The Bellingham Real Estate Podcast
The Bellingham Real Estate Podcast
EP: - 0050 Where Real Estate Meets the Sea: Bellingham's Marine Community with Barbara Thevenaz
We explore Bellingham's vibrant boating scene and waterfront real estate opportunities with Barbara, who balances her realtor career with working as a checkout skipper at San Juan Sailing.
• Barbara shares her sailing journey from the University of Wisconsin to California racing and now the Pacific Northwest
• The San Juan Islands offer protected waters with milder weather conditions compared to Southern California's open ocean sailing
• Popular boating routes include state parks, Roche Harbor, Friday Harbor, and Rosario on Orcas Island
• The charter season runs April through early November, though experienced boaters can navigate year-round
• Local boating events include May 1st opening day celebrations, the historic Pitch Regatta, and Thursday night racing
• Entry points to boating include Community Boating Center for small boats and San Juan Sailing for ASA certification
• Bellingham and Blaine have Port of Bellingham marinas, while Sandy Point, Birch Bay Village, and Semiahmoo offer docks from residential properties
• Birch Bay Village provides extra security for boat owners who travel seasonally
• Marine wildlife encounters include harbor seals, dolphins, porpoises, and occasional orca sightings
• Lake Whatcom offers sailing opportunities through Lakewood facility for students and certain organizations
You can reach Barbara at barbarathevenaz@johnlscott.com
Hello and welcome to the Bellingham Real Estate Podcast. I'm Paul Balzatti. I'm here with Barbara. How's it going, Barbara?
Speaker 2:Good, I'm doing well, thank you.
Speaker 1:Good, thank you for joining us today, and we are going to talk about boating and the marine life and the saltwater world out there as it relates to Bellingham and Whatcom County and a little bit we'll touch later on a little bit about how it relates to the housing market as well, and, of course, I wanted to have you on because I know this is a world that you're very passionate about, and so why don't you start out by just sharing with everybody the organization you're a part of?
Speaker 2:So I'm a full-time realtor at John L Scott but for the last 14, 15 years I've also been working at San Juan Sailing, yachting and Chartering down here at the Marina in Bellingham. San Juan Sailing has been around for over 30 years, started out with two boats but now it's over 55 power and sailboats and we get people from all over the United States and internationally that come out to cruise the San Juans cruise the Gulf Islands up in BC and I work there on Friday afternoons. Sometimes I work greeting people, but mostly I'm a checkout skipper, working with them on the dock with the boat and helping orientate them to our area.
Speaker 1:So what sparked your interest in getting into that world?
Speaker 2:It started when I was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. They had a sailing the school's on 15 mile long lake and everybody sails, Everybody's on the water all the time. So it started there and then moved to California, worked at UC Irvine in Southern California, joined their sailing club and then I started racing offshore with a group. And then I joined Orange Coast College School of Seamanship and took all the classes.
Speaker 1:So you started racing sailboats Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, offshore around Catalina Island overnight, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:So you started on a lake in Wisconsin, then worked your way to open water Open water, yeah, and that is yeah, and, and so what are the? How does that compare? So, california to here, let's I wanted to get into, like, what are the benefits of the area you know, sailing, yachting, boating here versus other parts of the country? But maybe even a better question might be directly like California to here, how does it? How's it different? I mean, obviously it's warmer down there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the water temperature is a little warmer down there, but not much. One of the things is down there you have open ocean.
Speaker 1:Oh right.
Speaker 2:There's only one Island to go to and it's Catalina, right offshore, and then some of the channel Islands if you go north. Here we're in protected waters out in the San Juans are protected because of the geographical ranges of the mountains, so our weather is more mild and we get extreme tides, but that you can deal with that. But the weather windows that we have in the San Juans and up in the gulf islands and bc don't compare to anything down south at all.
Speaker 1:So so so, and again, I'm I'm I know very little about the subject because I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask dumb questions. So so what you're saying, the way I'm understanding this is that just essentially. It just can be calmer yes and the waters can be calmer, whereas going out in open ocean it's going to be less predictable or less calming in general.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:That makes sense because of the bays.
Speaker 2:The bays also, and the mountain ranges on the Olympic Peninsula and also Vancouver Island, and everybody knows where the San Juans are. Everybody knows where the Gulf Islands are. They're known across, you know, up and down the coast because it's a protected area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Okay, cool. So would you say, let's get into that. So those are the benefits. So the benefits of getting into boating or, if you're already into boating, of of moving up here and being a part of that scene is is you got the san juan islands? You have the protected coastline? Um, what are the other benefits for sailing boating in general in this area?
Speaker 2:Well, there's so many marinas up here. Also, go down the Puget Sound. There are so many towns that have marinas and you can go south, you can go north, you can go all the way up to Alaska through the inside passage. There's thousands of miles of boating in this whole area.
