Opening Day bird's-eye view

Chloe Reynolds could hardly contain herself at the 20th annual Windermere Cup on Saturday.

The 4-year-old sat like a frog on the Montlake Bridge, peering through its grates at the water down below, watching and waiting for the next crew to pass by.

When suddenly a sliver of color appeared, she jumped up and down. Her pink raincoat flapped. Her flowered shoes pounded the grates. "Go boats!" Chloe yelled, running back and forth before her mother. "Go boats!"

Under cloudy skies and in cool temperatures, hundreds of people gathered on the Montlake Bridge to watch crews from as far away as Russia compete against hometown heroes like the Huskies.

The regatta was one of many time-honored traditions observed Saturday, part of the pageantry of Opening Day of boating season in Seattle.

Every year, it draws thousands of people into the boating culture of the Puget Sound area.

They line the concrete sidewalks of the Montlake Cut, leaning into the railings, dangling their legs over the side.

The most popular attraction is the Seattle Yacht Club's annual parade of boats big and small that makes its way through the water around noon.

But the morning crew races draw their own devoted crowd. Fans mostly cluster on Montlake Bridge, which is closed to traffic for the event. On one side, the bridge gives a clean, broad view of the competition as it approaches. On the other side, it's the race as it comes to a close.

Some people spent the morning running back and forth, dogs in their arms, children on their shoulders, binoculars around their necks.

Visiting teams

There were plenty of luminaries in attendance, with teams from the Russian Rowing Federation, the University of Michigan, and the University of Central Florida competing for the Windermere Cup. But Webster was most impressed by the local over-40 and over-50 women's teams.

"Tough and determined and disciplined," said Webster, who described his own youthful attempts at rowing as a failure. "They just went crazy."

Some fans were there for what they called the poetry of the sport.

The thin line of a boat in the distance, the parallel oars pushing through water, the muscles moving together, pushing each boat under the bridge.

Experienced fans

Most of the spectators said they knew the sport from experience.

They described rowing as the best kind of tired you can get. They talked of the teamwork as a gift. And they recalled their own opening days on the Montlake Cut, listening to another crowd's cheers come down from the bridge.

Poo Penrose, 66, called it exhilarating. But she is pulled to the sport by the peace that comes from working on the water at an hour so early that most of Seattle is asleep.

"You see a shine on the copper roof of St. Mark's [the Episcopal cathedral], and you see Mount Rainier, and you think: God, am I lucky," Penrose said.

Cara Solomon: 206-464-2024 or csolomon@seattletimes.com