Yesterday was a perfect weather day. A perfect day for sailing. That’s right, sailing! Candi signed up for 2 tickets for a day cruise on Lake Union through the Cancer Center. So, yesterday we drove back down to a parking lot across from the Cancer Center, $5 for parking, Thank You, and walked out to the Mallory Todd a classic 65 foot, 2 masted sailing ship. The cruise is sponsored by the Sailing Heritage Society and cancer patients and their families and care takers are treated to a 2 hour cruise around Lake Union.
We signed on to the ships manifest along with 16 other people and a crew of 5. We motored away from the dock and the crew raised the main sail as we cruised up the west side of the lake. The owner and captain is and old timer who built the boat mostly by himself in the 1980’s. The hull was built in Sacramento, CA. After installing the engine, the boat was motored to Seattle where the remainder of the boat was completed.
The Mallory Todd at her dock.
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The boat is now mainly used for charters I suspect because of the captains age. Yesterday a young man was being trained as a new captain and did a very nice job of docking us at the end of the cruise.
Captain at the helm.
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We did a lazy sail to the north end of the lake mostly using the motor because of the fickle winds and the huge amount of lake traffic. There were paddle boards, kayaks, pleasure craft, tour boats, amphibious ducks, and float planes. A very busy Saturday on the lake.
Float plane headed for its dock.
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House boat used in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle".
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Amphiboius Duck giving tourists a view of the lake, close up.
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Looking south over Lake Union towards the Seattle skyline.
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We visited the Wooden Sailing Boat docks after the cruise. There was a large amount of wooden boats on display and several in various stages of rework in progress. We ate a picnic lunch at a table in the Wooden Boat public area before driving around the north end of Lake Union. We stopped at Gas Plant Park on the north end of the lake. This is a nice park with all the old gas plant machinery still in place.
Gas Plant Park from the lake.
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We continued under the I-5 bridge onto the campus of The University of Washington. Unfortunately I was in the wrong lane to go through the university center so we ended up on I-5 northbound headed back to the RV park.
Last evening we were invited to visit old friends form our early Santa Barbara days. We had not seen Donna and Ron for many years so it was good to catch up on our lives. Ron and Donna treated us to a nice Mexican dinner out and a great piece of pie later at their home. Thanks Ron and Donna for a great visit.