Speaker 1:When you're yachting or not a yacht. When you're yachting that a yacht. When you're yachting that's different, I'm sorry. When you're sailing what would be the farthest that you would like coming out of bellingham? If you're coming out of bellingham, yeah how far would you pretend? I guess it depends on the size of the sailboat right, I mean I guess like but on you you do. You guys have a sailboat, do you have your own?
Speaker 1:oh, we used to yeah, yeah, you had your own sailboat, would you just jump over to orcas island, or would you?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, so when we we lived aboard down south on a boat, sold that one, bought another one and you lived on the boat for yeah, yeah that's.
Speaker 1:That's pretty common too, and we, yes, not, not common, but like, isn't there, um, is there? Sorry to I'm I'm asking now two questions at once. But isn't there, um? But isn't there locations on most of these marinas? Do they let you live in the marina in the summer?
Speaker 2:Year-round, year-round.
Speaker 1:And there's people year-round that do right.
Speaker 2:Yes, in Bellingham there's people out on G-Doc who live year-round, and you've done it. That was in Southern California where it's warm here. No, we bought a boat, we had it in in the water and we had a 30 foot. We did like a thousand nautical miles in the gulf islands in the sand want in two years okay, so we were out and about.
Speaker 2:So from here you can go all the way. You could go all the way to the north vancouver on the inside passage most people stick in the sand wand jump over to victoria Victoria on Vancouver Island or just do southern Gulf Islands.
Speaker 1:So let's say, when people are boating out to go to a destination, let's say from and I know we're going to touch on Birch Bay, Semiama, but let's say from there or from Bellingham or Sandy Point. You know those areas. What would be like maybe the top five, six, seven destinations as far as um, spots that are the most popular?
Speaker 2:yes, to go out to. Yeah, one of the jobs that I do when I'm talking to the charter guests is uh route finding what do they want to do and where do they want to go. Most popular is hitting the. So there's a chain of islands before you even get into the san juans or part of the san juans, but they are all state parks and so it's all recreation. It's all fishing, kayaking, paddleboarding around and just hiking.
Speaker 2:So susha's first, most people go to yeah and then they hop into the northern gulf islands and they go into roche harbor, which is on san juan yeah which is yeah, it's a beautiful marina. It's very old, but it uh meaning historic, but it's a huge. It's one of the huge, biggest marinas in the san juan. And then they hop down to friday harbor yeah and they go to rosario, which is on orcas, and then they come back and that's a 10-day cruise oh wow, yeah, if you do that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because the distances aren't too far, but it takes time so you you're going to spend a week and then you might go stay in roach harbor for a few days, and then yeah this.
Speaker 2:This actually sounds pretty fabulous oh it is, it's so fun. Everybody when they come, they're ready to, yeah, have adventure yeah and um and so what are is there?
Speaker 1:so this is gonna get posted here. Um, you know, in the spring Going into the spring and summer, I'm sure that's when most of the events are. What are the biggest events that are in Whatcom County every year? For boating, for boating.
Speaker 2:So obviously May 1st is opening day of boating nationally, internationally. Oh, I didn't know that it's not obvious to me? No, I know, know that.
Speaker 1:So there's, yeah, there's it's not obvious to me?
Speaker 2:No, I know right. That's only the people on the dock who know about it. Yeah, that is opening day. There's events like-.
Speaker 1:What does that mean? The opening day.
Speaker 2:Opening day is basically a party.
Speaker 1:Okay, so because you can technically go out obviously whenever.
Speaker 2:So it's just, it's just like hey, this is the day, yeah, celebrate, yeah, go time. Yep, so the charter season here starts. Like what were you in? April starts in april okay, goes all the way to the first of november. That's our charter season. You can boat year round, no problem. If you have the proper, you know boat and knowledge and understanding of weather patterns, you can go all year round.
Speaker 2:So right but one of the events that um. So there's two yacht clubs in town. In addition, they have regattas, and one of them is called the Pitch Regatta, which is like 50 years in the making and it's in Bellingham Bay. There's Thursday night racing. There's other areas in Bellingham that have smaller boats like dinghy size. They have their own regatta. So there's all those different events that people can participate in.
Speaker 1:So Would you say that how many of these with the local events, is it primarily kind of as a community of people that generally get to know each other really well, or do you get a lot of people that are coming from anacortes or coming from birch? Yeah, is there a lot, or coming from, or they're renting something and they're real, you know, affluent, and kind of just coming in and want to just you know what's the percent, what about how much of it is? Is out outsiders coming in for these things versus, uh, like a vibrant local scene?
