Port Townsend, WA 23-FEB-2026 – We’re not moving the boat to Olympia for the summer.
‘‘It’s pretty certain that you’ll have a slip in Boat Haven,’’* is what Michele at the Point Hudson marina told me.
‘‘They called me and told me to tell you. I don’t know why they couldn’t just call you directly.’’
Neither do I.
‘‘So, you should stay.’’
I said, ‘‘Pretty certain?’’
‘‘You have it. I don’t know why they just can’t say you have a slip.’’
A few thoughts came to mind, but Michele carried on being helpful – I mean no sarcasm. Everyone in the Port of Port Townsend is very helpful. It is just the way the place is.
I went to the Boat Haven moorage office last week, looking into whether I would get moorage this summer. I received an email, which I presume everyone in Point Hudson received, telling me that there might be moorage available from May 1 until October 1, the months when it is not available in Point Hudson. I called and spoke to Suzy, who told me I was second on the list. I asked when would I know, Suzy said the first of May. That wouldn’t work for me, or anyone. I thanked her.
Last week I went into the office to learn when I might know whether I would get a slip. I spoke to another woman working the desk who said she would check. She went back to an office. In it sat Kristian, the Harbor Master.
I’ve known Kristian since he started working at the harbor ten or so years ago as a grunt. He appeared everywhere. I met him running a travel lift and then in the moorage office in Point Hudson, and then in the moorage office in Boat Haven. I came away with the knowledge he was very smart and would be running the whole show soon, I told Jennifer.
I walked over and spoke to Kristian directly, after each of us said hi to the other. He said, I can pretty much say you’ll get a slip. I told him I needed to know next week because Michele needs to know, and I need to commit to where I will store it for the summer if I can’t store it here. He replied I’d know next week.
I mentioned what Suzy told me. Kristian said that she was new and it was a misunderstanding. I believed him and felt that was true.
When I went into the office today, the man I spoke to said Kristian had just left. Why don’t you call him? He then went over to stacks of business cards and gave me one. He said he’ll probably pick up. As I was dialing, I realized that I have an Atlanta phone number. He won’t pick up and did not.
I sent him a long text message: ‘‘Kristian, this is John Juliano, you know me. We generally meet at the wind boat festival and here and there. I spoke with you last week about a slip from May to October. You said you would probably have a slip for me. I’m number two on the list and I want him to find out if that is true. I need to make a decision by Thursday.
I need to tell Michele that I won’t keep the slip in March, if I am leaving and I need to tell the people that I am moving to that I will take theirs on March 1. If you could give me a call, that would be helpful or tell me when you’ll be in your office. I’m here now.’’
And then drove home to look for my knapsack, which was in the car behind the back seat in the shadow; I returned to the boat. I parked in the fifteen-minute parking behind the public meeting space. While I was gathering my stuff, Michele called. I told her I was at the harbor, she replied, ‘‘Well why don’t you just come over to the office, so I don’t have to tell you over the phone.’’
My thoughts were that she needed to know whether I was staying or going. It was, of course, the opposite.
Michele told me she had the slip number, if I wanted to see it, and flipped a map around for me. Then, we spoke for fifteen minutes or so about all sorts of things: she, Jean, and I.
They are very nice women, and I had a great time. I asked about Kristian and told her my thoughts on how he came to be running things. Michele said he is very smart. ‘‘Sometimes, I can’t keep up with his thoughts.’’
I asked whether he climbed or was hired for this position, and they just moved him from place to place. She looked at Jean and said he just started working at the yard.
‘‘You know they’re going to have a baby.’’
I didn’t know and said it was great news. We spoke further, and I said Kristian doesn’t know my name.
‘‘I think he does. He certainly knows now.’’
I looked at her. ‘‘You told him right here that you thought he should remember your name.’’
I don’t remember that. I don’t know when I said it, but I do remember meeting him in the office one day. I had to be in fall 2024 or perhaps spring 2025, I think. My friend John Riley used to say, ‘‘I had a stroke,you know’’ as a way of being funny and hiding when he didn’t remember things.
For this, I didn’t say I had a stroke, and that’s why I don’t remember, but I thought it. Am I reading too much into him calling Michele as opposed to calling me? He didn’t seem upset to see me when I was in his office.
I told Michele the dates I will be gone, April 24th through May 16th. Could I have the slip on the 24th. She said the person in the slip is leaving in April I should be able to have it.
She is pretty certain.
My boating decisions have just been made on ‘‘pretty certain.’’
*Quotations in quote are what I remember the person saying. Without quotes, they are a paraphrase as closely as I can reconstruct.
