Summer Port of Oakland Excursions Aboard Former FDR Vessel Open to the Public

Here’s summer’s biggest travel bargain: free boat tours at the Port of Oakland. The Port today introduced no-charge, 90-minute harbor excursions available to the public. The narrated port tours will be conducted aboard the USS Potomac, the former presidential vessel of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“We’re proud of our Port and of the relationship we have with our communities,” Executive Director Chris Lytle said today before embarking on the maiden harbor tour. “Inviting our neighbors to these tours gives them a way to know us even better.”

More than 200 Oakland school children boarded the Potomac today for the first two of 12 free summer tours. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and School Superintendent Antwan Wilson were there as the Port welcomed youngsters aboard.

The Port said it has scheduled two tours each month on designated Friday afternoons and evenings through October. The 165-foot Potomac, berthed at the Port’s Jack London Square, can carry 120 passengers per excursion. Schedules and registration for the tours will be open to the public beginning June 1 at the Port’s website, www.portofoakland.com.

Tour organizers said the excursions are a cost-effective way to give neighbors a close-up look at how the Oakland seaport works. Passengers will transit the Oakland Estuary and Outer Harbor. They’ll see all five Oakland marine terminals and pass within yards of massive container ships, some 1,200-feet long. The tours will also provide close-up views of San Francisco’s waterfront and skyline.