Having sailed from the U.K. in 2017, we sold our boat in French Polynesia and bought another one that was on the hard in Anacortes, Washington State.

On the 12th August we’d had the MMSI reprogrammed with the new yacht name and MMSI number, now British registered.

On the 14th August 2021 we launched the boat and we’re on the boatyard dock preparing to leave and cruise around the area before heading south. We usually check Noonsite for information relating to the area we are in but as we’d only just gone into the water we hadn’t.
Whilst on the dock the boatyard manager came and told us he’d had a visit about our boat. The man who came to see him was ( a boat pilot) living in Anacortes who had seen our AIS appear as a foreign flagged vessel. He had said we needed to carry a pilot on board or apply for an exemption whilst we were sailing in Washington State waters. He left the exemption application form. We’d not heard of this rule so Allen then went to the Customs and Border Protection office to obtain our cruising permit, we knew we needed this as we’d sailed the East coast of the USA in 2018. They had never heard about foreign flagged vessels requiring a pilot or about the application to apply for an exemption.
He went to Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes and asked the harbour master if he’d heard of it, he hadn’t. 
To apply for an exemption as we are over 50ft the fee was $700 and you need to apply 30 days in advance of entering Washington State. It also said that payment could only be made by cheque. Two of these things we definitely couldn’t do!
Allen rang the phone number on the paperwork, the Board of Pilotage Commissioners and left a message on a voicemail. 
The next day we hadn’t received a call back, so I rang and left another message. I then called the pilot who had left his card with the boatyard manager, he explained that he had just moved to Anacortes and wanted to give us the heads up, if we were found to be without a pilot or an exemption then we would have serious questions to answer. He said it would only cost $50 to apply for an exemption, we are over 50ft so it would have cost $700 and we had no means of making payment as they only accept US cheques.

I received a call back from the  Board of Pilot Commissioners and a similar conversation ensued as with the local pilot. In addition to the information he gave me she said that if we applied for an exemption today then the committee was meeting on following Tuesday and they could hear our application. I said that wouldn’t help as we were leaving on Sunday and also that we had no means to pay for the application. She explained that as we had no experience in Washington waters then our application would probably be refused and our $700 lost! We asked how much it would cost to hire a pilot, about the same price, (presumably to take us directly out of the area), she said the pilot would leave our vessel at Port Angeles. I said that the boat is our home and we really don’t want someone else onboard when we are more than competent in piloting her ourselves. We also didn’t want anyone because we are still in the middle of a pandemic and trying to restrict our contact with people. I asked if it’s only foreign flagged vessels then how do foreigners pay the fee, as any foreign flagged cruiser wouldn’t have a U.S bank account. She said, we don’t get many cruisers with foreign flagged vessels coming to WA and that the pilot who reported our vessel to them was new. She then admitted that it was really aimed at the large cruise ships and chartered motor vessels that come to the area and they are owned by companies who have the means to write US cheques. But we still fall within the category of a foreign flagged vessel. Canadian vessels are exempt because they have a reciprocal agreement with Canada.
I told her that we knew of a number of US citizens who live in other states , buy boats, sail them around this area without any knowledge of how to handle a boat or the area but because they are American they can cruise around. If you are trying to protect the waters , which was the claim for the reason we needed to take a pilot on board then surely the best thing would be that anyone taking a boat out would need to have some form of training to skipper a boat. Nothing about this rule made any sense, it would seem that we were caught up in a rule that really shouldn’t apply to us.
She thought about things for a bit and then said, it is a Washington State Rule ( not a law) , as an organisation we have no teeth and we don’t have boats that would come out and slap a ticket on your vessel. She then said “ I didn’t say this, but if I was you, I’d just leave” We explained we were planning a couple of stops on the way out and she said that we MAY get asked about it by another local pilot but that the other pilot was a bit over cautious. She also said they are going to be looking at the rules again very soon, I wasn’t sure if she meant in regards to our predicament. I think the lady I spoke to understood what I meant when I explained about our sailing experience.
We then switched off our AIS transmitter and left our British ensign wrapped up and proceeded to leave Washington State! Such a shame because it’s a beautiful place and the people were lovely. We met quite a few boat US boat owners who said they’d never heard of the ruling.

We really don’t like to ignore rules in other countries even with a little bit of an “off the record” OK from someone at the Board of Pilotage Commissioners. However we really couldn’t see a way around this. Apply for an exemption, don’t get it, lose your money and have to take and pay for a pilot on your boat anyway.

Having spent five days on the dock in Anacortes and eight days getting out to Neah Bay I can assure you that safe navigation or protecting the ecosystem is not a priority to many of the US flagged yachts that we encountered. A couple of things we saw were sailing and motor vessels under 20 metres in the TSS, motoring up it in the wrong direction. Numerous times we were nearly run out of a channel due to US flagged vessels not understanding the “rules of the road” and that’s not including the speeds they were travelling. The amount of oil and fuel pollution from US flagged motor vessels was quite astounding. I don’t see how a small cruising yacht with experienced RYA cruisers on board would need to take a pilot when a US Citizen who bought their vessel last week and has no experience can cruise around unaware of the waters they are cruising in. Hopefully the rules will be reviewed and common sense will prevail.