Lampi's Pedal Boating Cruises

Deception Pass Dash 2008

2008-12-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

Today the Deception Pass Dash was held. The roughly 7 mile long course starts at Bowen Bay, in Washington, goes around Deception Island to the west of Deception Pass, heads through Deception Pass to go around Strawberry Island, and returns through Canoe Pass to head back around the first island and then to the start.

There was a pretty strong SW wind (15+ mph, gusting to 26, so flags spread almost completely horizontal), which turned this into a rather interesting event.

Approximately 132 boats were there at the start, including one Cadence pedal boat.

Having never been on the water here before, other than in a big whale watching vessel a couple of years earlier, I figured that it would be a good idea to have the outriggers on the boat. While we were supposed to be going through the pass around slack, the area was still known to have lots of waves and eddies. In addition, since this area was new to me I decided to make this more of a photo excursion than a serious race.

The start was rather chaotic with all the boats trying to keep station at the starting line in the not quite headwind. The 1 to 2 foot chop in the bay also splashed me and my camera lens. This resulted in most of the pictures I took to be of poor quality.

As we headed out to the island the waves quickly grew higher, and most of the paddled boats started falling behind. Piercing wave after wave I needed to open the speed bailer, or suffer with a flooded cockpit.

Interestingly enough, the prop on the Cadence didn't aerate very much, and I was able to keep within fairly close range of some of the really strong paddlers. My heart rate was in the upper 150's, and the speed was over 6 mph.

Since I was doing pretty well relative to the paddlers, and since the camera was being continually spattered by spray, I decided I might as well put forth a little more effort and actually do a bit of racing after all.

Going around Deception Island I encountered a tandem surf ski that had capsized, but by the time I reached them they were back under way.

Shortly after that I ran into a large kelp bed. After clunking into one with the prop I paddled through the rest of the bed into clear water. The prop was able to spin, and off I went towards Deception Pass with the wind at my back.

Heading east I was able to surf on quite a few of the waves. The outriggers worked very well in their raised position, though every so often they would dig into the water and rotate on their axis into the lower position. I just flipped them back up and kept on pedaling. While I could have secured the outriggers into place with their integrated spring pins I didn't bother. There might have been a situation where I would want to be able to put them down and it might have been more of an effort to so do. (I can't think of any good reason right now. Sigh.)

Heading downwind I was able to catch a couple of outrigger canoes and another surf ski, but as the water grew calmer in the pass they stuck close to the shore. I stayed a little further out into the channel, but realized that the ebb tide must have begun. My pace was only 4.2 mph as I pedaled under the bridge at the pass, perhaps 200 feet above me. It was also possible that my prop still had some kelp or eel grass fouling it, but I didn't want to stop and clean it.

Not much further we reached Strawberry Island. There was a big kelp bed on the southern and eastern side, so I steered clear - until I noticed a kayaker taking a line very close to shore in an area that seemed kelp-free.

A paddler I had been following headed towards the shore through an area that seemed clear, and I followed. It was great - no problems were encountered and the route was several hundred feet shorter than the "great circle" route.

Heading back towards Canoe Pass (the pass on the north side of Pass Island), the wind started rising. Again the paddlers dropped behind, due to their more significant windage. I stopped for a moment and cleared the prop, seeing bits of eel grass float by in the reverse prop wash.

Canoe Pass was much like a narrow canyon, but at the west end I saw some really large standing waves as the ebb flow met the Sound. Some of these waves were 5 or 6 feet in height. I decided to try going around the waves rather than through them, which was what I had inadvertently been doing by concentrating on photography rather than navigation. Outriggers really work!

Heading into the waves was getting a bit tiresome, and with the temperature in the upper 40's or low 50's I was even starting to get a little cool. Getting plastered by waves (not spray - full-on waves) tended to reduce my body heat a bit, even though I was wearing Gore-tex insulated winter cycling tights, two layers of wicking shirts under a thick PFD covered with a large windbreaker, and thick wicking socks on my sandaled feet. I really hoped that we merely headed back to Bowen Bay after Canoe Pass.

Unfortunately, however, the guys ahead kept heading west towards that Deception Island. I kept pedaling, and even managed to catch up to them on the other side of the kelp patch.

The other guys took a course that kept them far away from the rocks and breaking waves on the west side of the island. They were near a couple of safety boats that had their lights flashing for some reason, probably picking up some defunct paddlers. I took a course a bit closer to shore, but with enough of a margin that the side wind and waves wouldn't force me against the rocks.

Rounding the island I was again able to surf downwind, though not quite as well as before. I was getting a bit tired, or perhaps there were some weeds on the prop. Clearing the prop seemed to help a bit, and then I had to dodge a field of kelp that had grown up in the bay between the start of the race and now. I hate it when that happens.

Just before the finish a pink double sea kayak managed to slip ahead, putting me in 23rd place overall out of a field of 92 or so boats that completed the race. My time was 70:41, which surprisingly enough was about what I thought I'd do before encountering the waves and wind.

For me this race was a blast! It would have been suicide without the outriggers, which pretty much let me do whatever I wanted with the camera - like wipe off the lens time and time again. Many strong surf ski paddlers and kayakers did not finish the race due to the waves, wind and kelp.

After beaching I had a great lunch of home-made vegetable soup, garden burger with roasted chilis, chips, etc., provided by the organizers. The raffle was fantastic, and everyone who stayed got some sort of prize. I got a nice, warm paddling vest.

Woo hoo!

After the race I heard that the Sheriff's safety boat encountered waves of up to 8 feet as the currents in the Pass grew to full strength. Wow!

My stats

More Stats

My photos can be found here.

High Tech Racing

2008-08-11T21:15:00.001-07:00

A couple of months ago I made it easy for my family to figure out what I wanted for a birthday present by picking up a Garmin Forerunner 305. This large wrist watch sized GPS came with a heart rate monitor so I could finally keep track of my engine's performance at each point of an outing rather than just the highs, lows and averages that my Polar HRM did.

Since this particular model of equipment has had a checkered history of water proofness and durability, I chose to try it out on a few boat races first before getting the cadence sensor to go along with it.

Well, the first race I used it was the Manchester Race. I had mechanical (boat) and mental (perceptual) difficulties. The drive tower had become loose and I had to return to the start to pick up a wrench to tighten the bolts securing it to the hull. By then, of course, everyone else had gone far from the starting line and I was racing alone. Oh, yeah - I guess I should check how my fancy wrist dangly thing was doing. Oops! It wasn't told to start timing until about a third of the way into the race. Just because the thing was showing speeds and heart rates doesn't mean it actually was recording anything!

The next race I had the cadence sensor installed. Well, the unit is actually a combination wheel sensor and cadence sensor. Of _course_ I could use the wheel sensor, which has a nice adjustable arm to detect the RPM's of the crank, right?

Well, no, as I discovered after the race was over. The wheel sensor is just for wheels and the cadence sensor is the only device that will actually be used for recording RPM's at any point during an event.

Ok, so the before the third race I went through a test run on a lake, making sure that the heart rate was being detected and the cadence was being measured. This was very cool!

On the day of the third race (Round Shaw Row) everything was ready. I had my mapping GPS on and ready in the PFD pocket, the Forerunner was on the wrist and had found all the satellites, and the cadence sensor was perfectly adjusted. The air horn signal for the start of the race was sounded and, after pressing the Start button on the wrist GPS I was off and pedaling.

About 9 miles into the race I was tired of looking at the fields displayed on the wrist GPS, which had a minutes per mile display (for running) and not a miles per hour display. Trying to change the display settings I managed to accidentally tell the unit I was now doing a different sport in a multisport event and the darn thing started everything all over. Rats!

Eventually I found the right way to change the data field display and got the desired MPH, heart rate, distance traveled and cadence fields all visible at the same time, and went on to finish the race.

Of course, the handy dandy software that comes with the Forerunner just couldn't be convinced that the two activities were really just two parts of the same race. No - they absolutely had to be two completely different events because I pressed the wrong button in the middle of an oxygen deprived state of mind, and when I could actually think clearly and calmly at the computer was no time to change my mind!

I also couldn't see why Garmin's software decided that I somehow traveled 6 extra miles in the blink of an eye between the two events. The shareware SportTracks software did a much better job of joining the "two events", without padding the distance whatsoever.

Oh, well. I'll post stats and graphs some day when I get my act together with those tools. Meanwhile, the photos at the Sound Rowers web site will just have to do.

Dan Harris Challenge

2008-04-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

This race was one that would probably have been on the Sound Rowers schedule, but didn't make it. Hopefully, they will be on the schedule next year.

Anyway, the weather was perfect: calm, light overcast and cool temperatures. The launch was very nice, too: a coarse sandy beach, protected from most waves and not very far from the staging area.

There were quite a few paddlers, rowers, but only one pedal boat at the start of the race.

I was trying the outriggers in a new configuration on the Cadence. The mounts where they connect with the hull have been angled slightly upward with the intention that the floats would be just above the water when the boat was occupied and perfectly balanced.

Unfortunately, the angle was not quite enough. The floats were still in the water, though not by more than perhaps half an inch or so of depth. It was a definite improvement as the drag was reduced, but it was still present.

After cruising around the boats at the starting line taking photos I found a spot near a couple of guys in a Merry Wherry and waited for the signal to start the race.

In the distance I heard a countdown, and then we were off!

With the outriggers deployed the Cadence did not have the acceleration nor the high cruising speed it otherwise has. I was working hard to keep up with an OC-1 and the Merry Wherry as we traveled en route to the first turn, but eventually I decided that I would have to bite the bullet and remove the outriggers if I wanted to be competitive. With the flat seas and no wind there was no need to have them deployed.

After rounding the buoy I tried pedaling while pressing on the release button and pulling out the aka (support tube), but it took a bit of effort before the right one finally was removed. I had to stop to remove the left one, and after a short time of pedaling along with them held across my lap decided that there had to be a better way.

I reinserted the outrigger akas back into their mounts on the hull, but with the floats up side down. This left them both several inches above the water but still available to provide stability if the boat tipped to one side or another. Hmmm, perhaps future amas could be mounted to be this high normally!

Having stopped for a while to make these modifications meant that I had fallen still further behind. Oh, well. It was time to put the pedal to the metal.

Never having been here before it was good to have other racers ahead to point out the way. Still, from what I recalled from the various maps of the race course as well as maps of the area, it seemed to me that most of the racers were heading quite a bit to the west of the land mass I thought to be Chuckanut Island, which marked the halfway point. I decided to head on a more eastward heading.

A little while later I encountered the first of the racers returning en route to the finish. The rowers tended to be on the right side, and most of the paddlers tended to be closer to shore on the left. Maybe the paddlers knew something about currents or something, or the rowers didn't want to worry about navigating around the rocks near shore. I don't know.

Eventually I reached the north end of Chuckanut Island, where I decided to go around clockwise, which was the opposite direction that the racers were heading. There were still some photo ops to be had, and meeting the racers face on was better than from their backs.

The island was rather pretty. Apparently made of sandstone, there were quite a few interesting erosional features along its eastern shore. I shot a few pictures of the sculpted rocks and sea stacks between shots of racers. It was very nice!

Rounding the south end of the island I encountered some seaweed, feeling the tug on the pedals as it wrapped around the propeller. A couple of cycles of pedaling forward and then reverse seemed to do the trick of clearing it and I was on my way again.

There were still a few kayaks heading south towards the island as I headed away from the island and towards the turn buoy. During this time I saw Todd and Lucia, two Cadence owners who apparently started the race quite late, having missed the entrance to the park several times.

I began pedaling in intervals at higher speed, followed by a more moderate cruising speed. This strategy enabled me to slowly catch up to and pass a couple of kayaks that had been about half a mile or so ahead at the island shortly after I reached the turn buoy.

There was one more kayak ahead that I hoped to catch before the finish. My legs were starting to talk to me, though, and for whatever reason I couldn't seem to go much faster than 6 to 6.5 mph. Hmmm, perhaps there were still some weeds in the drive train.

After going through a quick cleaning maneuver I continued towards the finish. The speed didn't appear to change much, so I just kept plugging away at the pedals.

The distance between me and the kayak was slowly shrinking as we passed the Washington State ferry at the shipyard, getting a new coat of paint along with other repairs. A train also passed by on its track along the shore, with it horns blaring.

Soon we could hear the air horn at the finish line signaling that other boats had completed the race. Pedal faster!

The finish line came too soon and the other boat crossed before I did. Oh, well.
With a time of 1:36:37 I finished the race. Whew - what a workout!

I pedaled around the finish line area for a few minutes taking pictures of the incoming paddlers. Eventually I returned to shore and examined the propeller for entanglements.

Sure enough, a bit of eel grass managed to get past the weed cutter and was wrapped around the prop shaft in the ball bearings. It was just enough to prevent my sprints from exceeding 6.5 mph and passing that last kayak.

Oh, well. It was time for lunch!

During the race my lovely wife and son went to the local natural foods co-op and bought some vegetarian beef hamburger, organic mushrooms and some non-dairy, non-soy chocolate cocoa nut ice cream. The burger and mushrooms were grilled by the race chef along the other, lesser race-provided burgers and came out absolutely delicious. The ice cream was also very tasty, even on a cool day such as this one.

In addition to the awards there was a drawing for various prizes, including paddles, PFD's, etc. As luck would have it, I managed to drive away with absolutely nothing but memories and photos of a good race and friendly competition.

More photos can be found
here.

La Conner 2008

2008-02-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

The weather preceding this race had been quite chilly, with lows in the low 30's and highs in the low 40's.

This year's La Nina had been depositing close to record breaking quantities of snow in the nearby mountains, and there had been several days of snow on the ground in the lowlands, too.

As luck would have it, however, the low temperature on the day of the race was in the mid 40's. It was still pretty gray and windy, mind you, with occasional showers, but at least it was relatively warm.

As has been sort of a custom for me over the past couple of years I had a brand new Cadence pedal boat for this race. It was a full carbon, green and black painted boat, with pin striping, and matching green carbon fiber outrigger floats. I just hoped that my body was up to the task of powering this boat as fast as its paint job!

Registration for this event was pretty easy. Since this was the first race of the year I had to fill out two forms. One form was for the annual Masters Rowing Association waiver that all club members have to fill out, and the other was the club waiver for the race. Non-members have to fill out both forms at each race and pay higher race fees. The cost for the race for members was a mere $8. It still amazes me that people attend other athletic events, paying $20, $50 or more for the privilege, and not frequently not getting the benefits of numerous awards, meals, race photos, etc., included in the price.

It started drizzling at the pre-race meeting. Greg Gilda, the race director, described the course, the hazards one was likely to encounter, and repeated the requirements for the race participants. Racers needed to have PFD's on board the boat, they needed to have noise making devices (whistles, etc.), they needed to stop to assist any other racers that were in trouble until those racers were truly out of trouble and back under way, and that everyone was supposed to have fun.

The Skagit Search & Rescue team also spoke for a few moments and identified the boats that were part of the team. These included several power boats and a pair of large jet skis.

After the meeting people returned to their cars and/or boats to prepare.

I wheeled the boat to the dock, intending to launch it from the end of the dock into the water. Unfortunately, however, the freshly and fully inflated wheels of the dolly refused to roll up over the steel plate at the landward end of the dock. Instead, they stayed in position and the boat slid.

Growling a little I then tried to lift the boat and dolly over the hump - and promptly managed to drop the boat approximately half a foot onto the edge of the steel plate. Ouch!

A brand new boat and the paint was already scratched by this misadventure. Sigh...

With the assistance of some of the other folks trying to use the dock I got the boat into the water and ready to go.

As I backed away from the dock I heard this crunching sound as the boat came to a sudden stop. Oh, no! Not another ding!

Sure enough, the stern had collided with one of the pilings, smearing creosote on one side. I guess the crunching sound was from the barnacles being crushed by the stern.

I hoped that this was not how the rest of the day would go!

After adjusting the position of the pedals to suit my leg length I began to do the warm up. I was wearing a polyester long sleeved t-shirt, a nylon shirt, a Kokotat PFD and a nylon windbreaker on top, bike shorts and Gore-tex (front half) biking tights, wicking athletic socks and bicycling sandals below.

Just standing around at the pre-race meeting I felt a little chilled in that combination, but on the water I had concerns that I might be over dressed during the race. Several other folks decided to leave their dry suits or other gear that they would normally wear in non-racing situations since they most likely would be rescued by others in short order if they ran into difficulty.

The boat was handling well. The stiffness of the drive train was readily apparent with every cycle of the cranks. The outriggers were working well, too, though it would be better if they were mounted perhaps an inch or so higher. This would have them skimming just above the surface of the water. As it was they extended about half an inch or so into the water, creating unnecessary drag.

I began taking photos of the other racers as they, too, warmed up. The vinyl waterproof bag in which the camera was contained was a little stiff from the cold, but the warmth of my hand in the bag's glove began to loosen it up over time.

The tide was slowly ebbing, but there wasn't much current in the Swinomish Channel. The GPS wasn't registering more than perhaps one mph in the southerly direction. With the wind from the south more or less counteracting the effects of the current this was probably as close to calm conditions as one could expect.

A long, light blue boat with white outriggers was being launched. This boat had very high sides to it and appeared to be a bit different from most other boats, so I went closer to take a look.

This boat was built to use the Hobie Mirage pedal powered flapping fin drive for propulsion. For going in the reverse direction the pilot used a paddle.

