Nautical New Year's Eve in Seattle

Fireworks on the Space Needle mark the beginning of 2008.



Every New Year’s Eve, about 400,000 people gather at view points around Seattle to watch the fireworks on the Space Needle at midnight. Some of the best vantage points are from boats moored on Lake Union and Elliott Bay.

Our evening started with a wonderful house party with our dear friends, Keith and Janet. We got to see some old friends, meet some new ones and enjoy some delicious crab cakes and other delicacies. My wife, Nola, and I left early to run by our house and pick up Ella, our cairn terrier, and drive ten minutes to our boat on Lake Union.

At the marina, our neighbors in the slips on either side of us were on their boats to celebrate. As far as you could see along the shore, there were lights glowing from portholes and parties happening on yachts. Firecrackers were going off, and the sound of party noisemakers could be heard drifting across the water.

At the stroke of midnight, the fireworks blasted off on the Space Needle. After just a bit, they stopped and we wondered if that was all, but they got the show going again with only one more brief interruption. Fireworks lit up the needle from the base to the top, and the clear, cold sky made for perfect viewing. Yachts were blasting their horns to mark the passing of another year and the beginning of 2008.


Ella and Nola snuggle into bed aboard Sublime.

We settled into the cozy, warm cabin of Sublime for a good night’s sleep, being rocked by the gentle waves like a baby in a cradle. In the morning, we had delicious, hot coffee and a breakfast of pancakes and sausage. What is about eating on a boat that makes the food taste so good?


Nola aboard Sublime with the Space Needle in the background.

We took Ella for a walk along the shore of South Lake Union and visited the Center for Wooden Boats, where the members of the Pacific Northwest Fleet of the Classic Yacht Association had moored their gorgeous wooden boats to bring in the new year.


Classic wooden yachts gather at the Center for Wooden Boats to celebrate New Year’s Eve.


The view of the Space Needle from the Center for Wooden Boats.