Speaker 2:So pitch regatta is probably up and down the sound. People bring their boats from down south, People bring it from. We don't get people from Canada, but people. That's a pitch regatta is probably part of a series that people are doing with their race boat. The thing that Community Boating Center in Fairhaven, that's all local. You know Bellingham Yacht Club, their classes, that's all local. Their regattas are all local. Thursday nights local, All that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and with the Yacht Club and with you guys. So there's basically let's just kind of also jump to the different types of opportunities out there. So, let's say again you're new to this world and you're kind of dipping your toes in no pun intended, right.
Speaker 2:Ha, you will.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, that's a lame joke. So you got. You know you have the small sailboats and then larger sailboats. Why don't you just explain it, because I'm going to sound like an idiot, sure no, no.
Speaker 2:So if you want to get into sailing, you can start with your kids, you can start as a family or you can start as an adult. So Community Boating Center has I think it's USA is the association they deal with they're racing, they are in small boats. You're learning how to sail racing, they are in small boats. You're learning how to sail the theory and all that other stuff. San Juan sailing, the charter school and the sailing school and the power school. They're all about ASA American Sailing Association. You can get all your certification through San Juan sailing and you can charter boats with them. There's like over 55 boats in the fleet, ranging from 30 to 50. Sail and power that ASA certification. You can take it anywhere in the world and charter based on that. So that's more like offshore navigation.
Speaker 1:You know, with San Juan Sailing, and so San Juan Sailing obviously focuses on sailing, but when you're talking about with a yacht club, so then that's just kind of a mix. They just kind of have the motor no it's interesting, the yacht club is all sailing. Oh, it's all sailing yeah.
Speaker 2:San Juan, sailing is power and sail.
Speaker 1:And so that would be a difference between the two organizations.
Speaker 2:Then Pretty much, yeah. So that's a club, we are a business. San Juan Sailing and Charging is a business.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, got it.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's the other difference then is one's kind of got the okay and then all right, and and then the next thing I want to touch on is we briefly touched on it but what are the communities locally where there are marinas? Yes, so there are. Port of Bellingham has a huge marina here in Bellingham. The wait list is quite many years because it's super popular. Waitlist is quite many years because it's super popular, oh, yeah, most people. So there's bellingham and blaine are the two port of bellingham um marinas. Most people go to blaine first, get in there and then get on the waitlist, come down to bellingham. Um, if you want to have your boat at your dock, you could do sandy point, which has docks right outside your homes. Or you could do birch bay village, which has uh marinas and your boat can be right at your house as well too. Or you can be up at samyamu at uh live in Semiyamu and then go out to the marina at Semiyamu and you can buy a slip at Semiyamu.
Speaker 1:And you could buy a slip at Semiyamu and at Birch Bay Village right.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, most often it comes with your property, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I know that our office we sell sometimes those spits at Birch Bay Village separately.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, you do. Okay, you can if people own and don't have a boat, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, so, but generally speaking it would go to the house, but that can be done separately, and is there any advantages? Or you know, I know Birch Bay is in the rain shadow, so it's nice that way. But I mean, is there any benefits up there at all, like anything?
Speaker 2:Yes, and also I was going to say if you have a trailer boat you can launch Blaine, you can perch bay, semiyamu, all those places and Bellingham you can launch your boat too. But the benefit for getting to the islands most people if they launch out of Bellingham you have seven nautical miles of birch, the bay that kicks up. It gets really nasty in there quickly in the afternoon. If you launch from Sandy Point or Blaine, you're cutting across the Rosario Straits in that area and it's it's. We don't have the weather that's closer to the islands. You get tucked in faster into the weather pattern out in the islands faster.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that makes sense and and that's got to be a big big part of of the learning process is understanding the weather knowledge is key yeah, because you could probably get yourself in some pretty hairy oh, I've been in them.
Speaker 2:I've been on the back side of lummi, you kicking coming down in swells that are huge, to my advantage.
Speaker 1:But it gets up. What do you mean by to your advantage?
Speaker 2:If you're going downwind in your sailboat and your swells are coming from the north and you're going with it, it's great, but if you're going into it, it's not so great.
Speaker 1:So I mean, even with a big swell when you're in a sailboat you can just kind of just let them just like be your engine kind of, and that can still get a little bit sketchy.
Speaker 2:Well, here it's interesting here we can have 15-foot tidal swings in the summer, so that creates its own knot. So if you're going with the current, you can be going faster than your boat speed, hull speed.
Speaker 1:If you're going against it. It's kind of a little nasty. You're taking on a little water. And then I also don't want to forget. We'll talk a little bit more about the real estate side of things but marine life out there. What do you run into when you're out there?