The boat seemed to be quite stable in the water. Given the long and narrow hull with the outrigger floats suspended slightly above the water this boat should give the Mirage drive an excellent chance to show its stuff!

Boats were beginning to congregate at the starting line, so I joined them. Signals were given for the 5 minute and 1 minute warnings, and then we were off!

The scene was pretty chaotic as paddlers and rowers tried to maneuver their craft down the narrow channel.

As usual, most of the rowing shells and a bunch of surf skis slowly pulled away from the pack. The surf skis tended to sort themselves into drafting groups while the rowers generally stayed more or less in the middle or towards the generally emptier right side of the channel. My speed was about 7 mph for the first 100 yards or so, then dropped to about 6.5 mph as I decided to pedal at a more reasonable pace.

A couple of outrigger canoes were keeping pace around me as we passed some yachts and fishing boats moored on the east side. Our speed seemed to have dropped to about 6 or 6.5 mph.

Just as we reached the end of the piers we encountered some logs and branches floating in the water. Ah, so this was the debris to which Greg referred!

Some of the smaller branches clunked against the hull - no problem.

As we continued down the channel the boats tended to stick closer to the east side of the channel. I'm not sure why, perhaps they thought we were fighting a current, or perhaps they felt they were being better sheltered from the light breeze. Personally, the breeze felt good as I unzipped my windbreaker in an effort to cool off.

The misty rain continued to be a problem for the camera. Prior to each shot I had to wipe off the optical port on the waterproof casing to remove the droplets that had accumulated in the short time since the last shot.

I could only hope that the shots would work out on this dark, wet day.

Eventually we reached the end of the channel, passing the navigational marker on the shore and turning westward towards Deception Pass.

The wind was a bit stronger here, and coming generally from the east-southeast. The breakwater kept the waves to a minimum, and most people were still moving at a moderate 6 to 6.5 mph pace.

My breathing was not especially hard at this time. I figured that with the drag of the outriggers preventing the boat from truly zipping along at planing speeds there was not much point.

Ahead and off to the right in the shallows I saw what looked to be a kayak with its paddler in the water.

Nobody else was over there, nor was anyone stopping to assist, so I headed over.

As I got closer the reason this guy was being "ignored" was that he was not a kayaker after all. He was a paddle board racer! We chatted for a few moments before I sped on ahead.

The tailwind kept blowing and the misty rain kept falling. A couple of boats were keeping pace with me as we approached the #5 green can buoy.

Meanwhile, the first of the racers on their way back from the turn buoy heading to the finish line were passing by. I did my best to keep out of their way and still take photos, though the camera was making the job difficult. It kept adjusting its aperture to the maximum open setting, and it took a second or two to readjust for proper exposure. During that second or two, of course, the mist would again coat the lens. Oh, well. Maybe it was time to bite the bullet and get a new camera after all - or perhaps not bother trying to shoot in the rain.

The incoming racers were scattered pretty widely across the width of the course. Some chose to stick close to the log booms, rocks and breakwaters on the south side of the channel. Others chose to head down the middle, fairly close to the stream of racers still heading out to the turn buoy. I was in the middle between them in order to take photos as close as possible, yet still trying to stay out of their way.

Through this leg of the race I was pedaling moderately hard, but not breathing especially hard. I was pretty toasty, with my nylon shirts and jacket soaked either by the mist or by my sweat. The two OC-1's that had been pacing me earlier were now ahead a bit, mainly because I slowed down a little for the photo ops. A couple of other boats were just ahead of me as we cleared the end of the log boom and entered a short stretch of water marked by one to two foot swells.

The turn buoy was now just ahead.

With the wind driven waves and the current it appeared to be a bit of a struggle for the other boats to make a straight line to the buoy. On the other hand, the outriggers on my boat and the propeller drive made it pretty easy for me to not only make a fairly straight line, but also let me concentrate on taking photos at the same time. Woo hoo!

After rounding the buoy we now found ourselves going almost directly into a stiff head wind. The mist was a bit lighter now, but with the wind it was actually a bit more difficult to keep it off the camera lens.

I decided it was time to concentrate more on racing than on photography.

The boats that were with me at the turn buoy were almost immediately dropped. I targeted the pair of OC-1's, and noticed that a safety jet ski was heading at high speed in their direction. Uh-oh - one of them had huli'd, i.e., he flipped over.

By the time the jet ski reached them the capsized boat had been flipped back over and the paddler was back on board. It had taken no more than a minute.

Traveling into the wind is one of those things where the Cadence really shines compared with just about every other human powered boat. Even with the extra drag caused by the outriggers I was able to shrink the quarter mile distance between my boat and the lead OC-1 quite rapidly, passing him at the east end of Goat Island. This was about the same place where a couple of the safety boats were stationed, so I took a few shots of them as I passed.

Along the shore on the north side I could see Traci paddling her surf ski. Ahh - perhaps I could catch her, too, though that would be a rather surprising feat with outriggers.

She continued along the shore as we neared the turn at Hole in the Wall where the Swinomish Channel met Skagit Bay - and then she disappeared. I swear, I looked away for a moment in order to snap a couple more photos and to check the progress of the last OC-1 I had passed, looked back and Traci was nowhere in sight.

Pedaling across to the north shore and heading around the turn I finally caught a glimpse of her. She was at least a quarter of a mile ahead of me, making her way up the channel. Rats! In the relatively sheltered waters of the Swinomish she was making excellent time. That meant that the OC-1 might also be able to catch me!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. In the calm water I had no real need for outriggers. If I could remove them while pedaling then I could go faster up the channel.

After a bit of effort, mainly due to my wet hands slipping on the carbon amas as I attempted to pull them out from their mounts, I was able to extract first one and then the other. With both amas laying across my lap and being held with one hand I was able to increase my speed up the channel by perhaps half a mile per hour.

That increase in speed was critical. The OC-1 had come within talking range shortly after the turn at Hole in the Wall, and it was highly likely he would have passed me by the finish. Instead, he was soundly left behind as I crossed the finish with a time of 1:13:01. He crossed with a time of 1:13:23. Woo hoo!

After a short recovery time I decided to try some speed tests without the outriggers. As there was still some tidal current I made two runs. The first run was north, up the channel and against the fairly feeble current.

The second run was south, with the current. According to the GPS there was not much difference between the two runs, possibly because I was running pretty low on energy. The highest speed reached was a little over 10 mph, not too bad considering this was the first time I was on the water since November.

With the assistance of some folks on shore I loaded my boat onto its dolly and more or less rolled it up the extremely rough concrete boat ramp. I washed off the boat, changed into some drier clothing and returned the boat to the top of the car. The damage caused by dropping the boat on the ramp prior to the race wasn't too bad. Some of the accent paint on the bottom was roughed up a bit, but there appeared to be nothing else amiss.

With the rest of the competitors I drove over to a nearby marina club house for the race-provided hot soups, fresh sourdough bread and desserts. Let me tell you, it was delicious!

Greg Gilda made the post race announcements and handed out the awards. The first boat over the finish line was a double rowing shell crewed by John Alberti and Tyler Peterson. They had a time of 52:15. The other pedal boat, piloted by Jamie Wells with the Mirage drive, finished with a time 1:29:13. The last boat across had a time of 2:22:30, and one of the two paddleboarders apparently did not finish. The one that did finish had a time of 1:34:23.

All in all it was a pretty fun race, even with the mist and wind.

My stats:

The entire set of photos can be found at the Sound Rowers site.

Cascade Distance Race

2007-11-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

It was darn chilly on the morning of this race. At 8:30 AM the temperature was 38 degrees Fahrenheit at my house, and 35 degrees at the Renton Boat House at the mouth of the Cedar River on Lake Washington. Brrrr! The lake was pretty well socked in with fog, but the surrounding land was generally clear of all cloud cover.

There were about a dozen vehicles in the parking lot, all with one or more boats on their roofs. People were slowly moving about, bundled up with winter coats, hats and gloves. Gloves - those would feel pretty nice while handling nearly ice cold fiberglass. Why didn't I think to bring any?

As luck would have it, I remembered that I kept a nice pair of winter cycling gloves in the car for when I drove to my old job in Beaverton. They worked well in keeping the sun off my hands on that 3 hour southbound trip each week. It had been quite some time since I last used them, but they were still there.

Bundled up with a couple of layers of jackets, shirts and pants, hat and gloves, I unloaded the Cadence from my car, loaded it up with the outriggers, camera bag, cycling sandals and water for the race. I took a couple of short plastic Halloween statues, one of a pumpkin headed man and the other of Dracula, and duct taped them one per outrigger. I had forgotten to take the inflatable skeleton and his coffin. That was going to be placed on the rear deck of the boat. Oh, well - no skeleton crew for this race!

After dropping the Cadence off at the boat ramp I walked over to the Boat House and registered for the race. The cost was the standard Sound Rowers member rate of $8, which included the support boat, ribbons and lunch. It is such a good deal!

Returning to the boat I changed took off my outer garments, put on my PFD and cycling sandals, and launched. I wanted to get to the boat house in time for the pre-race meeting.

As luck would have it I had troubles finding the channel through the sediment at the mouth of the river. There were a few logs and branches that fooled me into thinking they were in the shallows rather than lining deeper water, and the angle of the light made it difficult to see how deep the water was until you right on top of it.

After a few tries I finally made it past the bar and pedaled over to the Boat House.

The pre-race meeting was over but Dan Henderson, the race director, said there were no changes from the previous year.

I returned to the boat and headed out to warm up and take photos.

The new production outriggers were not the only new thing I was testing today. The drive train was outfitted with a pair of chain tensioners. Their purpose was to even out the peak loads applied to the propeller during each complete turn of the cranks.

Whether you are pedaling a bicycle up a hill or turning a propeller through the water it is better to apply a constant force to the wheel or propeller, respectively. Over powering in the power portion of a stroke and under powering at the full leg extension or retraction causes losses. Tests done by an acquaintance of mine riding a specially modified bike in the hills around his home proved the concept for bicycles. This test would, hopefully, prove or disprove the concept for boating.

All I knew was that the modifications to the drive system made it a bit noisier and added a bit more friction to overcome.

The sun was now breaking through the fog that had been covering much of the lake, and the wind was starting to pick up. With the increased wind from the north the water was starting to get pretty bumpy, too. Maybe it would be a good day to have the outriggers after all!

It took a while, but eventually all the competitors made their way from the parking lot, down the river and to the starting line. After a bit of jostling by the wind and waves we managed to sort out positions along the line and waited for the starting signal.

We waited some more.

We waited some more.

Just before I was about to drift behind a massive hulk that had been moored at the south end of the lake for eons the air horn signaling the start of the race sounded. We were off!

The side wind made it a bit tough for many of the rowers as it tended to push other boats into the areas required for the oars of the rowers., or pushed the rowers into other boats that happened to be downwind. I had to be a bit more careful as well since the outriggers now made the boat much wider than I was accustomed. Still, it was very nice not having to concern myself with balance while I turned my body this way and that to take advantage of the photo opportunities.

A number of racers were having problems with the beam seas. Many of the rowers were moving a bit slower than normal, catching quite a few crabs on their way. Most of the surf ski and kayak paddlers seemed to be pretty much in their element, unaffected for the most part by the chop.

My boat was moving around 6 to 6.5 mph. This was not a bad speed but definitely slower than I normally race when not using outriggers. Also, I found that every so often a wave would hit the upwind outrigger just right, splashing me a bit in the process. The nylon jacket helped a bit in keeping the water off, but my bike shorts were starting to get wet. Oh, well. The effort pedaling was starting to heat me up; perhaps the cooling effects of the water would balance.

I was most of the way towards the Atlantic City turn buoy when I encountered the first of the short course racers on their way back to the finish. The wind and waves had diminished considerably by now, and the rowers were slowly regaining their normal places in the racing heirarchy. Still, there was a good chance that the first place finisher in this race just might be a surf skier.

I soon reached the first turn buoy. Most of the boats around me made their turn and headed back to the finish. It looked like most of the boats that were on the long course were far ahead.

My legs were telling me that they would be very happy if I, too, turned around and headed back to the finish. Unfortunately, however, I promised Todd, who was racing in his pedal boat in the short course, that I would be doing the long course. This would give each of us a first place ribbon and me some much needed exercise.

I'd just have to tough it out.

The drive system and outriggers were definitely slowing me down. I had a difficult time catching a guy in a kayak as we headed north towards Seward Park. The water was pretty calm here, and I toyed with the idea of removing the outriggers and stowing them. Nah! It would be better to test them further and perhaps on the return leg see what sort of speed could be attained with them removed at that time.

Upon reaching the second turn buoy just south of Seward Park I could see crowds of people at the finish line for the Pumpkin Push run/walk at the park. I could also see that I had nearly caught the kayaker who had been ahead of me for the past couple of miles. Go legs, go!

Try as I might, I wasn't able to catch that kayaker. Perhaps the air drag of the pumpkin headed creature on one outrigger and that of Dracula on the other outrigger was hindering my progress. Perhaps the drive train modifications had too much friction. Perhaps the outriggers just made my boat as slow as a kayak. Perhaps the combination of all three conspired to keep me behind as we headed around the north end of Seward Park where we encountered the first of the long racers as they headed back to the finish line.

This was interesting. The first boats heading back were surf skis, not rowing shells. Where were the rowers?

A few minutes later the first rowing shell, a double manned by Adrian and Rob, appeared and quickly passed on its way back to the finish.I wonder if they would be able to catch the pair of surf skis?

Quite a few more paddlers passed on their way back to the finish, and I was starting to gain on the boat directly ahead of me. Perhaps I could catch him after all!

Heading into the cove on the west side of the park I found half a dozen more boats beginning the second half of the race. I guess I wasn't all that far behind the other racers after all, but began to doubt that there was anyone left behind me!

The kayak ahead made his turn around the buoy and I finally recognized him. It was Tom, a regular racer whom I normally leave far behind.

That settled it. I was going to have to do something!

After rounding the 3rd buoy I was pleased to find there were several boats still behind. Yay! I wasn't the last boat after all!

I continued in pursuit of Tom.

It was time to try pedaling with a single outrigger.

While continuing to pedal I pressed the release button on the right outrigger support and tried to twist it out. It wouldn't budge as my sweaty hands slipped on the smooth carbon fiber tube.

Wiping off my hands I tried again, and it moved. Yay!

After pulling it out I rested the tube across the gunwales of the Cadence. This kept the float ever so slightly above the water.

Now, of course, the remaining outrigger was sinking a bit lower in the water as I leaned more to the port. Perhaps removing a single outrigger would not help as much as I thought.

I tried leaning more to the starboard. This was a bit better, and I started to pick up a little speed.

I had almost caught the kayak as we reached the second buoy.

It was at the second buoy that I decided to try removing the other outrigger, too. With a little effort I was able to release it, pull it out and balance the aka (the carbon fiber tube) across my waist on the gunwales, with one float on one side of the boat and the other float on the other side of the boat.

This generally seemed to work, so long as I held it with one hand and steered with the other hand. Once in a while, though, either the bow or the stern of one float or the other would dip into the water and act as a brake.

With my hands thus occupied, I couldn't take any photos. It didn't matter much, anyway, as the shots would have mostly been into the sun and would not have turned out. On the other hand, my speed increased by nearly a mile per hour and I quickly passed Tom and his dastardly kayak.

As I passed he said "I was wondering why you were taking so long to pass me". I told him about the outriggers and said "See you later!".

There was quite a distance between me and the next boat, but I kept on pedaling. My legs were very tired by this time, and all I had left to drink was another bottle of water.

I sure hoped there would be some food left at the finish!

The distance between my boat and the one ahead seemed to be shrinking, but there was no way that I'd catch him before the finish.

A couple of quick stops to remove weeds from the propeller didn't help, either.

With that being the case as I neared the mouth of the Cedar River I decided to reinstall the outriggers and take more photos.

With a time of 2:22:27 I finally crossed the finish line. Whew!

Thirteen seconds later Tom crossed the line. I guess I wasn't as far ahead as I thought!

I tied up at the dock by the boat house and made my way up the ramp and through the shop. The lunch was set up on tables lining the dock, with Dan Henderson manning the grill. That food looked and smelled good!

I grabbed a plate and filled it with a burger, salad and dessert. Yum!

The sun had warmed up the day considerably. The temperature had risen to the low 50's and the wind had mostly died. Still, it was a little chilly in the shade wearing wet clothing so I basked in the sun. It was a good thing I had on my sunscreen!

After a while the awards ceremony was held. Ribbons were handed out for winners in each of the classes for both the long and the short courses, though many of the short course winners had long since gone home. This year, due to the rough conditions at the start, there were several DNF's (did not finish). The conditions also enabled surf skis to be first overall in both races.

After the ceremony I returned to my boat and headed up the Cedar River to the ramp. A guy in a rather unsteady high kneel canoe accompanied me. We pulled our boats from the water and went our separate ways.

It was a good day for a race!

For all the photos taken, head over here.

Medina-Mercer 2007

2007-10-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

The standing joke here is "What do you call the sunny, warm day preceded by two cold and wet days? Monday.".

While the US Midwest was basking in clear skies and temperatures in the upper 80's, we in the Pacific NorthWet were having a typical weekend: sunny Friday, drizzly and chilly (low 50's) Saturday, drizzly and not quite as chilly (low 60's) Sunday, and partly cloudy Monday.

Two layers of shirts, fleece lined jacket and a wind breaker were not enough to keep me warm before the race. Replacing the fleece jacket with a kayak PFD did the trick. Putting on an insulating headband and baseball cap certainly helped, too.

