Longest Day

PHOTOS BY NEIL RABINOWITZ
More than 18 hours afloat make for an epic outing in the Great Northwest
ts the first day of summer. The original Starbucks in Seattle will open at 6 a.m. But over on Lake Washington, the coffee is already cold. Local boaters Ken Bernard and Ronna McGhee were on the water when the earliest glimpse of daylight touched the Cascade Mountains at 4 a.m. (far left). Theyll be on the water for the last glimpse, too, 20 hours later.
JUNE 2005 boatinglife.com

10:30 a.m.

5:30 a.m.

8:00 a.m.

1:00 p.m.
5:30 a.m. Boeing and Microsoft employees start filing across the I520 Bridge during an early rush hour. The antithesis is found at the mouth of Montlake Cut, where Ken and Ronna watch for the University of Washingtons rowing team to start practice. Far off to the right is Bill Gates domain, which locals call the compound because of the lakefront real estate it swallows.
8:00 a.m. Just as Ken idles up to Seward Park, a Piper floatplane begins to idle out in the opposite direction. Instead of beaching up to use the hiking trails on the 300-acre park, Ken and Ronna will sneak around to Stan Sayres Pits, home of Seattles hydroplane races. Theyll also see snow. on the peaks of Mount Rainier and Mount Baker in the distance.
10:30 a.m. The 55-degree night is giving way to a near-perfect 75-degree day. After six hours of puttering around Lake Washington, its time to get into Lake Washington. Although Seattle has a wet reputation, the truth is that an average of just 1.5 inches of rain falls on the citys waterways in June, with half that amount in July. Annually, Seattle gets less rain than Boston, Atlanta or Miami.
1:00 p.m. Its calm as Ken and Ronna head toward Lake Union, passing under the Montlake Bridge and one of its Gothic Revival towers. Later, boats of every size and style will be moving through the old ship canal. The bridge was built in 1925 so football fans could walk to Husky Stadium. Before that, spectators would traipse across barges on game days.

3:30 p.m.

3:00 p.m.

4:30 p.m.

5:30 p.m.
3:00 p.m. The smiles are not fake. Seattles ultimate waterfront lifestyle is in the floating homes and houseboats along Lake Union. A mere 800 square feet of living space goes for half a million dollars, or twice that. The Tom Hanks film Sleepless in Seattle was filmed right here, where a mom and her toddler kayak confidently across the bow of the 26-foot Bayliner.
3:30 p.m. The day is nearly 12 hours old and the peanut butter crackers have lost their pizzazz. Ken and Ronna tie up for a very late lunch in Chandlers Cove. It seems theirs arent the only growling bellies on Lake Union cracker crumbs, anyone? Around the boat are waterfront restaurants, two marinas with transient slips and the citys famed Space Needle.
4:30 p.m. Fire drill. The sun is still hot and wont begin its descent over the Olympic Mountains for three hours. So, Ronna takes a dive off the back porch. (Notice the houseboat behind her; its splash-resistant, covered with tiles.) The citys personality is reflected in the boaters and floaters who will soon hit the water en masse.
5:30 p.m. The evening cruise is about to begin, which means Ken and Ronna will change clothes for the sixth time today. Then theyll try to beat the crowd to Ballard Locks for the transition into Puget Sound. Its a Nikon-perfect day and rush hour on the water, so the short run from citified Lake Union into the openness of the Sound will take two hours but theyll still arrive in plenty of time for sunset.

8:00 p.m.

Boat du Jour: Bayliner 265
s fate would have it or maybe it was luck we stumbled into the Bayliner 265 during a trip to the companys manufacturing facility a week before the summer solstice. At that time nobody outside Bayliner had seen the boat. It looked to be the perfect fit for our outing. Besides, the plant is less than an hour from the genesis of this piece, Lake Washington. We tested the 265 a couple of months later (go to boatinglife.com/boats/bayliner265 for the full review and video). It took less than 18 hours much less to determine that the boat is a bargain at around $50,000. Theres some irony in that its an overnighter, but for this story we used it as a day boat. A looong-day boat. Yes, its true. Our models, Seattle-area boaters Ken Bernard and Ronna McGhee, were on the water at 4 a.m. to start the day, and they didnt tie up for good until midnight.

6:30 p.m.

6:30 p.m. It must be a Tuesday night, because as theyre leaving Lake Union our powerboaters run into a fleet of sailboaters, racing in what is called the Duck Dodge. The two most important rules are: 1) No hitting each other, and 2) Never make a duck change course (dodge the duck). From here its hard to tell if this is pajama night, pirate night or toga night.
8:00 p.m. The Bayliner is one of 73,000 boats to use the Ballard Locks every year, making this the busiest such passage in the country. It also teems with Chinook salmon migrating from fresh water to the ocean and sea lions making their way south. Once through, Ken and Ronna will literally head into the sunset, milking the day for four more hours.