacortes for quick blasts to the San Juan islands.