After registering for the race I returned to the car and prepared for the race. This involved taking the Cadence off the roof of the car and onto its dolly, loading it with water bottles, seat pads, tow rope, GPS receiver and a safety paddle. The Coroplast race number was then taped to the rear deck. I carefully walked it down the steep asphalt path to the beach where the guy in the backhoe had just finished smoothing the beach for us.

With all the construction gear and concrete forms blocking most of the access to the beach I decided to park the boat as far from the access path as possible. I couldn't be accused of blocking anyone by leaving the boat there!

As it was still a bit early and the drizzle was getting a bit heavier, I decided to return to the car. It was quite a bit warmer and drier inside, and it gave me a chance to put the camera in its waterproof case in preparation for the race. It also seemed to be time to switch from sneakers to sandals, as there were very few dry places around the registration shelter where I could conceivably stash my belongings.

About 10 or 15 minutes later the rain subsided. I got out and took more photos of other folks preparing for the event, most of whom were bundled in warm clothing, hats and jackets. Some even wore mittens or gloves.

The pre-race meeting was held soon after my return. Rainer Storb, the race director, told us about the two courses, the long and the short. They both start at the same place and time and head the same direction - south, towards Mercer Island and the East Channel Bridge. The short course turns back after crossing under the bridge while the long course continues down the East Channel, rounds the bottom of Mercer Island and heads back to Medina Beach park by way of the west side of Mercer Island.

For today's race we had the assistance of the Medina Police Marine Unit as well as a private volunteer safety boat. Of course, we were expected to provide assistance to other racers if they were in trouble and if we could help in any way.

During the meeting another Cadence pedal boat arrived, this one owned by Todd. He parked it alongside mine and quickly got registered.

I asked Todd which race he had intended to do, as I intended to the other one. You see, this would mean that we both could get first place ribbons so long as we finished our respective races. When he replied "The long one" I was pretty happy. Given how chilly it was and how I was feeling about the weather I really did not feel like pedaling the long one.

People started launching their boats, stepping into the cool water and clambering aboard as quickly as possible. The little breakwater did a pretty good job of reducing the chop, so launching and boarding was easy to manage. The water also got reasonably deep close to shore, so I was able to have the bow of the Cadence on the sand, the stern out in the water, and not have to step too far into the water to get into the cockpit.

While still beached I got in the boat, sat down, dried my feet with the socks, and put on the sock and sandals.

Backing away under pedal power worked out pretty well, too. I was able to turn around between some of the other boats and head out into the lake.

There was still a bit of a drizzle and a strong breeze from the south. This kicked up the water a bit and also coated the optical port on the camera case. It was good I carried along a couple of cloth handkerchiefs with which to dry it!

Quite a few people seemed to be troubled one way or another by the conditions. Still, no one seemed to capsize during the warmups, and the two safety boats kept close by in case any problems occurred.

I noticed that turning around in the wind was a little more difficult than usual. Deciding that the problem was due to the sail effect of the race number on the stern of my boat I had some guys in another boat remove the number and stow it flat on the rear hatch. Thanks, guys!

While warming up I heard the 5 minute and 1 minute signals. All too soon the starting signal was heard and I was about 100 feet behind the starting line. Oh, well. At least I'd get some shots of the field as they departed!

I started pedaling at a moderate pace, resigned to the fact that I'd be well behind most of the other racers.

A funny thing happened. I was gaining on just about the entire field.

It turned out that the strong headwind and the chop was slowing down everybody else. With a little additional effort I was able to catch up to the field and motor past almost all the other competitors!

As far as I could tell through the droplet covered bezel the GPS was reporting a speed of around 6.5 mph.

This was especially true of the rowers. Their oars kept catching "crabs" as they hit the waves, and I was able to keep up with rowers that would normally be far out in front. Even some of the OC-1's and OC-2's had problems as during the recovery stroke their paddles would hit the oncoming wave tops if they didn't raise them high enough.

Hurray for propellers!

I kept pace with Rob, one of the normally fast rowers, for quite a distance. He took a slight break at one point, whereupon I scolded him for slowing down. I went around his boat and continued onward towards the bridge.

A strong paddler in a surf ski was keeping pace to my left, while two strong paddlers in an OC-2 slowly began catching up on my right. Their periodic shouts signaling they were switching sides on which to paddle could be heard clearly above everything else.

I timed a similar shout as a joke. Steve, one of the OC-2 paddlers, thought it was pretty funny and was wondering if I was trying to confuse them. Yes, I was!

The closer we approached the bridge the quieter the wind and waves became. The propeller drive advantage was being lost. The normally faster boats started performing "normally"; i.e., they started pulling ahead. If there was any good news it was that the drizzle had by this time mostly stopped. I was getting warm enough that I actually had to take off my hat and open up my wind breaker.

Another rower managed to catch up and pass me just before reaching the bridge. Meanwhile, I took a few shots of the leading racers returning from the bridge on the short course.

I began to wonder if Todd was actually going to go ahead and do the long course. The conditions further ahead looked pretty easy; perhaps he would continue on after all.

I rounded the four pylons of one of the bridge piers and headed back towards the start. It was amazing how far ahead of the rest of the field we had gotten.

Rather than take a bee line back to the start I decided to try to get fairly close to the incoming racers for some photo ops. This worked out fairly well, though I'm sure it slowed me down a little. However, with the wind at my back I was heating up quite a bit. Going a little slower meant I could feel more of a breeze. Ahhhh!

Unfortunately, however, going slower would also mean that other folks would eventually catch and pass. I continued pedaling faster, with the GPS reporting a speed of about 7 mph.

Todd appeared at about the middle of the pack. He seemed to be pedaling strongly and was still planning to head around the island on the long course. Go Todd!

The GPS was reporting my speed as a bit slower than I expected for the amount of effort. I paused a couple of times, pedaling backward and forward in an effort to dislodge any milfoil that might have accumulated. It was hard to say if there actually was an improvement, or whether I was merely getting tired.

Heading further away from the bridge the wind and waves started picking up, as expected. I began pedaling a little faster. This enabled the Cadence to go faster than the waves were moving and eliminated any surfing effects.

About half a mile from the finish I noticed a rower that had slowly and slightly crept up close to my position. Oh, no! I wasn't going to let him catch me!

I pedaled harder, trying to make nice circles with my pedals.

It seemed to work. The boat appeared to be cutting faster through the waves and the rower seemed to be dropping behind.

At long last I reached the breakwater and heard the horn signaling my race was over, with a time of 1:01:55 and 8th place overall. Not bad, but it didn't break my record of 56:23. Of course, that was in smooth conditions with far fewer photos taken.

About 20 seconds later the rower crossed the line.

I circled back and took more photos of some of the incoming racers. It didn't take too long before the wind cooled me off, perhaps a bit too much. It was time to return to shore.

I raced back, passing another boat as he crossed the finish line. Woohoo!

Back on shore I wheeled the Cadence on its dolly most of the way back up the path towards the car. I left it there, returned to the car and changed into dry clothing. That felt much better!

In honor of the Medina-Mercer Sausage Pull name a lunch of freshly grilled fine German sausages was offered. I picked out a tasty bratwurst, some sauerkraut and ketchup and consumed it hungrily. Yum!

By this time the weather had lightened considerably. The drizzle was long gone and every so often the sun would break through the cloud cover. The wind was still fairly strong and chilly, but nylon pants over woolen leg warmers, two layers of jackets, an insulating head band and baseball cap kept me nice and warm.

Many of the short course racers decided to head out rather than wait in the cold for the long race to complete. The rest of us had pleasant conversation and watched for boats as they arrived one by one from across the lake.

There was some excitement when two boats arrived neck and neck. Though they tried mightily, the two man boat finished just behind the one man surf ski.

As the crowd dwindled further it was decided to hold the awards ceremony, even though the last of the racers had yet to arrive.

I found out that another racer started 30 minutes late and was given his own time. He ended up in 8th place, pushing everyone else (me included) down a notch. This didn't sit too well with a number of other racers, as it was felt that the conditions might have been easier later in the morning. I suspect that this might be a topic for the club's annual meeting in December.

Shortly after the awards ceremony was over I walked back to the fence along the shore. In the distance one could see the Medina Police boat escorting a racer from Mercer Island. After much squinting through binoculars it was determined that it was Todd, finishing the course under his own power. Go Todd!

After Todd neared the finish the police boat left to find another boat to escort.

I helped Todd get his boat from the water, pointed him in the direction of the hot food and scored the last of the soft drinks for him. He was a little late and had some family obligations to rush off to. Congratulations on finishing!

Even with the cold and rain it was a fun event. Thanks, Rainer and all the volunteers!

Lake Samish Race 2007

2007-09-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

The boat races seem to be bunched pretty closely together at this time of year, with every race director trying to get one in before wintry weather makes it unpleasant to be out on the water.

Merely one week after the Paddle the Shores event I drove to Bellingham, WA to participate in the Sound Rowers Lake Samish Salmon Roe. The skies were thick with gray clouds. The temperature was around 50 degrees and the forecast was for showers.

Hopefully the rain would hold off until after the race!

I arrived at Lutherwood Park at the north end of Lake Samish at about 8:30 AM. There were numerous people dressed in bright orange safety gear directing traffic to and from the boat staging areas and parking areas. It all seemed vaguely familiar when it hit me. The people running this event also run the Mt. Baker Ski Resort, and they were using the same sorts of techniques to squeeze people, cars and boats into small spaces as they did on the mountain to handle people, cars and skis.

All in all it went very smoothly.

I dropped off my boat, rolled it onto an out of the way spot on a nearby dock, and returned to park my car in a distant parking area.

Upon returning to the registration area I went to collect my pre-registration packet. These guys were so efficient it was scary - except they somehow lost my online pre-registration.

Oh, well.

Filling out the form on race day only meant that they did not have my T-shirt size available. I had to settle for a large and hope for the best when I washed it later. There was no additional cost for day of event registration.

By the time of the pre-race meeting the place was filled with boats and people. There were 108 boats entered, ranging from plastic kayaks to carbon fiber rowing shells and carrying from one to six people. Racers ranged in age from perhaps 10 years to late 70's. This surely was going to be the biggest Sound Rowers race of the year!

The course was to be the same as in the previous couple of years. It starts just beyond the bridge in the main section of the lake, heads southward to a buoy, heads along the eastern shore to another buoy, returns under the bridge to the far northern shore and finishes shortly after making a turn at the last buoy. The total distance is about 5.5 miles.

As the Sound Rowers club photographer I decided to repeat my slightly longer version of the race. This meant that some time before reaching the first buoy I would instead cross the lake to the eastern shore and follow the course backward around the first turn buoy until I passed the last boat in the race. At that time I would then cross the lake to the buoy on the eastern shore and continue along the course as normal.

This would add anywhere between 0.25 and 0.5 miles and 2 to 5 minutes to the length of my race, but I feel that is a small sacrifice for the far greater number of photo opportunities it presented.

After the pre-race meeting completed I went back to the dock. After swapping my pants and shoes for woolen leg warmers and sandals, sealing the camera in its waterproof bag, launching the Cadence and stowing the wheels in the rushes along the shore, I got under way. There was not a lot of time between the end of the meeting and when the race was supposed to start, and the starting line was about a mile distant.

All in all the trip to the starting line served as a nice warm up. The Cadence was working pretty smoothly and my body was starting to warm up enough that I decided to stow my nylon jacket. The insulation of the PFD and the two long sleeved nylon/synthetic shirts quite adequate in keeping me warm.

When I reached the starting line the 5 minute warning was given. Great! Now I could wander about and take some starting line shots.

There were so many boats here that the organizers suggested that if you were a slower racer that it was preferred that you start in a row behind the faster boats. Even so, the starting line stretched across the lake.

At long last the starting signal was given. We were off!

There was quite a bit of mayhem, with paddles and oars splashing, some minor collisions, and folks trying to make their way down the course.

A surf skier next to me splashed me a couple of times, dousing the camera bag with spray. I extracted a cloth from a pocket in my PFD and attempted to dry the optical port on the camera bag, all while pedaling madly and trying to steer a straight course. Sheesh!

I didn't bother trying to draft anyone. The faster guys were already fairly far ahead and I was able to keep pace with the boats around me. These guys were trying to find their way around each other, positioning behind one or another or trying to catch other boats just ahead. For me it seemed to be a better strategy to just snap photos every so often and keep on moving.

After passing a safety boat that was sitting in the middle of the course towards the first turn buoy it looked like it was time to cross the lake to meet the first racers. I snapped a parting shot of a fast six person dugout canoe with which I had been keeping pace and headed off at an angle. Hopefully no one was drafting me as they would be going the wrong way!

The timing was almost perfect. Just as I reached the far side of the lake the first boat, a two man shell, crossed just ahead of me. I think they were surprised to see me, but they just kept on rowing.

The same couldn't be said about a few of the next boats. I did my best to give them room and yet still be close enough to shoot them. For the most part this seemed to work pretty well.

A little while later I reached the first turn buoy. There were racers still coming towards it as far as the eye could see.

Unfortunately, however, the camera couldn't quite keep up writing photos to the flash memory as fast as shots were taken. It was not as bad as in previous years as I was now acquainted with the problem and tried to space the shooting accordingly. There were still a few times I ended up having to wait, missing some excellent photo ops while doing so.

A minute or two later I encountered Todd in his yellow and white carbon fiber Cadence. He seemed to be doing pretty well and was pedaling pretty strongly. Go Todd!

There were a lot more kayaks, surf skis and even rowing shells still coming. I was starting to wonder how I would be backtracking in order to take everyone's photo!

Eventually the last two boats appeared. One was the four man high kneel canoe paddled by a bunch of young kids from the Cascade Canoe & Kayak center in Seattle, accompanied by their coach in a kayak. These intrepid young paddlers seemed to be a little unsteady at times, but they kept on going. Hurray for them!

I made a bee line across the lake towards the second turn buoy. The GPS was indicating a speed of about 7 mph, and the wind was mostly to the side.

There was a large group of boats just finishing making turn past the buoy when I arrived. The group included a couple of OC-1's, an OC-2, several kayaks, a couple of surf skis and a rowing shell or two, with about twelve boats total. Aha! Targets!

This stretch pedaling back towards the bridge was not quite as easy as I thought it was going to be. The wind driven waves were just big enough to jostle the boat so that the camera wouldn't sit still on the deck behind me. The camera would flop over to one side and yank on my neck in that direction, or flop to the other side and yank in the other direction. Flopping either way also interfered with my balance against the wave action. If the camera was on my chest it would interfere with my heavy breathing. There was just no comfortable place to put it!

I ended up doing some zig zagging so that the boat was either parallel to or perpendicular to the wave direction. This worked OK, but prevented me from making headway and catching up to the other boats.

Getting closer to the bridge the waves decreased in size. I was able to put on some speed and caught up to the tail end of the group.

At the bridge I passed a couple of kayaks, one of whom asked if I was going to catch the OC-1's. I told him "Maybe, but not likely" - and then put the pedal to the metal. He tried to stay on my tail but was having some difficulty in drafting.

I was pretty much at my aerobic limit, having been pushing pretty strongly throughout the race. Still, this was almost at the finish line and there were maybe nine boats just ahead. If I could hang on just a bit longer it would make a big difference in the standings.

Towards the finish I normally snap a lot of photos, but this time I decided to race. After one last sip of water I grabbed both steering handles to brace myself and poured it on. Trying to pedal in circles as best as I could and as fast as I could, the distance between the blue and white OC-1 paddled by Rocky grew smaller. We rounded the final turn buoy, and the finish line was less than 200 feet away.

I was right on Rocky's stern as he paddled as hard as he could. With all the strength I could muster the bow of the Cadence crept forward, now even with the cockpit of the OC-1, now even with the bow and, just as the horn for the finish sounded, about a foot ahead of the OC-1. Hurray!

Rocky asked "Were you trying to catch me at the finish? 'cause I was trying my best to keep ahead of you!"

I confessed and said that yes, I was indeed trying to beat him.

After a bit of a rest and some photography I tied up at the dock and retrieved the outriggers for the boat. Terri, the wife of one of the surf skiers, had wanted to try out the boat with outriggers and this was her chance.

A few other folks tried their hand at pedaling Todd's boat as well as mine, and were generally pretty impressed with how easy they were to handle and to propel.

Last call was being made for the BBQ salmon lunch, so we took the boats from the water and headed over to the picnic area.

There was still a line for getting food, but it wasn't long before I had a steaming plate of salmon, mashed potatoes and coleslaw. It was very tasty!

I walked around the tables while eating, talking to folks and snapping more photos.

Eventually I found the table full of door prizes. These were contributed by a number of firms in the Bellingham area, and also included season lift passes to the Mt. Baker Ski Resort.

It was a while before the drawings for the prizes were made. As usual I didn't win anything.

It was still longer before the ribbons were awarded for the race. The fastest finish was by two guys in a rowing shell, with a time of 36:17. They were cooking!

Awards were given out to everyone but the three pedal boats, as we seemed to have been forgotten. This was brought to their attention immediately, and I received a first place ribbon with a time of 52:42. Not too bad for pedaling an extra quarter mile and shooting photos!

Todd received a second place ribbon with a time of 1:01:34. Todd's wife Lucia finished first in the women's pedal boat class with a time of 1:02:43. Way to go!

Thank you, Amy, Duncan and Peter for putting on such a great event!

The rest of the shots taken can be found here.

