SEATTLE — We're just a week away from the official kick-off to boating season.
Hundreds of people were sailing on Lake Union Sunday as part of the Center for Wooden Boats' (CWB) “Free Boating Day.”
"It's a real blessing to be able to work out on the water every day,” said Josh Anderson, Center for Wooden Boats executive director. “Give everyone a taste of it and make them aware of what's right here in our backyard."
Lake Union is the literal backyard of the CWB, which hosted its third annual "Free Boating Day."
"As the name suggests we make everything free,” Anderson said. “Just get out on the water and provide access to Lake Union and it's just sort of our way to say thank you to the community and let everyone know they should get outside out on the water."
Anderson said Seattle has a rich merit time history and hopes to add to that legacy with an event like this.
"There's so many jobs," Anderson said. "There's so many forms of recreation. There's so many ways to enjoy nature and understand why we need to preserve our marine environments and just making people exposed and making that easy for people really helps sort of shape that mission."
Anderson estimates the CWB provided more than 500 people with free boating experiences on Sunday. Whether it was people who have experience sailing, or going out on their own, or first-timers, thrilled to go on skippered boat rides on these historic wooden boats.
"This is my first time in a sailboat,” Clixto Delatorre said. “I'm from Argentina. My city doesn't have access to water like this, so this is pretty exciting."
Free Boating Day is just one of CWB's free programs. Anderson hopes people will take advantage of the free services it offers not only today but throughout the year.
"We're just like a hidden gem right here at the south end of the lake and just to know you can get out on the water and volunteer and learn skills, learn how to sail, learn how to boat," Anderson said.