Lake Union lies at the heart of Seattle, and is accessed through the Ballard Locks. There are a pair of these. A large set for commercial traffic and smaller lock for yachts. We were headed to the docks of Yacht Masters, to replace our Mastervolt inverters with newer models.

The photo above shows the oceanside approach to the locks. We’re aiming for the yacht lock on the right. You can see the green signal light in the upper right hand corner indicating we can come forward. Even though we’ve been through the Panama Canal on numerous occasions we were still a little nervous for this first cycle through Ballard.

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This looks pretty narrow in the photo, but clearance was at least eight feet (2.4m) for Wind Horse.

When going up the locks you do all the line-handling yourself. There are floats on each side, with miniature bollards. We doubled up a bow and stern line around each of these, so they would be easily adjusted or released from on board. Our stanchion bases are welded through the toe rail and so are extremely strong. We often use them like this, to turn lines, or as attachment points.

The lock crew tell you where to place your lines in order to maximize how many boats will fit into the locks at one time. The ship lock requires adjustment of lines, the same as in Panama, as the water goes up or down, so being rafted to another boat is preferred (if you can hang onto a commercial boat).

We set our bow and stern lines about 15 feet (4.5m) in from each end. This was done to make it easier to reach the bollards, there being a lot less curvature to the hull away from the ends of the boat.

The lock crew sees a lot of different kinds of boats – everything from mega-yachts to outboard runabouts.

Lake Union is home to a variety of yacht marinas, commercial fishing fleet maintenance facilities, and commercial shipping.

But what caught our eye were the houseboats, which seemed to be everywhere.

Between the long summer days, and lots of things to do, it is easy to see how one could be “Sleepless in Seattle.”

The docks at the Yacht Master operation are quite pleasant, if a bit crowded. How many boat yards share their facilities with potted plants?

Todd Rickard and his crew at Yacht Masters do all sort of maintenance and systems work. At any given time they’ll be working on a variety of projects on both power and sailing vessels. While we were there they were doing rigging work, installing gensets and windlasses, doing entertainment systems, and several electronic projects.

As previously mentioned, we were at Yacht Masters to replace our first set of Mastervolt inverter-chargers with newer models, which hopefully will live up to the Mastervolt reputation. In the photo above the helm chair and its pedestal have been removed (four bolts) and the sole section over the basement taken out for easier access. Todd is lying on his side, adjusting dip switches on the Mastervolt units to set them up for our style of operation.

If you have to be stuck doing maintenance work, this is a pleasant location as boat facilities go. Downtown Seattle is within walking distance, with a variety of restaurants, and all sorts of opportunities to shop (if you are so inclined) close by as well. There are also many marine suppliers and fabricators in the neighborhood.