Paddle the Shores

2007-09-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Just a short week after Budd Inlet was an event at Ocean Shores, WA. Called "Paddle the Shores", this two day event included a race on Duck Lake, seminars, demonstrations and boat try outs, and a poker paddle that included boating on some very pretty canals.

There - I'm all done!

Well, the long story is that it was rather chilly on Saturday morning with temperatures in the upper 50's. There was a light northwesterly breeze off the ocean. Even when the sun rose up into the sky as the morning wore on it stayed relatively cool.

After picking up my race registration stuff (wrist band, prize drawing ticket, boat number, discount coupon booklet) I got my boat ready for the race.

Today would be different. I was not going to take along anything but water and a canoe paddle. That's right - there would be no radios, cell phones or cameras in this race!

I wanted to have a race without that sort of stuff to get in the way. Woo hoo!

After some "capture the tag" contests, where people in kayaks try to grab tags attached to other kayakers and not lose their own tags, and demonstrations of kayak rolling techniques, and demonstrations of kayak rescue techniques, the pre-race meeting was held. It all sounded simple enough: go south, bear left at the first island and go under the bridge. Continue south and bear right until you hit the next set of islands, where you bear left. Continue south until you reach an orange buoy. Go around the buoy and return along the west side of the lake until you reach the last island, where you bear right. Continue northward until you eventually end up back at the start.

Looking at the map it seemed that there could be room for confusion, as some of the shoreline had inlets that looked like channels, etc. Hmmm...

The boat ramp and dock were pretty much the only areas at which we could launch. It took a while for all the boats to get into the water. Luckily for me most folks opted to launch from the ramp, while I had nearly unrestricted use of the dock. Ok, so I had to wait a moment for an OC-2 to paddle away from the shore. There was plenty of time before the race and no need to hurry.

Once out on the water I clicked into the pedals and began warming up. The sun was glaring off the water and into my eyes, and I felt a little nervous about this new course. This would be the first new race I had been at in years. Was the lake truly weed free, as we had been told? Would I be able to find my way among all the islands and channels?

We lined up for the start as best we could. The lake was very narrow at the starting line, being only perhaps 70 feet across. Some of the boats had troubles getting in line or, once there, had troubles maintaining a stationary position against the wind. Their paddles or oars would clash with adjacent boats.

I had no problems. Pedaling slowly in reverse worked quite well in keeping the Cadence right at the starting line.

Just before the starting signal was given a guy in a Hobie Mirage managed to find himself turned sideways in front of the boats on my left. In addition, another guy in a rowing shell just managed to squeeze in near me, placing me right against an OC-6. Boy, this was tight!

The signal was given, and we were off.

With the clatter of paddles hitting boats, the splashing of water and the whirring of my chain drive, the boats on my side scooted away from the starting line. This was a first - I was actually staying with the lead boats!

In the next few seconds, with my legs spinning the cranks faster than I ever recalled doing before, my boat leapt ahead of everyone, including the OC-6. Looking around, I saw that it was almost a boat length behind.

This was weird. My legs were still pedaling at an extraordinary rate, feeling very good, yet my breathing and my heart rate were only at a moderate level. I had to make a conscious effort to slow down pedaling as I knew that I couldn't possibly maintain that level for 5+ miles, regardless of how effortless it seemed at the moment.

In slowing down I decided to travel alongside the OC-6 for a while. These folks had done the race previously and knew the course. It would probably also be good to draft them and save my energy for later.

As I began drafting I found my legs starting to complain more, and my lungs and heart rate increased to near my aerobic threshold. Was it a mistake to have slowed down?!? Perhaps the Cadence has a super performance mode of operation of which I was previously unaware, such as one finds in power boats when they get on a plane.

All I know is that I was now working very hard and doing my best to stay in the draft of the OC-6, avoiding the whirlpools from their paddles.

We went under a bridge at the first island. Several spectators waved at us and cheered us on.

Here and there I could see small isolated pieces of milfoil floating at the surface. Hopefully they wouldn't get in my way!

I managed to keep the bow of the Cadence mere inches from the stern of the OC-6, well most of the time, anyway. There were a couple of times when they overlapped while the OC-6 zigged and zagged slightly down the course, and a couple of minor taps when I didn't slow or veer away quickly enough. No damage was done.

We were going about the same speed as the wind. This meant that the heat of exertion and that from the sun made it quite hot as we headed toward the turn buoy. I took off my hat, preferring instead to shade my eyes with my hands and try to let my scalp cool off. In addition, I decided that I would probably not bother drafting the OC-6 on the return as I was just melting.

As luck would have it, with the turn buoy just ahead I reached for my water bottle and, with great finesse, dropped my drink into the drink.

Rats!

It was as good of an excuse as any to drop off the OC-6.

I turned the boat around and noticed that we had placed quite a lead over the next boats in the race. Well, perhaps I shouldn't give up quite so soon!

After retrieving the floating bottle I quickly resumed course and rounded the turn buoy. The OC-6 was several hundred feet ahead, but I was not in a condition to catch them - yet, anyway.

With the sun now at my back I decided to see how fast a speed the GPS was reporting. What's this? The screen was blank!

Oh, no! The darned thing had been stationary too long before the start and turned itself off. Now I'll never know how fast I was going at the start!

I turned it back on.

With the OC-6 ahead to guide me on the return trip and a nice, cool breeze in my face I started feeling better. My heart and breathing rates were both a bit lower than while drafting, which suited me just fine. The GPS was reporting speeds in the 6.5 to 7 mph range. This was a nice, sustainable pace, and seemed to be about the same as the lead boat.

While traveling past the last of the islands and about 2/3 done with the race I encountered a woman in the race pedaling a Mirage toward me. She actually lived near there on the lake and even she wasn't sure which way the course went. I told her she was on the wrong side of the island and pointed her back onto the course.

My speed dropped slightly a short while later, so I went through the weed removal cycle. The speed didn't increase a whole lot, so I did it again. Success!

It was fun zipping past all the other racers and safety boats. A few folks later on said it looked like I was hardly working at all.

Passing under the bridge a second time and nearing the end I tied to decide whether it would be a good tactical move to travel along the lee side of the lake rather than continue straight into the wind. Ahead I saw the OC-6 making a bee line for what looked like - could it be? - yes, the finish line!

I abandoned the move and also made a bee line towards the finish, pedaling faster and faster.

It took approximately 90 seconds after the OC-6 crossed the finish line for me to follow suit. 49:29 was the time recorded, and second place overall! Woo hoo!

My legs were feeling pretty good, much better than they felt after the Budd Inlet race. I circled back around onto the course and had fun escorting the next few boats across the finish, seeing how fast I could sprint.

After the race I tried out the latest set of outriggers for the Cadence. They seemed to work pretty well, making the boat extremely stable.

Awards and prizes were given out to the race participants a little later. There were no awards given on the basis of the overall race; rather, they were awarded on the position in each class. Strangely enough, the prop driven Cadence was in the same class as the flipper driven Hobies, so the poor gentleman who pedaled his Hobie over the line 20+ minutes after me was awarded second place. Oh, well.

I had some family matters to attend to and didn't go to the seminars in the afternoon.

The next morning I took my family out for the poker paddle. They rode in the Escapade and I took the Cadence fitted with outriggers. Both boats were frequently topics of conversations among the paddlers at this event.

Despite the warnings of a local Encore pedal boat owner, I found the boat ramp to be perfect for launching the Escapade. Unlike most places I have launched that boat here it was able to float right off the bunks. Yay!

We should have left the Escapade's windshield at the dock. My wife found it to be quite warm as she pedaled it on this overcast, calm day. Oh, well.

We each carried a walkie talkie and cell phone for interboat communications. About halfway through the trip the battery in my radio died and we resorted to cell phones from then on.

The poker paddle event consisted of 7 stops along a loop course. At each stop you were handed (via a clothes pin glued to a long stick) a card in a sealed envelope. At the end of the event you would turn in your sealed envelopes. Whatever cards the envelopes contained would be your poker hand, with the best 5 cards picked. If you didn't want to travel the full distance you could exclude the middle two stops and end up with just 5 cards.

As it turned out, most folks went the entire distance. My wife didn't want to go the whole way as the attention span of the kids was whining, er, waning, so they took the short cut. Little did they realize that it was only a short distance to the furthest two stops and that this would have most likely given them a much better hand.

I went the whole distance, spending much of the time pedaling alongside a paddler who had rowed in the race the day before. We were traveling around 2 to 3 mph for the most part, much slower than I normally travel even when in the Escapade. Still, it was fun to see all the trees, boats and houses along the lake and tree covered canals, socializing with other boaters and talking shop.

Shortly after our return back to the lake I bid adieu to the paddler and increased the pace to 6 mph. That was more like it!

The outriggers sliced through the water cleanly, producing an interesting wake pattern behind. As the sun came out I caught up and passed boat after boat, heading towards the north end of the lake where my family was disembarking.

By the time I reached the dock they had already left for an early lunch, preferring not to wait for the picnic provided by the organizers. Oh, well.

After giving a few demos of the Escapade and the Cadence I headed to the picnic shelter for lunch. The food - hot dogs, burgers, beans, coleslaw, chips, etc. - were pretty tasty, and there was plenty for everyone.

Prizes were awarded for the poker hands. The top prize was a $150 gift certificate to Boaters World. It was followed by $100 and $50 certificates, dry bags, jackets, restaurant certificates, and many other items of interest to paddlers.

I ended up with a restaurant certificate good for two meals. Yippee!

The two days spent here were a lot of fun. I highly recommend it.

More photos are here.

Budd Inlet Race 2007

2007-09-15T15:53:00.001-07:00

The forecast for the day was for light winds, overcast skies and temperatures in the low 60's. Waves were supposed to be in the 0 to 1 foot range.

Upon arriving in Olympia, WA, at the Swantown Marina I found the conditions to be exactly as predicted. Not only that, but for the first time in recent years the tide was also at its maximum level. This meant that the typically exposed muddy bottom at the southernmost reach of Puget Sound was submerged, covered with more water than I think I've ever seen in that location. What a difference it makes!

Quite a few rowers from the Vancouver Lake Crew (Vancouver, WA) and the local rowing club (Olympia Area Rowing - OAR) were present for the race. There were a couple of OC-2's, some surf skis and a few single and double kayaks as well, and a lone pedal boat.

Oh, well. All I had to do was finish and I'd be assured of a blue ribbon!

After registering and bringing my boat to the staging area I attended the pre-race meeting. It was held on the concrete apron in front of OAR's nice, new boat house located right beside the boat launch.

The course was described as a rather flattened triangle. It starts from the end of the dock at the north end of the marina, heads north-northwesterly towards a large channel marker with a checkerboard patterned sign, turns northeasterly towards a boat moored on the east side of the Inlet, and returns to the start. The total distance is 7 nautical miles, or approximately 8 statute miles.

The record for pedal boats for this event was set in 2004 with a time of 1:08:36. This was done by yours truly in a Cadence, when I was definitely younger and perhaps in better shape than I was today.

The pre-race meeting ended about 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the race. Wow - there was no need to rush as there was for the Bainbridge Island Marathon! I could actually launch the boat, stow the dolly back at the staging area, warm up and take photos of the other racers and not have to worry about starting on time!

In addition, the water at the boat launch was nearly mirror flat - except for the ripples caused by boats being put in the water. There were absolutely no waves, weeds, rocks or worries at the start of this event.

I managed to get my boat in the water well before most of the other participants, and pedaled around warming up and taking photos.

There were several 4 person shells and 8 person shells in this race. The 4's and 8's were supposed to start somewhat later than the rest of the racers. This allowed them to come up and pass everyone, and give them the satisfaction of the chase. This also gave the other racers the incentive to not be passed by the faster boats, or to at least try to keep up with them once caught.

At the 5 minute signal we began to form a line for the start. At the 1 minute signal I found myself near a couple of OC-2's and a surf ski. That seemed to be a good position, more or less in the middle of the pack. The GPS reported that I had been pedaling some 1.5 miles so far, with a maximum warmup speed of about 7.4 mph.

The starting signal was given and we were off!

Right at the start the guy in the surf ski splashed me with the first stroke of his paddle. I was not too pleased about this as I then had to check to see if the camera's lens port was hit. Luckily it wasn't, and I was able to continue pedaling and snapping photos.

It seemed to me that we were having a rather fast start. The GPS was reporting speeds in the 7 to 8 mph range, and there were folks who seemed to jump ahead and keep on going at still higher speeds. On the other hand, my legs felt fairly strong and my breathing was still aerobic. Perhaps some unknown force was pulling us northward, a force that wasn't discernable at the starting line.

I turned to the side and was surprised by the number of rowers that seemed to be pacing me. What was going on here? Were these guys just pacing themselves or, more likely, was I putting out too much energy early in the race?

I took some shots aimed behind me. With these shots I have absolutely no idea if they turn out or not until I see them back home. Sometimes they do and sometimes (most of the time) they don't. When they do, however, the results can be wonderful. Perhaps some day I'll be able to take such shots and use them during a race to tactical advantage.

The field of boats ahead was slowly moving away. They were definitely going too fast for me to try to catch. Meanwhile, I noticed a few surf skis and kayaks slowly catching up and passing on the port side. I guess I had better pedal a bit harder or perhaps take fewer photos!

Up ahead I noticed an OC-2 paddled by Vern Heikkila and another guy. When Vern paddles with his wife they are typically a little slower than me. When he paddles with a guy he is typically faster. I decided to try to catch them, figuring I could then take a break following in their wake.

The GPS was still reporting speeds in the 7 to 8 mph range, but closer to 8. My breathing was getting close to my aerobic limits, but I was gaining on the OC-2. I still took a few photos of the racers nearby, each of which tended to reduce my pedaling effort somewhat in an effort to hold the camera steady, but after a couple of minutes I caught up. Whew!

My legs were still feeling quite strong. In fact, they felt like they would rather have continued pedaling at the higher effort than take a bit of a break as I pedaled in the wake of the OC-2.

Considering how close to the beginning of the race we still were, I decided that it would be better to try to pace myself a bit more and stick to the OC-2. It would not be good to burn out before the first turn!

Stick to them I did, though it seemed that I dropped back 10 or 15 feet every time I took pictures of the racers on either side. My legs were complaining a little about the variation in effort it took to maintain the distance between the bow of the Cadence and the stern of the OC-2. It seemed that a continuous effort suited the muscles better.

On the other hand, it was definitely easier to follow in the wake and to catch up when I dropped behind. Just mark me down as an opportunistic lazy bum!

We hit the first turn at the same time as several single rowing shells. We took the inside of the turn and they took the outside. There was a bit of confusion as to who was going exactly where, but it all got sorted out in short order.

En route to the second turn on the east side of the Inlet we were slowly passed by a single shell and a four person shell. Our speed had dropped slightly and was now in the 6.5 to 7.5 mph range.

A few small pieces of wood could be seen were floating in the water along with some five inch diameter jellyfish here and there, but otherwise the water was quite clear of debris and weeds. Yay!

There was a photographer in the boat at the second turn. It looked like he tried to snap my photo as I approached, but I think I was too close and too fast. As there were a bunch of other boats also trying to make the turn he had to make quick choices as to what he could do.

The OC-2 nearly got away, but I managed to catch it with a few seconds of hurried pedaling.

The GPS was showing our speed as 6 to 6.5 mph. Hmm, perhaps there was an outgoing tide slowing us down.

The first 8 person shell caught us shortly after the second turn. Their cox apparently had troubles seeing obstacles directly in their path as they ran into a small buoy even with the warning shouts from several of the rowers in the boats nearby. From the way their approach sounded I had been concerned that they might have been heading into me!

No damage was done, except to their time.

They decided to row a bit further from shore after that.

Our group seemed to stay pretty close together. We had three rowing shells, a surf ski, the OC-2 and my pedal boat. From time to time a shell would cross our path and be closer to shore, or go the other way and be further in the channel. Still, we were all going about the same speed and from time to time yelled some observation to each other.

It would be interesting to see how it played out at the finish!

From the rear I could hear the sound from the cox of another 8 person shell as they slowly approached. This gave me a smart idea: if I could catch their tail I would be able to draft them all the way to the finish. This would put me ahead of all these other guys.

I turned slightly away from the OC-2, heading out towards where I could eventually meet the shell.

Unfortunately, the 8 person shell was going a little faster than I had originally calculated, and I didn't catch their draft. Rats!

I tried to go back to the OC-2, but my legs were showing the strain of the failed attempt to tail the 8. The OC-2 and the single rowers moved on without me.

In a desperate attempt to blame the problem on something fouling my propeller I reverse pedaled, coming to a stop, and pedaled forward again. This sort of action normally removes any accumulation of weeds and the boat goes faster than before. This time, however, there appeared to be no weeds slowing me down. I was just tired!

Another surf ski slowly caught up and passed as the finish line was approached. I tried sprinting a couple of times and almost overlapped his hull, but my legs were definitely running out of energy. Perhaps having a low carb dinner the night before was not such a good idea after all!

With a time of 1:08:56, just 20 seconds off the record, I crossed the finish line. If I had stayed with the OC-2 or if I had caught the 8, I would have set a new record. Oh, well.

My legs were not very happy with me. I had finished the main water bottle, but that wasn't enough fluid to keep the calf muscles from cramping for about 10 minutes. Pedaling slowly didn't help much, either.

Eventually they loosened up and, with the arrival of the penultimate paddlers, I pedaled to shore.

