Area has boats, food, views -- and much more

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Most Puget Sound residents come to the Shilshole Bay area for the boating, the magnificent views or the food.

Sometimes they hop in their cars and pickup trucks and drive here to watch the sea lions savage the steelhead runs at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks.

But Dean Moller isn't one of them.

It's not that Moller doesn't appreciate a beautiful sunset behind the snow-capped Olympic Mountains or enjoy dining at Ray's Boathouse or one of the other restaurants. He just doesn't have to fight the traffic to get here.

Moller is one of about 350 liveaboards at the Shilshole Bay Marina, which anchors the Shilshole and Sunset Hill neighborhoods.

When he decides to go boating, he's already aboard the Blackwatch, his 39-foot sailboat. And when it's time for him to go to work, he doesn't worry about traffic-clogged freeways. His boat is moored within walking distance of Sailboats at Shilshole, where he is a broker.

"It's a rough commute," he jokes.

Moller, former president of the Washington State Liveaboard Association, has spent spent nearly 10 years moored at the marina operated by the Port of Seattle.

He and his wife and daughter share the cramped quarters. But he's not complaining about the lack of space.

"I tend not to think of it so much as cramped, but as cozy," says Moller. "People who live on boats learn to do a little dance. You anticipate the movements and it sort of becomes a slow ballet."

Living on a sailboat was a little harder to enjoy this past winter than most because of the wet and windy weather. "Summers are heaven and winters are not heaven," he says, laughing.

But Moller doesn't regret the family's decision to give up its land-locked ways. "Living aboard a boat is not for everyone. Not everyone can put up with the space restrictions. But that's probably what makes it so special for the ones who can."

Kevin Carrabine enjoys boating but prefers dry land when it comes to living arrangements. He owns a house in Sunset Hill, the largely residential neighborhood that rises above Shilshole Bay Marina.

Carrabine, who has served three years as president of the Sunset Hill Community Club, says those who think boating, scenic views and restaurants are all the area has to offer are missing out on a great deal.

"This community sprang up as a suburb of Ballard, and it still has that feeling," says the 47-year-old nurse practitioner. "There's a real sense of people caring here."

Sunset Hill residents enjoy the expansive views of Shilshole Bay and the Olympic Mountains like everyone else. But they also enjoy living in a relatively peaceful area. Downtown Seattle is close by, but the pace is a little slower here.

"The locale is ideal," says Carrabine. "It's refreshing. And it is quiet here at night. Instead of listening to the hum of traffic on I-5 or Aurora Avenue, we enjoy the sounds of marine animals barking in the distance."

That "barking" sound, as often as not, comes from seals and sea lions caught in the platform trap that bobs in the waves just outside the marina breakwater.

But Carrabine also points with pride to the community's tiny business district at the intersection of 32nd Avenue Northwest and Northwest 65th Street. "I love the commercial storefronts that have evolved there over time."

Shilshole got its name from a Native American tribe that occupied the shores of the bay many years ago. The Indian name was Shul-shale, but the settlers apparently were poor at spelling and by 1852, Arthur A. Denny knew the bay as Shilshole. A portion of it subsequently became known as Salmon Bay.

By the time the white settlers moved in, the Shul-shales were fairly close to extinction. The tribe had picked a beautiful place to live and enjoyed the benefits of an abundant supply of seafood from the deep blue waters of the bay and a good supply of wild game, berries and edible roots in the forests behind them. But the site was vulnerable to attack from other tribes to the north. And soon all that was left was the name -- or something close to it.