It’s Boat Show Time!

The Christmas lights have been stowed away in dozens of hard plastic boxes that are catalogued like the Dewey Decimal System. Soggy sections of our lawn are being repaired and tended to and the staff will be enjoying some well-deserved time indoors at the Big Seattle Boat Show.

The Seattle Boat Show is Jan. 25 to Feb. 3 at CenturyLink Field and South Lake Union.

This is the Port of Kingston’s first appearance at the show in anyone’s memory down at the port. Many marinas and ports have been appearing there over the past few years trying to attract boaters and other visitors to their facilities.

Tourism is a competitive business and we feel that it is worth the economic effort to attract more folks to come and see, hear and enjoy the Kingston story.  Harbormaster Kevin has gone around town and worked with the Chamber of Commerce to put together a treasure chest of goodies that will be raffled off at the end of the show to some lucky visitor to come our way this summer.

The port has gone high tech with our own QR code, which is one of those funny looking square barcode-like things.  You can scan it with your smart phone and then your smart phone can show you the port’s website and all the other sites that are linked to it. It’s really cool.

We are also starting a text information service that will advise cruising boaters up-to-the-hour information on vacancies on our guest dock, fuel prices and just who will be playing at our Concerts on the Cove.  Hitting our code with your smart phone will enter you into our text mail alert system.  You will not receive more than four notifications in any one month.

I don’t know about you, but I think all of this stuff is just plain fun. You can download a free app from your provider, then scan the QR code and get started.

Now that our budget and master plan have been updated, we are working on a few adjustments and updates to our Port Tenants Rules and Regulations,  Personnel Policy Manual and our Code of Ethics.  All of those kinds of documents are subject to periodic updates to bring them in line with current laws and customs.

The long-awaited dredging project continues to be “long awaited” as we continue to work on permit requirements. Dredging will probably be delayed until mid-July.

Nautical term
Now, here is the nautical word of the month: Hockle.  It’s an unusual word worth learning, if only because it is so much fun to say.

A hockle is a kink in a cable, wire, chain or 3-strand nylon cordage. I sure hope that we don’t find a whole bunch of hockles in our Christmas lights next fall.

So, that’s about it for this edition. If you have a chance to get down to CenturyLink Field during the boat show, please stop by our booth and say hi. I think we will be on the ground floor over in the east section of the main hall.

Thanks for taking a few minutes to read this stuff. I hope you found something interesting.

— Pete DeBoer is a Kingston port commissioner. Contact him at pete@petedeboer.com.