Back at the registration area the organizers had set up a luncheon buffet. On the menu were jambalaya, chili, rice, salad, bread and fruit. I took a plate and filled it with the tasty looking morsels. It definitely hit the spot!

There was a bit of a delay after lunch before the results were announced. Some folks packed up and went home, but most stayed around and conversed.

At the awards ceremony the results were given by class with ribbons awarded to the first three places in each class. There were a lot of blue ribbons distributed, especially to all the 8's: men's, women's, mixed, junior, etc. There were not very many second place finishers in those classes!

After my abbreviated race the previous weekend it felt good to be fully worn out. It felt better to have yet another race under my belt even it wasn't quite a record breaker!

The entire set of photos taken at the race can be found here.

Bainbridge Island Marathon

2007-09-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

The marine forecast for the day of this event was partly cloudy, temperatures in the 60's, winds from the northeast at 10 to 20 knots, and wind waves from 1 to 3 feet.

Crossing the Sound on the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, the waves seemed to be mostly in the 3 foot range, with white caps quite frequently making appearances.

I wasn't sure that I was feeling up to a 26.2 mile race. My spirits were a bit low due to some personal matters during the preceding week, but decided that a long time out on the water might be just the thing to perk me up. There is nothing like pain, agony and utter exhaustion to push out thoughts of anything else! :-)

I was somewhat behind the others in getting my boat into the water. The expanse of beach logs made it impossible to roll my boat on its dolly to the beach from the parking lot, so I had assistance carrying it from one of the other racers. A few trips back and forth from the car to the shore carrying all the paraphernalia and safety equipment slowed me further. Oh, well. So much for taking photos during the warmup!

In the boat I placed a couple of bottles of water, some Gatorade, a tube of sunscreen, an IP station, a new and different sweat band, my favorite Sound Rowers hat and a heart rate monitor chest belt. Being rushed I figured that I could put that belt on later. Attached to my PFD were a cell phone in a waterproof pouch and a VHF walkie talkie in a waterproof pouch. Around my neck was the camera, a Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A-1, also in a waterproof pouch. In my shirt pockets were several Power Bars of different flavors. Hey - this was going to be a 4+ hour race, and I would definitely be needing something to keep my energy levels high!

On my head I wore a sweat band and a cap that shaded my eyes, ears and the back of my neck. It was a little cool, so it also helped to keep me warm. I'd switch to the SR cap if/when I got hot, or just take it off.

The waves were breaking more or less parallel to the shore. With the tide at the extreme low level all the plants that were normally out of the way under water were doing their best to snag the boat and my sandals. Pedaling in reverse heading away from the shore into waves seemed to be the best way to get into deeper water, but it was pretty slow going. I finally got far enough away from shore to pedal forward and turn around. Gee, this was going to be a rough ride!

I did my best to take shots of the other folks warming up in the few moments before they lined up for the start. With all the waves and the angle of the sun, however, it was difficult to take any decent shots. Later on I discovered that some of the camera dials had changed and most of these shots were unusable.

The start signal was given and we were off! Well, everyone but me. Prior to wading out in the water for launching I had removed my socks. Twenty six miles of soggy socks didn't appeal to me, so it was time to put the nice, dry socks back on. Of course, this meant I was immediately in last place, a condition I hoped to change fairly soon.

Pedaling onward at last, I soon reached the south end of Fay Bainbridge Park. The water seemed to have a fair number of patches of floating weeds. The winds had apparently blown all the floating weed patches that had been scattered across the Sound and collected them on the east side of the island, right in my path. It was rather frustrating to pedal along at 6+ mph and then get slowed down due to entanglement.

Pedaling in reverse generally cleared the propeller, but it was a nuisance, especially with the waves hitting the boat from the stern quarter. It took some effort to maintain my balance and, though the shoreline was rather pretty, I felt no guilt from not taking photos during this time.

The waves were generally in the 3 foot size, with periods where reflections from the shore made for a muddled mess of water. I was able to surf a few times, with the GPS reporting speeds over 10 mph, which ended with the bow planting itself in the back of the preceding wave as I turned towards the shore in order to keep upright. It didn't help that the clipless sandals were also not doing a great job of staying clipped to the pedals, either.

It was more fun to pedal across the wave tops when the water was muddled, as it was as though I was traveling down a river. The speed was augmented by gravity (there was a slight downslope) and there was no extra effort needed to keep upright. Yee-hah!

I was gaining on the stragglers as well as the safety boat, and nearing Skiff Point when it happened. Surfing down a large wave I turned the boat a little too slowly and was pedaling a little too slowly. The port stern quarter was lifted by the wave and since I didn't counteract it adequately, I slowly tipped over. Rats!

Everything not lashed to the boat or to me immediately either sank to the bottom or started floating away. Goodbye hat, brand new sweatband, sunscreen, water bottles, Gatorade, power bars, heart rate belt, etc.! The Shimano sandals that were having troubles staying clipped to the pedals while the boat was upright were having no problems staying clipped to the pedals while the boat was upside down. This wasn't a severe problem as my PFD was keeping my head above the water; rather, it just delayed me getting back under way.

After a few moments I was able to extricate my sandals from the pedals. I turned the boat upright and took stock of the situation.

All I could see around the boat were the seat pads, which I gathered up and tossed in the boat. The waves were probably obscuring all my other stuff that might still be floating, so I figured that once under way I'd circle around and see if anything else could be found.

I tried reentering the boat as I had done many times before, along the cockpit. Just as I lunged and swung my legs into the boat the VHF, cell phone and camera pouches swung into my way and a wave knocked me over again.

Okay, let's try it with the boat pointed into the wind. Again, as I tried to enter the cockpit the pouches got in the way, and while I was trying to get them out of the way the wind and waves had swung the boat around and another wave knocked me over again.

By this time the safety boat noticed something was not quite right and they began turning around to head back to me. Also, along the shore several hundred feet away I noticed a man watching me who was probably concerned with my well being in that upper 50-something degree water.

I tried again. This time the seat cushion was thrown a bit further upwind of the boat and out of my reach.

Since I'd rather not lose the cushion I figured that I could swim over to it and back to the boat. With the memory very strongly in my mind about troubles that kayakers have had with letting go of their boats in the water to get something and then not being able to swim fast enough to catch their boat as the winds and waves pushed it away, I for some reason did not grab the bow line so conveniently located on my boat. Instead, I just let go of the boat for a moment, making a mental calculation as to how fast the boat was pulled away from me, and swam to get the cushion.

Well, the boat seemed to pick up speed and was floating pretty fast away from me.

With more than a few strong kicks, trying to overcome the drag of those darned pouches, I barely managed to catch the boat. Whew! Perhaps I was getting a bit hypothermic after all!

Twice more I tried to get in the boat. Each time had the same results.

For whatever reason I didn't want to take the VHF, camera and cell phone pouches off and somehow lash them to the boat. Instead, I decided that perhaps the best thing was to head to shore, with my upper body across the gunwales of the boat and my legs kicking.

The folks in the safety boat were using their oars now. I wasn't sure why until later, when I found out their outboard motor had died and wouldn't start. They managed to reach me just as I was able to stand up on the bottom, trying to keep my boat from being bashed onto the rocky cobble beach by the surf. It took me a while to decide what to do next.

I finally decided that I was done for the day. With no extra water or food, and all the energy spent in self rescue attempts I wouldn't do very well if I tried to racing. If I had troubles getting back in the boat now, I would also likely have troubles later on and possibly in less hospitable conditions. Sigh...

The man on the shore who had been watching came to my aid. He and I carried the boat out of the surf. With the help of some other folks - including a local fire department officer who had arrived on the scene - we carried the boat up to the road.

I got a ride back to Fay Bainbridge Park. Thank you, Bainbridge Fire Department!

I wasn't feeling especially cold. The PFD had been providing quite a bit of insulation, and the nylon shirts I had been wearing helped, too. Still, it felt good back at the car to wash off the salt water and change into dry clothing.

Since the conditions along the east side of Bainbridge were so challenging it was decided to have the short course start at Fay Bainbridge and head around the west side of the island.

The thought of pedaling in the short course almost, sort of, crossed my mind, but was immediately discarded. Instead, I took pictures from the shore of the start. The water seemed to be quite a bit calmer than earlier.

The safety boat and its crew decided to land at the same place I did, so on my drive back to pick up my boat a couple of other race officials followed along to collect the safety boat and their crew.

We returned to Fay Bainbridge and had lunch. The clam chowder and fresh bread were very tasty!

After lunch I headed to Fort Ward State Park at the other end of the island to pick up another racer who bailed.

At Fort Ward the conditions were relatively nice, warm and peaceful. I hung around for a bit taking photos as the finishers of the short course arrived one by one. Apparently the west side of the island was also fairly challenging. Each of the rowing shells had quite a bit of water in their cockpits. One even managed to collect a shrimp!

Shortly after returning to Fay Bainbridge with the rower and his shell the awards ceremony was started. As expected from the conditions no records were broken except, perhaps, for the number of DNF's (did not finish). Oh, well.

Methinks I'm going to have to figure out a way to secure those waterproof pouches to the boat, and still have ready access to them!

Great Cross Sound Race

2007-08-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

As happened on a couple of previous occasions I didn't have a boat for this race until perhaps a day or two before the event. The yellow and white carbon boat I had used in the Shaw event was back at the shop for some cosmetic repairs in preparation for it to be sold to a customer. The demo burgundy boat was also in the shop for final assembly. Only the newly completed demo blue and white boat was ready to go though it, too, was incomplete as it was missing its outriggers.

At Alki Beach in West Seattle near the race HQ I found a parking spot on the street with a lengthy No Parking zone directly behind. What luck! There was plenty of room for me to unload the Cadence from the roof of my car with no help needed. It also helped that my car was fairly short and fit easily into the otherwise small spot.

There were quite a few boats resting on the grass or slings on either side of the bath house at Alki. These included quite a few double and single rowing shells, a couple of wherries, a few surf skis, several single and double sea kayaks, and a couple of sit on top kayaks. Mine was the first pedal/prop boat to arrive, but it was joined a few minutes later by Todd's Cadence. There was also a tandem Hobie with the Mirage pedal/fin drive entered in the race, but strangely enough the only time I saw it was on the beach.

After picking up the pre-registration packet and a T-shirt (only $12 for everything!) I walked about taking photos of the event.

Jeff Knakal held the pre-race meeting. He mentioned that they had fewer chase boats this year, so everyone was to be extra careful in watching out for each other. He pointed out the course, which was from a starting line across Elliott Bay heading westward to Blakely Rock (barely visible across Puget Sound near Bainbridge Island), south to the buoy at Decatur Reef and back to Alki, finishing between a temporary buoy and the registration tent on the shore.

Jeff also mentioned the fact that the course crosses two ferry routes and two shipping lanes, that there were semi submerged rocks around Blakely Rock, and that there were typically strong tidal currents right at the Decatur Reef buoy. He didn't bring up the floating weed mats, but did mention a few apocryphal sea denizens that might afflict the unwary racer.

With the overcast skies, no breeze to speak of and air temperatures in the upper 60's I decided it would be a good idea to take along a windbreaker just in case it was necessary. Otherwise, bicycling shorts and two layers of nylon and polyester shirts were the clothes I wore.

The tide was quite low as we brought our boats down to the water. I wore a pair of Shimano bicycling sandals and wicking athletic socks on my feet, but somehow those socks weren't quite up to wicking away the water absorbed by wading into the chilly waters of Puget Sound. Once I was in the boat pedaling away from shore the socks seemed to do their job as there was an awful lot of water on the floor of the cockpit!

The Cadence handled well as I circled about the other 64 boats going through their warm-up routines. When the warning signals were heard prior to the start of the race I found myself near the north end of the starting line, next to a woman wearing a bright orange top and rowing a pink Maas Aero.

With a loud blast of the horn we were off!

With the usual starting line mayhem people were trying to dodge around the widespread oars of the rowers and trying to not hit each other with paddles. I decided to follow the orange topped woman, at least for a while, as she seemed to be going a speed that I could just barely maintain while taking photos.

With the fairly flat water the GPS reported a speed of about 7 mph. The heart rate monitor was indicating about 155 beats per minute - not bad.

I was pedaling quite strongly, slowing down slightly every so often to take pictures and then speeding to catch up with the Aero. A couple of large swells that came out of nowhere made it a bit interesting, too.

After a while, as we reached the midpoint of the crossing I stopped taking photos and concentrated on pedaling. The woman in the Aero was starting to slow down a bit and was angling more to the north than I wanted. I figured that she was just following the crowd, most of whom seemed to be heading much further north than necessary. We went our separate ways, and she began dropping behind.

A few minutes later I encountered the first of several zones of floating weeds. These are areas through which the ferries pass. Their propellers tend to stir up the bottom a bit and chew through the eel grass growing there. The severed eel grass then floats to the surface and tends to form mats that are up to 20 or 30 feet wide and hundreds of feet long. This makes it slow going for all boats, and a real nuisance for pedal boats as we generally have to resort to using our spare paddles for propulsion.

This year there were no true weed mats; just areas with lots of weeds loosely floating about. I powered through them, with momentary stops on the far sides to clear any accumulations on the propeller.

The several stops enabled quite a few of the other boats to pass, including the Aero.

Eventually I reached Blakely Rock, following a couple of sea kayaks that took a route close to the rocks. It was adequately deep and no monster crabs jumped out of the water to swamp my boat.

I encountered a few more weedy areas as I headed south to Decatur Reef, slowing me further. My heart rate was now in the upper 140's from all the "resting" while clearing the prop.

About this time the digital camera decided to flake out, too. The LCD displayed "Err" after I snapped a photo. This means that in order to take any more photos the camera has to be reset. To do this one needs to remove the battery and reinstall it.

This would not be much of a problem, except that it also involved removing the camera from its waterproof case. Sigh...

There were a couple of seals poking their heads up in this area. One sea lion was nosing about the buoy, and tried to jump onto it several times as I headed towards it. My attempts at photographing the jumps only succeeded in getting a few of the splashes as the sea lion fell back in. Oh, well.

There was a light current at the buoy, but nowhere near as strong as it had been in previous years. I put the pedal to the metal as I saw a "target rich" field ahead of me. There were quite a few boats that I just might be able to catch - if the weed gods were willing.

My pulse increased to the low 160's, and the GPS was reporting speeds in the 6.5 to 7 mph range. I passed a rower that caught me after Blakely, and left him behind. A few minutes later a kayaker met the same fate.

Again, the field of boats ahead seemed to be confused as to the right direction in which to head. Most of the people were heading too far to the north, confused by the large tent on the shore that a nearby beach volleyball tournament had erected. I located the bath house at Alki and the nearly invisible registration tent next to it, and made a bee line towards it.

A few weed encounters caused me to lag far enough behind that I was only able to catch one more boat, a kayaker, a few hundred yards from the finish. With a time of 1:14:38, an average heart rate of 155 bpm and a distance of about 7.4 miles I crossed the finish line. Whew!

After a few moments of idle pedaling beyond the finish I headed back out to take photos or the remaining incoming racers. It was a lot of fun cheering them on, sprinting here and there for photo opportunities, and escorting them to the finish.

Todd appeared pedaling alongside a kayak and having a good time. He said that he decided to just take it easy and carry on a conversation with some of the other racers rather than beat his brains out. Besides, if he finished he was guaranteed to get a second place ribbon!

After returning to shore Todd and I hauled our boats out of the water with the beaching dollies and pushed them back to the grassy area. It was not long before Jeff started the awards ceremony.

This year, unfortunately, the person responsible for bringing the custom printed ribbons for all the races somehow managed to forget to bring the ribbons for this race. The only awards actually handed out were the Windermere Cups for the fastest man (Evan Jacobs 51:59) and fastest woman (Robin Clark 1:02:21).

Thank you Jeff, and all the volunteers, for putting on a great race!

All the photos from the race can be seen here.

Round Shaw Tour

2007-08-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, August 11, five people departed on a tour around Shaw Island, WA. Instead of racing in the Sound Rowers' Round Shaw Row this group decided to take their time, planning to sample the local cuisine, shop at the stores in Friday Harbor and Orcas, and generally have a good time.

At about 11:15 AM our group headed out. This was shortly after the racers had departed in an easterly direction going counterclockwise around the island. We decided to head in the clockwise direction since this would get us to Friday Harbor around lunch time. This also had us heading into a lifting fog which reduced visibility somewhat. Still, the water was pretty flat and the boat traffic was fairly light.

For the most part we stuck together, though at times the separation between the first boat in the party and the last approached a quarter mile. In general, Deb was out in front paddling her surf ski, while the rest of us pedaled our Cadence boats en masse as we crossed San Juan Channel towards San Juan Island.

Pedaling with moderate effort and with some assistance from the tidal currents, the group managed to achieve speeds of about 7 mph.

I was experiencing problems with the waterproof camera bag. The air inside the car where it had been stored apparently had been quite warm and moist. With the bag exposed to the cooler outside air the moisture condensed on the inside of the case as well as inside the camera. I did my best to dry out the bag, but was unaware of the condensation inside the camera until after returning home. Sigh...

We reached Friday Harbor shortly after noon. Using the marine VHF radio I carried along for safety purposes I hailed the harbor master on Channel 68. After identifying our group as "the pedal boat flotilla" I asked where we might be able to tie up for a couple of hours for lunch. The harbor master said we could tie up along the floating concrete walkways on pier "C".

