The law states:
[B]§ 80.1395 Puget Sound and adjacent waters.[/B]
The 72 COLREGS shall apply on all waters of Puget Sound and adjacent waters, including Lake Union, Lake Washington, Hood Canal, and all tributaries.
So, for licensing, is the Puget Sound Near Coastal? Inland?
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For the purposes of the Rules of the Road Puget Sound is international waters. For seatime it is inland waters. The COLREGS demarcation line only applies to the rules and not mariner seatime. As a rule of thumb, any water that is not directly exposed to ocean swells is inland for seatime purposes. For example, a trip up the inside passage would include only three stretches that would be considered near coastal (The Straits of Juan De Fuca, Queen Charlotte Sound, and Dixon Entrance) all other portions of the trip would be on inland waters–but all portions are subject to the International Rules of the Road. I hope this helps rather than confuses the issue.
The demarkation between near coastal/oceans and inland is known as the “boundary line” and for license purposes is defined in 46CFR10.103. The actual locations of boundary lines and waters considered as inland are defined in 46CFRpart7.
I believe for the purposes of determining seatime inside or outside of inland waters, the entire inside passage from Puget Sound to Cape Spencer is considered as inland including the three stretches mentioned.