General information about how this market works, not legal, regulatory, tax or financial advice. It does not indicate that Zeaclub maintains an office in Seattle. Requirements depend on the applicable authority, contract and jurisdiction, and change without notice.
Seattle at a glance
| Seattle | |
|---|---|
| Competent authority | United States Coast Guard, Sector Puget Sound |
| Compulsory pilotage | Puget Sound Pilots |
| Approach constraint | Long Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound transit; deep water throughout but a substantial pilotage passage |
| Port state control | USCG port state control regime (outside the MoU structure) |
| Register | US flag for domestic trades under the Jones Act; foreign flags in international trades |
| Principal ports | Terminal 5, Terminal 18, Terminal 30, Tacoma nearby |
| Currency | USD |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) / PDT |
What changes in Seattle
Puget Sound Pilots work one of the longest pilotage transits in the United States: from the pilot station at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca through to the Seattle and Tacoma terminals is a passage measured in many hours through deep but confined water.
Depth is not the constraint — Puget Sound is deep throughout. Transit time is. Seattle and Tacoma operate together as the Northwest Seaport Alliance, so berth allocation may place a vessel at either harbour, and the two have materially different transit times from the pilot station.
- Puget Sound Pilots work a long transit from the Strait of Juan de Fuca entrance.
- Deep water throughout — transit time rather than draft is the constraint.
- Northwest Seaport Alliance means berth allocation may fall to Seattle or Tacoma.
- Principal US gateway for Alaska trades, which run under the Jones Act.
- Fog and winter weather affect the strait passage seasonally.
Puget Sound approach and berthing
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Pilotage | Puget Sound Pilots, compulsory |
| Transit | Long passage from the Strait of Juan de Fuca |
| Depth | Deep throughout; not the limiting factor |
| Berth allocation | Across the Seattle and Tacoma harbours |
| Special trade | Alaska services under the Jones Act |
The Seattle cluster
Seattle operates with Tacoma as the Northwest Seaport Alliance, sharing container volume across both harbours. The approach is deep but long — a substantial transit from the Strait of Juan de Fuca — and the port is the principal US gateway for Alaska trades, which run under the Jones Act and have their own seasonal rhythm.
- Northwest Seaport Alliance with Tacoma
- Principal Alaska trade gateway
- Deep water with no draft restriction
- Transpacific and Asian services
The fundamentals
A Statement of Facts is, at its core, a list of timestamps. Laytime calculations, demurrage and despatch claims, and off-hire disputes are all built directly on those timestamps — which means an ambiguous or wrongly recorded one is not a clerical detail, it is a live commercial exposure.
The terms below are the ones that actually appear on a SOF, roughly in the order a port call generates them.
This is the shared explanation, common to every market. The full treatment is in Port-Call Timestamps Explained: NOR, ETB, ATB and What Each One Triggers.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the Puget Sound transit?
Many hours from the pilot station at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca through to the terminals. It is one of the longest compulsory pilotage passages in the United States, and Seattle and Tacoma differ materially in transit time.
What is the Northwest Seaport Alliance?
A joint arrangement under which Seattle and Tacoma market and allocate container capacity together. A vessel's berth may fall to either harbour, which matters because the transit times from the pilot station are not the same.
Primary sources
- United States Coast GuardAccessed 2026-08-30
- USCG Office of Commercial Vessel ComplianceAccessed 2026-08-30