We made our way to that pier and found a couple of spaces just barely large enough for our boats to fit. Deb pulled her boat from the water and set it on one of the adjacent docks. Todd and Lucia tied up together at one spot, and Paul and I tied up at the other.

After extracting our land essentials, e.g., wallets, jackets, etc., we headed over the docks to shore. There was an ice cream shop that looked especially inviting, but it was decided that it would be best to have dessert later.

Todd, Lucia and I decided to eat at Friday Harbor Seafood. They shared a sampler plate of shrimp, scallops, etc., and I had the fish & chips with a garlic caper saute. Deb and Paul decided instead to pick up some sandwiches at a nearby shop.

After eating our fill we headed up the main street for a little window shopping. Just after we had our photos taken at a viewpoint above the harbor we remembered that Paul and Deb needed to pick up some supplies for camp.

Back to the main drag, and up to the hardware store we went. On the way a couple of lattes were procured at a stand next door to a place that sold the most unique lamps. I took a few photos through the front window.

We returned to our boats to find them safe and sound. One of the larger boats that had been tied up next to Paul's and mine had been replaced by a much smaller one. The larger gap made it easier to pedal away.

As we left the harbor we noticed that there appeared to be a fairly large section of rough water in the channel separating San Juan Island and Shaw. Todd, Lucia and I generally kept towards the Shaw side, but Paul and Deb started heading across. As they seemed to be having no problems and were definitely moving quite rapidly along with the current I called out to Todd and Lucia and suggested that we head further out into the channel and do likewise.

The water in the middle of the channel was indeed moving rapidly northward. It also had quite a few waves and eddies caused by the tidal currents. This made it rather exciting and something of a challenge. I was worried about Todd and Lucia, as they did not have as much wild water experience, and they were falling behind.

I turned around to rejoin them, and found that they were handling themselves quite well. A paddle that had been stuck onto the front hatch of Lucia's boat had fallen off, but she managed to collect it and stow it in her cockpit. Well done!

Paul and Deb were pretty far ahead of us now, nearing the northwesternmost tip of Shaw Island. Seeing that we had fallen behind they slowed down a bit to let us regroup.

We entered Wasp Passage to find the currents against us and the wind pretty nonexistent. There were a few sailboats in the channel, slowly tacking one way and then another, trying to find a favorable wind. We quickly sped by, waving our greetings.

Paul decided to try to touch a few of the smaller islands on the way, just to increase his personal count of "landings" for the trip. He pedaled off towards the north side of the passage and made contact with a couple of them as we headed for the Orcas Island ferry terminal.

Lucia, Todd and I pretty much kept together in this part of the trip. As we passed Crane Island the currents seemed to be more neutral. A breeze arose, which helped to cool us a bit.

As we closed in on the ferry terminal I noticed what appeared to be a spout coming from the water not too far ahead of Paul. Could it be a whale?

The spout never appeared again, and Paul said later that he didn't see anything unusual.

We tied up at the floating dock just west of the ferry terminal. There was some grumbling about paying the $5 per boat fee required if one wanted to tie up, and the beach was pretty much under water. We decided to tie up at the dock anyway and handed the money to the young dockmaster in charge. Later on we found out that the dockmaster, a boy of perhaps 12 years of age, was working for free in order to raise money for medical treatment for his father's cancer.

After buying a few things for supper at the Orcas General Store and drinking some energy fluids (sport drink for me, beer for Todd and a latte for Lucia, plus animal crackers), we returned to our boats and readied for the final leg back to camp.

The skies were quite overcast and there was a definite chill in the air. I put on a windbreaker over my PFD. Paul switched boats with Deb, and off we went.

On the final leg the ordering was different. Todd and Lucia were out in front, with Paul and Deb generally bringing up the rear. The water was generally pretty flat, with the high tide covering most of the rocks and sea life along the shore.

On the east side of Shaw the only notable thing we ran into was a large block of foam floating a hundred feet from shore. Apparently a dock somewhere is missing a vital piece of flotation!

Eventually we rounded the point of land separating Indian Cove from the main channel. With the boat ramp of the county park in view Paul decided to have a final sprint to the finish. I decided that it would not do to have a paddled boat finish ahead of all the pedal boats, so I took up the challenge.

I pedaled faster and faster, catching up to Paul and soon passed him. He continued paddling strongly for a few moments and then gave up the chase. I continued on until finally reaching the boat ramp. Whew!

We landed on the nice, sandy beach, with the waves gently lapping the shore. It felt good to be back at camp!

For all of the photos taken, click here.

10th Annual PSBC Swim for Life

2007-08-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

The Puget Sound Blood Center was having a Swim for Life fund raiser. In this event a bunch of people who raised money from sponsors would swim approximately 2.2 miles across Lake Washington, from Medina Beach Park to Madison Beach Park.

Since this is a potentially dangerous thing to do on a large lake with cool water with possibly quite a few large, fast boats passing through, the organizers asked for volunteer human powered boaters to accompany teams of swimmers as they proceeded across the lake.

I volunteered.

It would have been easier and more convenient to have used a Cadence as the nearest boat launch was about 3.5 miles away. On the other hand, the Escapade had seats for three people (including the pedaler) as well as a roof in case it rained. If nothing else, I figured it would be a nice warm-up for this weekend's Shaw Island tour.

It was still dark when I reached the Medina boat ramp. Hurrying, because I was behind schedule, I backed the trailer into the water and pulled the boat off the trailer. The deep keel of the boat and the short length of the boat and trailer makes this a bit more of a chore than for other boats at most boat ramps.

The boat was already loaded with supplies and equipment for the day. All I had to do was park and lock the car, run to the boat, jump in and pedal off.

It wasn't long before I had to stop and take off the outer shirt and long pants, leaving a pair of bike shorts and a long sleeved T-shirt on for clothing.

At the stately pace of 4 mph I cruised north through fairly calm water towards Medina. The only other folks on the water were an early morning ski boat and a water skier.

At 6:50 AM and only slightly later than planned I reached Medina. There was a large construction crane on a barge tied up near the breakwater. A half dozen motorboats were also moored in the vicinity, apparently there in support of the swim.

The water was a bit choppy here, with a west-southwesterly wind. The waves were about a foot or so in height. With the beach swim area roped off there was no place for me or any of the motorboats to land.

I circled around very close to shore and finally decided to try mooring against the cushioned boom that was chained against the outside of the breakwater.

That worked fairly well. The Escapade bobbed up and down against the heavy duty cushion, and neither seemed to be harmed.

The breakwater itself appeared to be under destruction. The concrete that had been poured on top of the rocks had been fractured, destroyed completely or removed. With a bit of care I was able to scramble to shore.

Scott Leopold was the event organizer. After all the swimmers were registered Scott had a meeting describing the event and the safety plan. Swimmers were distributed in teams of 4 among the available boats, which included a canoe, two kayaks, a rowboat, the Escapade, a rowed inflatable boat and two motorboats.

A man who had taken an interest in the Escapade while I was circling near the beach earlier asked to have me assist his team. "Sure!", I said.

I took a couple of bags and towels from them to the boat, along with some bottles of water.

On a second trip to the boat I loaded it with bags of bananas and a case of bottled water that the organizers were unable to distribute to the power boats due to the construction, the swim ropes and the waves.

After jumping into the Escapade I pedaled towards a couple of power boats and managed to unload a couple of bags of bananas. Still, there were at least three banana bags left besides the extra water, the bags for the swimmers in my team, the blanket and towel I brought for emergencies, the camera bag, the extra jackets, waterproof utility box, canoe paddle, anchor, ropes and water shoes I brought along.

Oh, well. This was not going to be a race.

Swimmers were wading into the water and heading out. I found my team and away we went.

For the first half mile the team stayed fairly close together. One swimmer was a bit slower than the others, but the rest of the group would wait until she caught up. Another swimmer joined our group for a short while, but then it was decided that he was a better fit for a slower group that was trailing behind.

Not much later another group of four swimmers joined the team. Now I had to keep an eye on eight swimmers!

It was a good thing that they had to wear fluorescent orange swim caps. It made the task much easier.

From time to time a swimmer would head off in the wrong direction. I pedaled quickly over to that swimmer and herded him or her back towards the group. A few times I had to slow down the lead swimmers as the group stretched across the water. Other times the swimmers policed themselves. All I had to do was take photos and cheer them on.

About 1.4 miles into the course the slowest swimmer in the group decided to join the group following. There was one less to worry about, and one less that the team leader had to cheer onward. Everyone, even the slower swimmers, seemed to be taking it all in stride and were swimming with excellent form.

As we approached Madison Beach Park the team began to stretch out. The faster swimmers did not want to be held back and the slower ones could not keep up. Luckily there were now a few volunteer boats from faster teams making their way back along the course who could watch over the ones I could not be near.

Eventually we reached the dock at the north end of the park. I unloaded all the gear, food and water, which made the boat quite a bit lighter.

Everyone was very appreciative of the volunteers, and amazed at the capabilities and maneuverability of the Escapade. I suspect there will be a few inquiries made of Nauticraft about them!

After the swimmers got their food and gear they boarded the power boats and headed back to Medina Beach.

Jeff, in his pea pod rowboat, and I decided to head over to take a look at Bill Gates' house on the other side of the lake. I was rather surprised to find out that the house I thought was his actually wasn't. Bill's house has been so overgrown by trees and bushes that it was difficult to distinguish from a distance. Oh, well.

The chop had increased to perhaps 1-1/2 feet. It made for a great test for Jeff's pea pod, which handled it with flying colors. The nice breeze was welcome in keeping my temperature down, too.

We soon returned to Medina Beach Park, where Jeff and I parted ways. I continued south, taking a side trip into Meydenbauer Bay near downtown Bellevue. A small fleet of tiny sailboats was circling the far reach of the bay, each piloted by a child of no more than 10 years of age. What fun!

Exiting the bay I continued to the Mercer Island boat launch, passing mega mansion after mansion. One house had a stone tower with parapets; another had a penguin statue beside a waterfall with dolphins. My favorite was the house with the great white shark float.

I reached the boat ramp about 12:30 PM, and was quite ready for lunch!

It was a beautiful day to be on the water.

Photos, etc., can be found here.

Elk River Challenge 2007

2007-07-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Boat withdrawal is a terrible thing. With all the orders being processed and the shipment of all the Cadence pedal boats we had in stock to customers around the globe I had none to play with!

Worse yet, the Elk River Challenge was looming and it would be really tough to take photos of this event in a paddled boat.

As luck would have it, however, a new test boat was nearing completion. With a bit of work it could be made ready in time for the race. However, this meant driving a couple of hours up to Bellingham, installing the mechanical portions, and driving a couple of hours back home. This would be followed by driving a couple more hours the next day to Westport, WA for the race.

It didn't help that we finished the boat at 11:30 PM, either.

Anyway, enough with the griping. The limited sleep wasn't too much of a problem, nor was the drive to Brady's Oysters, the headquarters for the race. As it turned out, the start of the race was delayed to 12:45 PM due to the tide. This was sort of good as it made for a very relaxed preparation schedule as well as a few minutes of shut-eye.

With the race starting right at my normal lunch time it seemed like it would be a good idea to have something to eat well prior to the race. I downed a couple of Power Bars and a bottle of Naked Juice/Orange-Mango. It was not too bad a combination.

Todd was there with just one of his Cadences. There would be competition!

I registered for the race. This year, like last year, there was no charge for Sound Rowers members. Woo-hoo!

The weather shifted from overcast and misting rain to light haze, and back and forth until about noon. The sun then seemed to burn off most of the clouds and raised the temperature to the upper 70's. There was a bit of a breeze from the west, roughly 7 to 10 mph or so.

Vern held the pre-race meeting shortly after noon. New this year was the inclusion of a short race call "The Little Elk". This would be an out-and-back race up the first slough also covered by the long course racers. The distance for the Little Elk was about 2 miles.

The long course route was the same as in previous years.

When the pre-race meeting completed, people headed down to the water with their boats and began warming up.

Todd and I put in at the oyster shell paved road. It was easier to reach with our wheeled dollies, but was quite shallow. We had to wade perhaps 30 yards into the cool brine before it was deep enough to float our boats.

Once we were afloat we had to keep moving along the submerged road so as to not get entangled in the weeds growing in the water on either side nor in the oyster cages that were more or less peeping above the surface.

Soon we were headed to the highway bridge and warming up.

The new carbon/basalt Cadence was performing extremely well. I was surprised at how easy it seemed to pedal, and how fast it moved through the water. Doing a short, easy sprint with the 2 mph tidal current the GPS registered 9.6 mph. Against the current the GPS registered about 6.5 mph for another easy sprint. Wow!

While pedaling around the other racers I performed my duties as club photographer. It was fun trying to get some action shots as well as shots of the local scenery.

While I was out there Paul paddled over with several bottles of frozen water lashed to the deck of his kayak. He asked if I wanted one. I said "Yes!", as I had forgotten to stow an extra bottle in the boat. Thanks, Paul!

Eventually the signal was given to line up to start. A few minutes later and we were off!

The water was churning from the paddling and rowing mayhem around me. I managed to compose and take a few shots of nearby racers as they headed off the line, and was pedaling fairly hard myself.

We emerged from the shadow of the bridge into the sunlight. As we passed Brady's Oysters I noticed that the propeller had picked up some weeds. No problem - just pedal backward a bit and the forward and things would clean themselves up nicely.

Unfortunately, however, when I started pedaling forward the boat didn't start moving forward. Uh-oh! The propeller must be loose!

Quickly breaking out the canoe paddle I headed towards the shore. Paddling at a snail's pace, relatively speaking, of about 3 mph was strangely restful.

I abandoned the Cadence along the submerged oyster shell road near the shore and sprinted to the car. After digging through the tool box for a set of allen socket keys I returned to the boat and commenced repairs with the assistance of a bystander.

Sure enough, in the late night hours I had somehow missed mounting the propeller set screw over the proper spot on the shaft. It didn't take much before the screw had loosened and enabled the propeller to slip.

It was pretty easy to fix once I lined up the proper spots. Thanking the helpful bystander I brought the boat back into deep water and pedaled off - 15 minutes after the problem was manifested.

By this time all the racers had made it back from the first turn buoy out in the bay and continued on past the bridge. Deciding that there still was a chance to catch a few of the laggards I continued from where I left the course onward to the first buoy.

The water of the bay had quite a few floating blobs of weeds and weed fragments. It was easy, looking at the GPS, to see when the propeller collected some of those fragments. The speed indicator slowly dropped from 7 mph to 6.5 and lower. When it got to 5 mph and just short of the buoy I went through the weed removal process. That worked, bringing the speed back up to 7 mph.

Rounding the buoy and dodging a few more mats I headed back towards the bridge. None of the other racers were in sight.

Just for fun I veered towards the race officials beneath the bridge to take a few photos. If nothing else, it would also serve to inform them that I was still in the race.

As it turned out, going that direction also made it easier to subsequently take better photos of the participants finishing the Little Elk Challenge.

Once past the bridge the incidence of weed encounters dropped significantly. I was able to maintain speeds in the range of 6.5 to 7 mph for most of the way to the second turn buoy in the first slough.

Todd was about halfway out of the first slough when our paths crossed. Apparently he was less successful in clearing some of the finer, stringier weeds from his prop shaft. They were keeping his speed somewhat below 6 mph. He was still enjoying the beautiful setting for the race and the gorgeous day.

A few minutes later I reached the turn buoy at the furthest reach of the slough.

The boat was performing well. My legs were feeling great. The westerly 10 mph wind was doing fairly well to keep me cool, but was something of a nuisance with the brim of my big hat. The camera in its waterproof bag was getting quite warm in the sun, and was getting my hand sweaty in its vinyl glove just holding it. It felt good to take my hand out every so often and let it cool off in the water. Ahhh!

Upon returning to the beginning of the first slough I encountered the first boats on the long course. Robert was well ahead of the others in his rowing single. The next boat was a mixed double rowed by Jeff and Theresa.

I decided it would be best for photography purposes to do the third and last slough next in order to snap shots of the other racers - and so I did.

Most of the people I would normally be grouped with were in this bunch. It was fun to cheer them on and take their photos. Unfortunately, traveling with the wind coupled with the heat of the sun made the camera stop functioning several times. It would display "Err" in the top LCD and attempts to clear it by pressing the power button made no difference. The only way to clear it was by removing and reinstalling the battery.

This worked for a couple of photos before happening again and again. Eventually I was able to cool the camera enough by keeping it in the shade of my hat and body. Absorbing some of the heat with the hand holding it and then cooling that hand in the water seemed to help, too.

My head was dripping profusely with sweat. I put on a sweatband under the hat to keep the sweat from dripping into my eyes. It seemed to work fairly well.

Eventually I reached the turn buoy at the end of the 3rd slough and headed back to the mouth.

Just after reaching the entrance to the second (and last for me) slough I encountered another racer who was wondering if there was a turn buoy that he had to go around before entering the third one. I told him that there really wasn't one as the one buoy that was floating far away was too far this year. It had apparently drifted from where it was supposed to be. Oh, well.

Further down the slough I found a rower in a wherry and Todd pedaling his boat. He and I took photos of each other as we passed.

Continuing on I noticed that the appeared to be no buoy at the far end of the slough. Uh-oh! The folks in the chase boat apparently thought the last boat had already gone around it.

I asked them to tell me where I needed to turn. They said it would be no problem.

They quickly brought their boat about and sped up the slough.

It wasn't long before they found the spot and deposited the turn buoy. Thanks, guys!

