OK, it’s time to switch into full holiday mode. Aren’t you happy that all the political commercials are over with? It was an interesting season.
The holiday lights will be turned on Dec 1. I hope you get a chance to come down and enjoy the party and watch as the big show gets under way.
You might be wondering what will happen to the two boats we had for the SoundRunner project. Since they were purchased using Federal Transit Administration grant funds, they will need to be transferred to an agency who receives those types of funds. At the moment, the King County Ferry District and the Port of Port Townsend are in the running to take over ownership of the Spirit of Kingston.
Regarding the red boat, The Express: we had been working with the town of Ketchikan, Alaska, but those talks have stalled. We will market it in the non-public arena as well and any funds we get will be used to reimburse the FTA. Some of the funds granted to the port were used for infrastructure, such as the transfer span and work on the barge. We will absorb those costs as they are quite a bargain and leaves us with a large mooring platform that will likely bring some revenue into the port district for many years to come.
On the dredging issue, all the permits have been submitted and we are just waiting for the go-ahead to get started on the project. Hopefully, we will get this issue taken care of in January.
I mentioned in November that our waiting lists for A, B and C dock were getting small. It is interesting to know, though, that the Port of Kingston is the only public port marina in the Sound that is at 100 percent capacity. Other ports are struggling to fill their slips. I spent about 10 days down in the Florida Keys in early November. Talking to some of the harbormasters there, you can find space for just about any size of boat but the prices are sky high. I found one gas pump in a marina with a price of $4.99 per gallon. One guy was filling his offshore racer with 200 gallons! He said it would last him “most” of the weekend.
If you are planning to go to the Great Seattle Boat Show this January, stop by the Port of Kingston booth. We will be there working on attracting more transient visitors to Kingston when they are out boating next year.
Nautical term
Since I am sitting right now at a little dockside cafe working on a nice cup of Cuban coffee and watching the boats go by, my Nautical Term this month just has to be Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Intracoastal Waterways are bays, rivers and canals along the coasts (such as the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts), connected so that vessels may travel without going into the sea.
So, that’s about it for this month. On behalf of everyone connected to the Port of Kingston, I would like to wish each of you a wonderful Christmas and a great holiday season. And as always, thanks for taking a little time to read this stuff.
— Pete DeBoer is a Kingston port commissioner. Contact him at pete@petedeboer.com.