Speaker 2:Most often around the mar marinas. Most often it's the seals, the harbor seals. They'll hang out on the docks or the birds um, a lot of singles and stuff. But once you're offshore or in the islands, dolphins are always on the bow pretty much. You see pods of dolphin all the time and then just seabirds. The other things you see, like orcas, um there's, you know there's, you can find. There's an app where you can find out where the pods are and you can find out where they're moving through. Um, and sometimes you know you're out there and you're just your engines are off and you're just sailing.
Speaker 2:Obviously we've had orcas come under our boat wow because they're coming down and we're going up and they just come out. So you're supposed to stay in Canada. You have to stay away from them because that's our feeding grounds. In certain areas you get heavily fined for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but you know if they're transiting, that just they're out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I didn't realize, I knew obviously orcas, because there's all sorts of orca and that's important for people to know if they're moving into the area, there's whale watching all the time that goes out of the bay, but I didn't realize that you see a lot of dolphins too.
Speaker 2:Yes, all the time. Dolphins and porpoises.
Speaker 1:they're smaller porpoises, Okay, smaller porpoises and you definitely know about the seals If you've hung out at all by that. But if I have arena, yes, sometimes they're hanging out. Just come, and especially down in bellingham, they'll hop on the dock and just sun yeah, I don't remember where it was out of, but there used to be a one like a one-eyed willie or something that was just like you know, um, that would just hang.
Speaker 1:That's friday harbor, oh, that's friday harbor, yeah, oh my God, lots of memories of that, and then and then. Ok, so jumping into the real estate world. So, if you're looking for a home, yes. You know you mentioned Sandy Point. Yes, Samyamu Birch Bay Village.
Speaker 2:Yes village. Yes, um any other kind of uh tips for people who are um relocating here, that are into this world um areas to look you know um things like that so I currently have a client who has a sailboat and they are up in birch bay village yeah and they go in winter in mexico during the winter and then they come back up here and they they with their boat.
Speaker 2:But, being a Birch Bay Village, they're feeling like their boat is very secure from weather, from theft, because it's a secured community. So they leave their boat in the water unattended, they don't have anybody checking on it and they feel Birch Bay Village is great for them. So, miyamu, all the marinas here are gated, so the codes change every week, so nobody. All the marinas here are gated, so the codes change every week, so nobody can just walk on the dock. So being in a secure place like Birch Bay Village has an extra layer. Samayamo, you could keep your boat up there, but Birch Bay Village is what most people who work at San Juan Sailing keep their boat, either in Marina or live up in Birch Bay Village because they just like the quick access and the security of it all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Sandy Point as well, but it's a little bit smaller.
Speaker 2:It's smaller. They have their challenges. With their opening to get out, they have to take it at high tide because it's narrower, and if you have a keel boat you're drawn six or seven feet. So you have to kind of time it right keelboat.
Speaker 1:Is that just a deeper boat?
Speaker 2:down the sailboat. Is the keel down below? Okay how much you are pulling through the water okay, so that would be. It'd be better for for like a motorboat, not as yes, oh, yeah, yeah, they only draw like two to three feet at the most, so it's mostly, uh mostly motorboats there yep, mostly power yeah up in that area, so yeah, um and okay, so anything else that you want to touch on as far as like.
Speaker 1:So, we touched on the different.
Speaker 2:I think we covered the organizations right yeah, different ways to get into sailing, um, on saltwater, uh. And then if you want to learn how to sail or power boat, they have a school, san juan sailing or community boating center has, and I've done the community boating center for fun yeah, um and on the racing dinghies, and that's a lot of kids, a lot of adults.
Speaker 1:That's a huge, vibrant community too yeah, and that's um, and then they have. Are they the ones who have this spot and like welcome to you?
Speaker 2:and so that is lake. Lakewood is a sailing base. That's for Western students, alumni staff and then also BTC and another organization. If you're a student, you can go there and take classes. Charter boats well, rent them on the lake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's probably. I think, if I was to learn, I'd feel better about learning.
Speaker 2:Well, lake Whatcom is not too much different temperature than? Oh really, yeah, is not too much different temperature that?
Speaker 1:oh really, yeah, not too much. And, and I mean so, you're, you would argue, I mean you're, you're, you're a little biased, because you're I'm just joking, but no, but no, uh so in your first entry sailing class you have to turtle your boat yeah, you have to, you have to get in the water, and so if you're going in the salt water and you have a wetsuit on it, just takes your breath away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lake walk.
Speaker 1:I'm a little warmer but you're still cold yeah, and they do that to the kids too oh, they do yeah, and the kids love it yeah totally crazy oh my gosh, that's great. Yeah, well, that was, uh, that was. That was very informational for me, so I hope it was for others listening or watching and, um, if you, of course, if you want to, if you want to help looking for a home in or have real estate or marina questions, you can reach out to Barbara.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And thank you for watching and listening, you guys, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you.