Another thing to consider with regards as to where to keep a boat is this:
If one has a slow boat, 6-8 knots, and if one works at a full-time job with a few weeks of vacation a year, if one keeps the boat in the Seattle-Tacoma area, cruises to the islands, San Juan or Gulf, are a once or twice a year proposition depending on vacation times and schedules.
With the same boat and same work schedule, keeping the boat up north--- La Conner, Cornet Bay, Anacortes, Bellingham, Blaine--- means that the San Juans and even the southeastern Gulf Islands are doable for a weekend or three day weekend. Even with our 8 knot boat we can reach anywhere in the San Juans in four hours or less. Some of the really nice spots are less than three hours away.
With a boat like this in the Seattle area, in a weekend one just starts to get within sight of the islands before having to turn around and go home.
This is the main reason we keep our boat up north. We can drive to it at 30mpg in two hours or less, depending on who's driving.
We will sometimes head up Friday evening when I get home from work, spend the night on the boat, head out early the next morning and have most of Saturday and Sunday at some destination in the islands before heading home Sunday afternoon. The drive back south gets us home between 10 and 11 pm and that's after having a nice dinner in Bellingham with our friends or along the way somewhere.
The other appeal to farther north, of course, is the moorage rates are less. Used to be a lot less but even today they are still lower enough to make it worthwhile. Of course the rate depends on the harbor.
Based on what I've been told, Bellingham's Squalicum Marina, while under the jurisdiction of the the Port of Bellingham and thus the City of Bellingham, has to be self-sustaining. In other words, all the money needed to operate, maintain, and upgrade the marina has to come from the income generated by the marina. No city tax money can be used to finance the marina. Given the ever-increasing cost of everything from electricity to water to labor to materials, the marina's income has to increase to cover it. This income comes from property leases, building leases, slip fees, and probably some other stuff. Compared to moorage rates closer to the Seattle-Tacoma area it's still less expensive up north, just not as less expensive anymore.