It seemed to take only a minute or so before I rounded the buoy and headed back down the slough towards the finish.

Now that I was back in sync with the other racers I could tell where I was in the overall event. It appeared that I was pretty close to Todd and the guy in the wherry. It was also time to put on some speed for the finish!

I began pedaling a bit harder. There were fewer distractions now, so most of my attention could be applied to turning the pedals. The hat was still rather bothersome with the headwind, but I didn't have a good place to put it. Oh, well.

The GPS was reporting speeds around 8 mph, even with the headwind. Some of this was due to the current, but even when I was traveling nearly 90 degrees to the direction of the current - as I had to do near the bridge - the speed was still in that range. This boat was great!

With a time of 1:33:52 I crossed the line. Considering the mechanical difficulties at the start, the weeds en route and the troubles with the camera it wasn't too bad of a race. In fact, the way I felt at the end of the race I'm sure I could have given it quite a bit more effort. Oh, well.

I circled back to escort some of the other racers to the finish.

I passed Brady, the guy in the wherry, on his way to the finish, followed by Todd and Connie in a fast sea kayak. Circling back after Connie I poured it on to sprint after Todd. We crossed the finish line simultaneously. What fun!

I threaded my way between the oyster cages and anchored boat up the oyster shell path to shore. The dolly worked well in wheeling the boat up the slope and back to the car.

Not much later Vern held the drawing for the prizes provided by the race sponsors. Lo and behold, my name was one of the names drawn!

I picked the $20 seafood certificate from Seafood Connection instead of the large cooked crab alternative.

Once all the sponsored prizes were awarded Vern then handed out the special Elk River trophies. They were given to the fastest man and fastest woman in the long race, the fastest boat in the short race, and the craziest paddler in the long race.

Janet handed out the ribbons for both the short and long races.

All in all, it was an excellent race!

My course and stats can be found here.

Photos taken at the event can be found here.

Average pulse during the race, but starting after the stop to secure the prop: 139 bpm over a period of 69 minutes (out of 71 minutes).

Rat Island 2007

2007-06-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast was a little iffy for this race. En route to the ferry across Puget Sound I encountered a couple of minor sprinkles. The sky was more or less filled with puffy clouds, and many were rather dark in appearance.

Still, it seemed that there were fewer such clouds to the northwest in the direction of Port Townsend.

Sure enough, at Fort Worden State Park on the northern edge of town the skies were quite a bit clearer. It looked like a good day to race after all.

Most of the local rowing club and their boats were already parked on the beach. I quickly moved my boat from the roof rack to the beach, threading my through the racers and beach logs in order to do so.

Steve Chapin, the race director for this event, held the pre-race meeting almost exactly on time. He welcomed the crew from Lake Oswego, OR, back for their second year at this event. I guess they didn't have enough fun last year! Steve went on to describe all the rules for the race, and pointed out the hazards one would likely encounter along the course. He also said that the course would go counterclockwise around Rat Island this year, seeing that the tides should not be much of a factor in the currents encountered at the island.

During the meeting Todd and his family pulled into the parking lot with their two Cadence pedal boats. He and his son were planning to race, so I was going to have competition!

After the meeting people moseyed off to their boats and began launching them off the gorgeous sandy beach. There was not much of a surf, but there were some chunks of floating vegetation to contend with, including kelp and a bit of eelgrass.

I switched from running shoes to cycling sandals and walked my boat into the water.

It wasn't that chilly, at least not as cold as I remember it being the previous year. After the boat was afloat I carried the wheels back up the beach a ways, jogged back to the boat, got in and pedaled off. It was time to take photos of the other racers as they warmed up.

I circled around the other racers a few times as the starting time for the race approached. Todd and his son seemed to be getting ready without needing my assistance, so I concentrated on my photographic duties. Still, it didn't look like they would be quite ready to go when the starting signal would be given. Oh, well.

Sure enough, when the horn blew for the start the two boats were nowhere near the starting line.

Being next the the all-women Orange Crush 8 person shell, I decided it would be fun to see how long I could keep up with them by drafting in their wake. Unfortunately, however, it was only for perhaps a minute. Those girls can move!

I didn't want to work that hard to stay with them, and dropped off to find some other prey. My heart rate was over 160 bpm and my lungs were working hard to recover.

The Lake Oswego team rowed by and and they, too, were going faster than I wanted to go. Hmmm...anyone else coming?

After a short time and as luck would have it, the 4 person shell Buffalo Soldier appeared off to the side. There was a good opportunity to catch them, so I took it.

We were pretty close to Point Hudson on the northeast tip of Port Townsend. A couple of other racers were nearby, including Steve Bennett and Shane Baker. Historically I generally find both of those racers finishing either just ahead of or just behind me, so I figured that if I can save enough energy following what should be a faster boat (the 4 person shell), I should be able to finish far in front of both of them.

The GPS was reporting speeds in the 7 to 8 mph range. The heart rate monitor was fairly steady at 150 bpm.

Unfortunately, however, the gals in that boat had other plans. They kept heading off course, either too far to the east or too far to the west. I tried directing them straight to the island, but they seemed to only followed the directions when it was very obvious they were headed off course. When we approached the south end of the island I decided it would probably be faster to go my own way and let them fend for themselves. Sure enough, they took a very wide turn around the south end of the island while I cut it quite close.

Shane and Steve were not too far ahead as we headed northward along Rat Island. There were a couple of large boats heading south, so it looked like there was probably quite a bit of water over the sand bar at the north end. Still, I was rather concerned that I might be cutting it too close to the shallows.

As it turned out, there was plenty of water at the bar. I headed directly back towards Fort Worden.

I encountered a bit of weed here and there, and stopped to clear my prop just in case it had gathered up any of that green stuff. While I was doing so Michael Furtado came rowing by. Hmm, I had better start pedaling harder and try to keep up!

Meanwhile, the Buffalo Soldier boat kept zigging and zagging across my course. Apparently they were using me as some sort of compass guide, but having troubles maintaining a straight line. Oh, well - at least it made the race a bit more interesting having a fairly close competitor.

Steve and Shane were slowly pulling away.

Just past Point Hudson the water became substantially shallower. I recalled from previous years that this area often appeared as dry land at low tide, so I changed course slightly in an attempt to make for somewhat deeper waters, yet not go too far out of the way than a more or less direct line to the finish would require.

A few moments later the bottom dropped away. Whew!

I tried pedaling a bit harder and in a more circular fashion. This seemed to help, and the GPS reported a speed of around 6.5 mph. Previously it seemed to have dropped to more like 6.25 mph. The light flood tide was probably to blame for some of the speed drop. Having been quite sick only two days before the race was probably to blame for the rest of it.

Pedaling faster at intervals and then slower for a short time for recovery seemed to reduce the distance that Michael and the quad had placed between us. I tried my best to catch them in the space between Point Hudson and the finish line, but they managed to cross the finish some 60 and 28 seconds, respectively, before me. Oh, well.

Steve and Shane finished 3 minutes ahead, which was a course record for Steve's fast sea kayak class. My time of 1:11:28 was also a record - for pedal boats. That averaged out, with a couple of stops for weed clearing, to be about 6.5 mph. My average heart rate for the race was 150 bpm.

All in all, some 13 class records were broken in the race. The conditions were certainly about as good as one could ask for, with fairly flat water, light overcast skies, cool (60's) air and not much wind.

I stuck around the finish line and snapped photos of the remaining racers as they arrived.

After a bunch of boats came and went there was quite a long gap with no boats in sight. I checked with the safety boats via VHF radio and confirmed that the other two pedal boats were still on the course.

As I was getting rather hungry I decided to put in and get something to eat.

The organizers had grilled freshly caught salmon, hot dogs and turkey available, and a keg of Scottish ale from a local brewery. Everyone else brought along pot luck items, including loads of salads, chips and desserts. It was very tasty!

Todd's son Kelyn appeared at the finish line while I was dining, so it was a bit of a rush to go and get his photo as he approached the beach. He did very well for his first race, with a time of 1:37:15 for the course distance of 7.7 miles.

His dad arrived five minutes later. His excuse for the later arrival was that he had hurt his leg on a beach log before the race, running back to the car for his PFD. I can see how that just might cause problems!

The awards ceremony was held after everyone had their fill and the beer was consumed. Unfortunately, this meant that a number of folks had already gone home - at least those folks who didn't want to stick around and enjoy the camaraderie or even just enjoy the gorgeous beach and pleasant weather.

Steve Chapin presented the awards by boat class. There certainly seemed to be a bit of local rivalry between some of the 8's! Anyway, there was a new course record, which had been set by Steve Chapin and Rob O'Brien in their double rowing shell. They completed the course with a time of 53:26. That averages out to about 8.6 mph. They were smoking!

The slowest boat in the race also won first place in their class. It was the skeleton/row boat with two guys and a gal who switched off rowing. Their time was 1:57:07, which averages to about 3.9 mph. Congratulations!

After the race I went to Steve Chapin's shop and took a look at the wooden Pocock single rowing shell that he and another person completed, and another one that they are working on.

Photos from the race and from Steve's shop can be found here.

My race statistics

Thanks, Steve, for organizing such a fine event!

Manchester Race 2007

2007-06-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

This year's race was wet, very wet. The light drizzle before the race continued into the start and on into Rich Passage as we headed to Blake Island. It finally let up on the east side of Blake and for our return to the start. At least there was very little wind, and the water was about as flat as a pancake over the entire course - except for the ferry wakes, of course.

I chose to use an outrigger equipped Cadence pedal boat for this event. It was joined by two other guys with Cadence pedal boats. Both were owned by Todd, who lent the second boat to a friend.

We decided that it would be more fun to take our time and stick together going around the course, especially since Todd's boats were missing their weed cutters. This race was notorious for areas of floating vegetation dug up by the ferries. As it turned out we needed to stop a couple of times to clear their propellers. While the boats were still able to move quite well with green stuff on the propellers, it did require more energy. By the end of the race both Todd and his friend were pretty tired, so we tried to make the most of their energy.

Most of the other racers took a clockwise course around the island. We decided to go the other way, mainly so I could take photos of the other racers. This worked out quite well, though the camera lens persisted in collecting rain water or streaking, and the cleaning cloth I brought along was quickly soaked and nearly useless. Oh, well.

Todd's friend was getting pretty tired by the time we reached Tillicum Village on the northeast corner of the island. I stayed back with him and tried to give him encouragement. Todd went ahead for a while and looped back a few times. After we reached the red buoy in the middle of Rich Passage, on which a pair of large sea lions had been resting, Todd continued onward to the finish.

I pedaled around in a zig-zag fashion having fun with the outriggers and their wakes. It also helped to raise my heart rate to 120 or so to warm me up a bit. Todd's friend just kept plugging along, and eventually we neared the finish.

A hundred yards or so from the finish I steered close to the stern of the other boat and began pushing it with my hand. This increased our speed and helped Todd's friend cross the finish in style, in second place.

We beached and brought the boats back up to the lawn. There were a couple of large kettles of soups awaiting us, along with an assortment of other goodies. Yum!

Thank you, race director Vadim, for running an excellent event.

Commencement Bay Race 2007

2007-05-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

After having had a nearly week long period without precipitation the rain returned Friday afternoon. The forecast was for showers and clouds on Saturday, with temperatures in the 50's to low 60's.

Sure enough, Saturday dawned with some light drizzle and 50 degrees.

After breakfast, however, the rain had stopped. Yay! It was time to put the boat on the car and head to Tacoma.

The parking lot was mostly empty at 8:30 AM. Several cars and vans carrying double racing shells were parked, and a couple of kayaks were present as well. I pulled into a spot near a large grassy area.

Todd Silver, the race director, was setting up a table loaded with goodies for the event. There were tasty muffins, soft drinks, fresh fruit and even a pecan pie. Yum!

Steve Wells was handling race registration at a nearby table. I walked over, registered and was handed boat number 1. Perhaps this was a portent of things to come - I hoped!

Upon returning to my car I found that another pedal boat had arrived. Todd (another one) had driven down from Seattle with his blue Cadence to participate in his first Sound Rowers race. Welcome, Todd!

We unloaded the boats from the vehicles and wheeled them to a staging area not far from the cobble beach where we would soon be launching.

The pre-race meeting started a little late. Todd Silver described the course. It was a narrow triangle with the start and finish at the apex, and the base formed by two buoys at the far eastern end of the bay near the container docks and a paper plant. This year, however, there would not be the hulking sawdust filled barge moored at one of the buoys as there had been in previous years. The 5 and 1 minute warning signals and the starting signal were also described. The meeting concluded with announcements relating to safety on the course, PFD requirements, etc.

Todd and I helped each other get our boats down onto the beach amidst the other folks launching their vessels. One man brought two young children with him to race in his 3 man kayak. They seemed to be excited about going on this adventure with their father.

For launches such as this where one has to wade into the water before entering the boat, I used to wear water shoes for the wading and switch to cycling shoes for the pedaling once the boat was further out. Today I was trying out for the first time a pair of Shimano cycling sandals. They were excellent! The soles were tough enough to protect my feet from the stones, yet able to provide adequate footing on their slippery surfaces. The open design allowed the water to drain out immediately so I did not have to delay stepping into the cockpit. The velcro fasteners were quick to disengage and engage, and made putting on dry socks a quick and easy task. Lastly, the cycling cleat secured them quite well to the Speedplay Frog clipless pedals.

Now we'll have to see if they truly do have problems holding up when used in a salt water environment. This was a complaint by one or two people on a Hobie mail list.

I pedaled out to the fleet of boats massing near the starting line.

There were a couple of dragon boats from a local dragon boating club in the race today. The folks on board all seemed cheerful and ready to rumble. There were also several men's double rowing shells, piloted by some of the best Sound Rowers racers. With the southerly wind and fairly calm conditions at the start it looked like it could be a very fast, competitive race - at least for these guys!

About the only boats not present were the usual outrigger canoes and surf skis. I guess that some of them were in Hawaii for the Molokai race.

At the starting line the wind was pushing the boats northward. Some boats had more windage than others, causing them to clump somewhat by the time the one minute warning signal was heard.

Finally, we were off!

Pedaling east into the bright overcast the GPS was reporting speeds of around 7 mph, possibly higher. The double rowing shells gradually pulled away, with a surf ski or two not too far behind. A couple of single rowing shells also pulled ahead. Meanwhile, most of the rest of the field remained behind as we headed towards the first buoy.

Remembering how this race turned out photographically in previous years, i.e., lots of shots of different racers at the beginning followed by shots of one or two racers for the rest of the event, I decided to do the course in the same fashion as I did the Lake Whatcom race. I would head to the second buoy first, head to the first buoy, and then return to the start with the rest of the racers. This would enable me to take photos of everyone in the race as I passed by in a sort of reverse direction.

I bid adieu to Steve Wells as he headed in the direction of the first buoy, and set course towards the freighter moored at a grain elevator on the south side of the harbor.

With the sawdust barge gone the second turn buoy was hard to see against the far eastern shore. I made my best guess as to its location and pedaled rapidly toward it.

The GPS was reporting a somewhat slower speed than before. I guessed that perhaps the tide and river currents were working against me.

Sure enough, I encountered almost head on the first racers in their double shell on their return.

The competition between the front competitors was looking pretty fierce. Those guys were working like maniacs!

Rounding the second buoy I met the first paddler in a surf ski. We exchanged greetings and off we went our separate ways.

Racers were passing by quickly now. Some were taking a rather wide tack towards shore, and others were heading closer to my position. The water was also starting to get fairly choppy, probably mostly due to the merging of the water from the Puyallup River with that of the harbor.

As I neared the first buoy I encountered Todd pedaling his Cadence. He seemed to be having a good time and was making pretty good progress. Unfortunately, however, it appeared that his chain had come somewhat loose and would skip if he applied too much pressure on the pedals. I yelled to him that I would come back and give him a tow after getting shots of the rest of the racers.

Still en route to the first buoy I encountered a cluster of boats, including the one paddled by the dad and his two kids. They all seemed to be having a great time, even though most appeared to be a little wet from the increasingly heavy chop.

After rounding the buoy I continued westward through the chop until I found Vadim paddling his sea kayak. He was doing great in that mess but was happy to hear that it was calmer further along in the course.

I headed back in the general direction of the second buoy in order to join up with Todd. The waves were mostly abeam, which reduced the splashing a bit. The propeller was no longer spinning in air from time to time, either. Meanwhile, the GPS was reporting a speed of about 6 to 6.5 mph.

Eventually I found him. He had progressed quite a bit further along the course than I had expected. Rats! I should have angled further towards the west! Now I would have to work in order to catch up.

Slowly but surely the distance between his boat and mine shrank. He had been doing a great job of pedaling evenly, just cruising through the water. We talked for a few moments - and then I left him in my wake with a short sprint. Seeing a couple of rowers close to shore and not very far ahead I briefly entertained thoughts of trying to catch them.

After a short consultation with my muscles the decision was made: nope - not today. I just continued pedaling at moderately high effort.

After an hour and 4 minutes I crossed the finish line. Overall, with the pauses for photography and the extra distance covered (about 6.5 miles), that wasn't too bad.

Todd came across the line soon after, with a time of 1:05:27. That was also a good time, though the distance he covered was probably closer to 6 miles, and he couldn't press as hard as he would have liked.

After a while talking and taking more photos we headed to shore.

The munchies were still there, so I grabbed a chunk of pecan pie. That really hit the spot!

