When Tom Hanks' character heads out with Jonah on a small row boat they appear (due to the lack of city lights in the background) to live on house boat on Lake Washington. They then row up to Alki Beach, which is on Puget Sound and would require miles and miles of rowing and passing through the Ballard locks. This trip would have taken pretty much all day and no one with a row boat would ever make the trip in the first place.