Capt. Mike and Seattle’s Best Kept Secret

I recently posted about the Center for Wooden Boats (CWB) on Seattle's Lake Union and that Mike went to an orientation for volunteers and he will soon be volunteering for CWB. And as I was recently reviewing the CWB website I learned about Seattle’s Best Kept Secret…every Sunday CWB sponsors an event called Cast Off! – a free public sail. All you have to do is show up at CWB at 10:00 am on any Sunday morning and sign up for the afternoon sail at 2:00 pm. How cool is that??

So on Sunday morning we drove down to CWB. Because it was such a sunny day CWB had 3 different boats sailing at 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00! We signed up for the 3:00 sailing on the S/V Admirable. And since we knew ahead of time that we’d have a few hours to kill we brought our bikes and drove to Colman Park on Lake Washington.

The park is on Lake Washington Boulevard South and we got on our bikes and made the leisurely 3.5 mile ride to Seward Park in the morning sun. We biked around Seward Park and then headed back to the truck. But along the way back we stopped at the Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center.


There was a sailing class that had progressed to the dock and we watched as the students put their small, student-sized, boats into the water.

Back at CWB we checked out all the beautiful wooden boats. We learned that the Admirable was built in San Francisco and was used for gillnetting salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. It had a crew of 2 and could carry THREE TONS of salmon! I just couldn’t believe that. I had never realized sailboats were used for commercial fishing.


We watched as the Admirable docked with the passengers from the 2:00 sailing.


At 3:00 twelve of us donned life jackets and boarded the Admirable. The captain, John, was very knowledgeable and he was our “tour guide” for the next 45 minutes. He pointed out many of the Seattle sites and provided a lot of information about sailing. He also let people take turns manning the tiller in the aft of the boat.


Yup. There’s Capt. Mike! What a happy day for him.


And because we’re on the water, the seaplanes were coming and going. Here’s Maggie II from KING 5 TV’s Evening Magazine and Kenmore Air.


Since Kenmore Air’s Lake Union Seaport is pretty close to CWB I had the pleasure of seeing one after another of the graceful little planes taking off and landing in the lake.




This one’s coming in for a landing...right next to us!

Before we knew it, the sail was over. It was a lot of fun and just about a perfect sunny Sunday in Seattle!