Editor’s note: The following story is part of an occasional series featuring marinas participating in the Passport to Puget Sound program. Launched earlier this year, the program is aimed at encouraging visitors to visit marinas around the region, allowing them to collect prizes if they fill their “passport” with enough stamps. We’ll try to visit all 15 participating marinas this year, from Olympia’s Swantown to Cap Sante in Anacortes. Let us know what you think in the comments sections below.  

Arabella’s Landing marina in Gig Harbor is frequently filled up on weekends with visiting yacht clubs, even in winter, and it’s easy to see why.

Beyond its beautiful setting in a picturesque seaside town with spectacular views of Mount Rainier, Arabella’s has something many others don’t: two heated indoor meeting spaces available for rent. There’s a cozy second-floor lounge with an outdoor deck available for $50 for four to five hours, and a larger clubhouse that can accommodate about 60 people, also with an outdoor deck, that rents for $75. If the clubhouse isn’t reserved, its deck can be used at no cost.

Groups must have at least seven boats to rent either space. Bobbi Scott, the marina’s manager of guest services, said owners Stan and Judy Stearns want to ensure the rooms are available for their customers rather thanbeing used by the general public.

Arabella's has two spaces available for boating events, including a clubhouse and deck.

“They wanted it to be just for boaters,” she said.

The Stearns opened Arabella’s about 15 years ago, building the marina after a previous owner began developing the property and then decided to sell. They also own Bayview Marina next door, a private facility with no guest moorage.

Besides the city-owned Jerisich public dock in Skansie Brothers Park — which has no power, water, showers or reservations —Arabella’s is the only marina in downtown Gig Harbor offering guest moorage. It can accommodate about 20 to 30 boats, depending on length, and has about 55 permanent slips with just a few liveaboards.

Scott said visiting boaters come primarily from around Puget Sound, with some from British Columbia and the occasional visitor from California. Summer brings mainly vacationing boaters. In the winter, the marina is filled on weekends with yacht clubs.

The marina has laundry facilities ($1 per wash or dry) and free showers. There’s just one shower each for men and women, which seems a little inadequate, and the showers could use a little sprucing up. But the marina grounds are beautiful, with windowboxes and hanging baskets overflowing with colorful blooms, flower beds planted around the site, well-tended lawns and plenty of trees.

The well-tended grounds are among Arabella's best features.

The site also has the harbor’s oldest house, a two-story home built around 1890. The house has been empty for some time but was recently upgraded to accommodate a junior sailing program run by Gig Harbor Yacht Club.

The marina is a short walk from shops and restaurants, including the perennial boaters’ favorite Tides Tavern. A new restaurant, the Red Rooster, is scheduled to open in mid-July right next to Arabella’s.

Moorage at Arabella’s is .75 a foot in winter, $1.00 per foot in summer and $1.50 for holiday weekends. Scott has been working at the marina for close to a decade and has a simple piece of advice for boaters wanting to visit.

“Reservations are recommended all year, especially on weekends,” she said.

Arabella’s Landing is located at 3323 Harborview Dr., Gig Harbor. For reservations, call 253.851.1793. 

About Deborah Bach

Deborah Bach is the editor and co-founder of Three Sheets Northwest. She is an avid sailor and long-time professional journalist. You can find Deborah aboard Three Sheets, an Island Packet 38, with her husband Marty and their cat Lily.

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