The Re-Routed Heart: Opening Day

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Opening Day

With all the bike trip packing completed, I was able to get back to some water activities this weekend.

In addition to better weather and beautiful scenery, the return of Spring brings the return of many boats to the waters around Seattle. For those folks that don't manage to get out year round, it marks the beginning of the boating season (the rest of us think that the boating season never ends). To celebrate the start of boating season, several of the local yacht clubs organize the Opening Day event. It is a bit of a throwback to old school yachting and involves several festivities, the largest of which is the boat parade. There are all sorts of boats in the parade and the run the spectrum from modern to very traditional (i.e. antique show pieces trotted out once a year for the parade).

In general I think a big crowd is something to be avoided and a crazy crowd of boats is definitely something to be avoided with my boat. Because of this, I have never attended the parade in my years in Seattle. This year however I did attend but still managed to keep my boat away from it and kept the crowd exposure to a minimum.

A month or so ago, I began doing volunteer work with the Virginia V, a 1922 passenger steam ship that is now a historic landmark and operated by a local non-profit. In addition to helping out with some maintenance work, I also volunteer on the deck crew during cruises (line handling and assist with ship operations). This means that for this year's Opening Day festivities I was in the parade (a great location for watching the craziness). There were lots of really beautiful boats to see and quite a crowd turned out to watch.

Virginia V

This was a good opportunity to take some pictures of the wooden boats that I love so much (but dread the thought of maintaining). I also got play with the new Instagram and photo editing apps on my phone that I have decided to bring along on the bike trip.