The awards ceremony was held after the last racer crossed the finish. The first boats across the line were the double rowing shells, which was not a surprise. However, they managed to set a new course record with a time of 40:36. Their average speed was over 8.8 mph - not bad at all, especially considering the chop approaching the first turn.

After the ceremony I assisted Todd in adjusting the chain on his boat. It appeared that a couple of mounting screws had come loose, but no damage had been done.

We assisted each other in putting the boats back on the cars and headed home. Another race and another fine day!

More photos and the race results can be found at the Sound Rowers web site.

Commencement Bay Race tomorrow!

2007-05-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

This race is not nearly so long a drive from my house as the Lake Whatcom race. I guess that means I'll be late to show. Maybe not!

At least the Konica-Minolta A-1 camera is back from the repair shop, so I should be able to get pictures with a camera that I'm familiar with using.

The Sound Rowers web site has the details. See ya there!

Lake Whatcom Classic 2007

2007-05-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

The Lake Whatcom Classic was held on a fairly chilly morning. The sky was mostly cloudy and there was a light breeze from the southeast. At least it wasn't raining, which was certainly a possibility given the forecast.

The race was held at nearly the same location and at the same time as the start of the Whatcom Association of Kayak Enthusiasts (W.A.K.E.) Demo Day. With both popular events occurring simultaneously the parking lot was nearly full of cars, boats of various types and sizes and trailers.

For this race I was using a light new Cadence that was mostly lime green in color with blue accents. With the race being about 13 miles in length and my nonexistent endurance training I figured it would be best to be as efficient as possible in the use of my meager muscle reserves. Besides, the outrigger boat would be busy at the demo day for people to try out.

With the club's camera undergoing repairs I made do with an ancient Casio 3 megapixel camera for taking shots on land. Another racer was lending me an Olympus ultra-zoom camera in a diving case for use on the water. It included a lead weight intended to make it have neutral buoyancy in the water, but out of the water it served to help steady the camera for those higher magnification shots.

This was pretty much the maiden voyage for this boat. I also had to reacquaint myself slightly with handling a Cadence without outriggers; e.g., don't shove the rudder all the way over unless you are ready to balance against the torque. Still, this boat was light and nimble and handled well as I scooted between the other racers warming up on the water.

The starting signal found me near the northern end of the starting line. Hmm, there were not really any opportunities for drafting over here - just a couple of rowing shells. Regardless, I started pedaling moderately hard, snapping picture after picture of the others.

As the field was pulling away I decided it might be a good idea to pedal harder. This increased my heart rate to around 156 beats per minute and my speed to somewhere in the 7 mph range according to the GPS. The gearbox and chain were generating a whirr-whirr sound, indicating that I needed to pedal better circles.

So I did.

The boat speed seemed to increase slightly and instead of keeping even I was beginning to pass some double canoes and OC-2's. Yay!

Pausing slightly in order to take their photos enabled them to regain the lead. Resumption of circular pedaling soon put an end to that.

Far ahead I could see a cluster of surf skis, with a couple of rowing shells off to either side. In addition, a couple of club regulars in an OC-2 could be seen roughly midway between the cluster and my boat. Perhaps I could catch them!

I sucked down the contents of a juice pack. The sugar would help later in this two hour race.

Slowly, slowly, the distance between me and the OC-2 grew shorter. Meanwhile, a couple of the boats I had passed earlier had caught my wake and were drafting. After taking a couple of photos I then took off, leaving them far behind.

My pulse had not dropped below 152 this entire time. With hope I'll have enough energy to carry me through the race to the end! At least the light head wind was helping to keep me cool.

Just past a little marina on the south shore I finally passed the OC-2. Steve and Rocky, the paddlers in the OC-2, appeared a little perturbed at this, but I smiled and took their photos.

Shortly afterwards I came upon another OC-2 that had dumped its paddlers into the drink. They refused assistance and were able to board and continue on their way. Steve and Rocky also slowed down, but were also refused. Onward!

Far ahead I could see the first of the rowing shells on its return from Reveille Island, the turning point in the race. Abandoning the southern shore I headed over to take his photo, as well as those of the other racers following him on the return leg.

The Olympus camera and its waterproof case were getting pretty heavy and slick from sweat by this time. I did my best in framing shots and planning which ones to take, as the camera was pretty slow to focus and store the images. Still, there were a few missed shots that would have been wonderful if they had turned out. Oh, well.

I did my best also to try to not cause problems getting in the way of the other racers as I headed to and around the island. There were a couple of times when my boat got a bit closer than I wanted when I inadvertently played "chicken" with a couple of them. Sorry about that!

On the return from the island the light headwind turned into a light tailwind. Things were definitely a bit warmer and I ended up cooling my hands in the water a few times. Ahhh!

My strength was starting to ebb. The heart rate monitor was indicating a pulse of around 146 bpm. Hmmm, perhaps more energy was needed. The second juice pack was consumed in the hopes of staving off muscle failure as there was nearly half the race left to go.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my slowing down for photos around the island didn't put me very far behind Steve and Rocky's OC-2. They became the goal for my pedaling efforts.

The GPS indicated I was going just over 6 mph. That was strange. With the pedaling effort and the tail wind the boat should have been going closer to 7. I stopped momentarily and pedaled backward a bit to see if any vegetable matter might have been wrapped around the propeller. Sure enough, a leaf or two were visible in the forward moving prop wash.

I resumed my chase.

The OC-2 seemed to be trying to avoid me as they zigged and then zagged about 100 yards ahead. As far as I could tell this tactic only served to slow them down while I headed in a nearly straight line towards the finish.

With about a mile to go I noticed a guy in a surf ski had caught up and was following in my wake. My legs were pretty well spent by now. All I could do was try to maintain my cadence and heart rate and, perhaps, snap a photo or two.

With less than a quarter mile to go the surf ski began to make his move. I decided that I should, too. There was no need to conserve anything now!

Putting the pedals to the metal the speed of my boat increased, reaching 7 mph and higher. The surf ski was quickly dropped as the Cadence surged through the water towards the finish line. Go, go, go!

At last the horn was sounded as I crossed the line with a time of 2:01:41 for a GPS distance of 12.5 miles. Wahoo!

Several muscles began to cramp and it took a few moments for them to loosen enough to pedal strongly again. I headed over towards the timing officials on the shore.

Joost told me that he was rather impressed with my finishing sprint. He had to change the order of the finish because he felt certain that the surf ski was going to be ahead. I told him that I had merely slowed down to snap that guy's photo (which I did) and then headed on to my rightful place. Ha!

I met Rusty at the dock and gave him the camera to take my photo. Afterwards, I headed over to the WAKE demo area, dropped off the boat, and walked back to my car for a change of clothes. It felt good to be out of those sweaty garments.

At the awards ceremony ribbons were handed out to the finishers in each class. The first boat across the finish was Robert Meenk in a single rowing shell with a time of 1:30:12. That was an average of 8.3 mph! The next single boat was paddled by Brandon Nelson, with an average speed of 7.7 mph. Those guys were truly cooking.

My speed averaged 6.16 mph, which was fairly comparable with previous years. Two big differences, however, are that 1) this year I didn't draft anyone for the entire race and 2) I was pedaling a brand new boat with very stiff seals on the gearbox. So, as far as I'm concerned, it was a pretty good improvement overall. The average heart rate for the 2 hours was 151 beats per minute. Whew!

Thank you, Joost, for directing this great race in such a beautiful venue.

Additional photos can be found on the Sound Rowers web site.

American Lake Classic 2007

2007-04-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

There is not a whole lot to report about this race, other than that

It was cool, lightly drizzling before and maybe a little during the race,
There were a lot of Junior paddlers out in force,
The club camera died just this morning, so I had to make do with a cell phone camera, and
I was lent a water resistant camera by one of the Gig Harbor Junior girls to take shots.

Well, ok, so perhaps one of the local major papers (the Seattle Post-Intelligencer) had a reporter and photographer come out. Those folks wrote a relatively nice article about the race, too.

Unfortunately, the author felt that my Cadence with the outriggers was goofy looking. Perhaps the light lime green color of the prototype floats clashed too much with the red and white colors of the boat. I don't know. Maybe I should have worn my cool hat so they would have had something else to criticize instead. Perhaps they simply were at a loss for words to describe a fast pedal boat.

Anyway, the water conditions were pretty flat throughout the race with a light northerly wind. The outriggers had been adjusted to be a little deeper in the water than they were at La Conner, so this tended to create a bit more drag. My fastest recorded speed was about 7 mph, whereas without the outriggers I can fairly easily hit 8 mph or more in a sprint.

Still, when all was said and done, my overall time was faster than it had been for two years.

The outriggers definitely were better than before, however, with respect to splashing the pedaler. Water seemed to stay attached to the floats at all speeds, falling back rather than flying into the air.

The post race feed of BBQ chicken sandwiches, potato salad, fruit and chips was quite tasty and really hit the spot.

Another excellent race by the Sound Rowers!

Now if only that Gig Harbor girl would send me copies of the photos I took...

La Conner 2007

2007-02-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

I was all ready to do this race, having blown off the New Year's race since I didn't have a boat with which to enter. In fact, I drove all the way there (90+ minutes) the weekend before the race as my PDA calendar had the 10th as the race date. Sigh...

Anyway, I brought two brand new boats on top of the car to show off. One - a gray hull/red decked boat - was there for me to race with, trying out the prototype outriggers for the first time. The other - a bright orange boat with white trim - was there to get some finishing touches at the factory.

The parking lot below La Conner's Rainbow Bridge was mostly empty when I arrived about 8:30 AM. There were a couple of large rowboats on trailers being prepared for launch, a couple of rowing shells and some kayaks laying about. A shelter had been erected over the registration tables across the road next to the boat ramp. On the other side of the shelter a pickup truck with a camper shell was parked on which the Sound Rowers banner had been hung. This must be the place!

I registered, paid the $8 entry fee and accepted my racer number - lucky 13! The Sound Rowers have reusable racer numbers consisting of coroplast rectangles that fold into A-frame like signs. These signs are secured to the top of one's boat by means of duct tape. On both sides of the "A" the number of the racer is presented in large block digits. These signs have worked quite well for several years and make the job of the race timers identifying the racers much easier.

Returning to the car I removed the red/gray boat and prepared it for the race. PFD, GPS, water bottle, tow rope, spare paddle, cushions and camera bag were tossed in. I decided to carry the outriggers separately down to the dock rather than mount them in advance. It would make getting past the other people on the dock a bit easier. Besides, I could then test how easy it was to install them on the water.

With a bit of assistance from another racer the boat was wheeled to the end of the dock. There was a bit of very cold seawater covering a large portion of the dock, making it a bit of a balancing act to keep one's feet dry by walking along the rail on its edge. Whew! I made it!

The tidal current in the channel was fairly strong. I decided to wait until after the pre-race meeting to launch, just to be on the safe side.

Rob O'Brien, the race director, held the meeting soon afterwards. He described the course, the availability of safety boats, the VHF radio channel to use if you needed help, etc. He also mentioned that after the race there was going to be a soup and bread lunch at Maple Hall just a few blocks away, and that the awards ceremony would be held there. With that, we were to prepare for the race!

Returning to the dock I installed one of the outriggers and quickly launched the boat. The boat was positioned so that the cockpit was directly adjacent to the edge of the dock and the outrigger was distant. This made it easy to get in, and was quite stable.

After grabbing the other outrigger I pushed away from the dock, drifting with the current. Installing the second outrigger was a bit of a chore as it was difficult to align the holes for the securing pin. That will have to be changed in the production version. Once installed the two floats were submerged by no more than half an inch or so - just as planned.

I began warming up, pedaling up and down the channel, taking pictures of the others. The floats did not seem to create much drag at speeds up to 4 mph; however, with the very simple bow shape and orientation I was starting to get splashed at higher speeds. A more gentle entry should correct most of that.

Eventually the channel filled with boats, congregating just north of the orange colored Rainbow Bridge. Patiently we waited as a few stragglers launched and the 5 minute warning was given. It was a little difficult maintaining station against the tidal current flowing through the channel and the breeze blowing the opposite direction. Several boats just floated a little past the starting line rather than collide with the boats ganging up on them in the rear. The GPS indicated an "at rest" speed of about 1 to 1.5 mph, depending on where one was in the channel.

At last the starting signal was given and we were off!

Pedaling madly and snapping photos left and right of the other racers, I scurried down the channel. As the drive system in this brand new boat was still a bit stiff with friction from the gearbox seals and the stuffing box bearings I found myself dropping slowly back into the field. The slight additional drag at higher speed form the outrigger floats was probably contributing to the reduction in top end speed, too. Of course, as this was also my first time out on the water in months and many of the surf ski racers and some of the kayakers had been working out all winter, my engine might need a bit of a tune-up as well.

The GPS was indicating a speed of over 7 mph going down the channel. With the current assist that meant I was pedaling the boat at around 6 mph relative to the water - not too bad.

A guys in an OC-1 was drafting closely behind the Cadence. I snapped a few photos as I continued pedaling.

Nearing the south end of the channel a rower passed between me and the shore. I yelled out to him, warning of the rocky shoreline he was heading into. He looked around and quickly changed course. Whew! That would have been an expensive lesson in navigation!

Turning westward the current became stronger. My speed increased to over 8 mph. While it was nice now that current would make for a slow return. This race could be won using strategy if you could find the top current outbound and the least current inbound.

The camera lens was fogging up due to the greenhouse effect and the fairly cold southerly breeze. Pressing the palm of my hand against the glass for a minute or two was enough to cause the condensation to evaporate, and keeping it somewhat out of the wind for the remainder of the race was enough to stop it from happening again.

Near the western end of the jetty I met the leaders returning. Robert Meenk was just ahead of Tyler Peterson, both of whom were rowing single shells. Not far behind were folks in surf skis and double shells. I was able to take pictures of most of the racers as I headed to the turn buoy, but had to pause a bit as I made the turn. The current from the channel was affected by the current in the Sound. The resulting flow was pushing me and everyone else somewhat off course as we tried to round the buoy. The increase in wave height to 1 to 1.5 feet (trough to crest) started making things a little more wet as well.

On the return leg the southerly breeze caused the splashing from the floats to keep the camera case wet. It also got my lens cleaning cloth wet - no more sharp pictures. Rats!

The GPS showed my return speed at around 4 mph - not very good. I headed to the north side of the channel where the water gets very shallow. That should impede the current - and it did. My speed increased to around 5 or 5.5 mph, and I began passing boats that took a course down the center of the channel.

Unfortunately, however, some of them noticed what was happening and they veered toward the shallower water, too. Sigh...

After a long time I reached the "Hole in the Wall" and turned back north up the Swinomish Channel towards the town. There were a couple of other boats in close proximity, including a double canoe, a single shell, a kayak and a two man wherry. We headed up the channel trying our best to stay out of the current and not hit the rocks on the shore.

I was getting fairly tired and let the double canoe and shell get ahead. The others dropped back a bit, and I was able to cross the finish ahead of them. Hurray!

My time was 1:20:19, which was not too bad. Ok, so it was 10 minutes slower than my time the previous year. That boat's drive system was looser and it didn't have outriggers.

I pedaled around the channel near the finish line for a short while, and then decided I wanted to try standing up in the boat. No problem!

Having had enough fun for one day it was time to go in.

Back at the dock I removed both outriggers and placed them on the dock. It was rather crowded, what with a couple of the 5 man wherries tied up and their crew milling about. With the help of one of the guys holding the boat against the current I got out of the boat. Paul Rollinger helped me wheel it back up to my car and place it on the rack.

With a change into dry clothes I was feeling nice and warm - and hungry!

I headed over to Maple Hall on the south end of town a few blocks from the boat ramp. Deb Natelson made gallons of different types of soups and organized the group that rented the hall served the hot soup and bread for the participants. Excellent work, Deb!

With the soup and bread consumed by one and all it was time for the awards ceremony. This year the Sound Rowers have started providing race ribbons with the name of the event for all of their races. I think it makes the event more memorable. Bravo!

Thank you for another fine race at La Conner!

My stats:

The entire set of photos can be found at the Sound Rowers site.

Seattle Boat Show & WaveWalker Report

2007-01-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the Seattle Boat Show and checked out the
boats on display.

Hobie was there, with boats at a couple of booths.

A couple of kayak companies were there, too, but fewer than
in previous years.

A couple of transoceanic rowboats were there, too. This included
the Row NW boat that won last year's Woodvale rowing race across
the Atlantic.

Several boats used in James Bond films were there, too. In general
these boats looked somewhat beat up. I guess James didn't treat
them very well. :-)

Ok, ok... Yes, WaveWalker had a booth, too. They were shoehorned
into a spot beneath the stairs in the corner of the main hall,
a nicely laid out booth filled with boats and people admiring
those boats. I spoke at length with David and Lisa, and got a few
close-up photos of the transparent demo drive system as well as of
the boat.

The drive system appears to be very well designed. It uses a fairly
standard set of crank arms connecting to a tapered spindle, connected
to a fairly small sprocket encased in the top part of the fin shaped
drive unit. This sprocket drives a #35 chain with *no* twist that
transfers power to a smaller sprocket near the base of the fin. On
one side of the bottom sprocket is a larger gear that drives at right
angles a smaller bevel gear. This smaller bevel gear turns the shaft
through a set of seals eventually to the twin bladed propeller. The
final ratio, according to David, was about 6.2:1.

There is a mineral oil bath in the lower several inches of the fin
to lubricate the gears, chain and sprockets as well as to reduce the
influx of water.

Overall the drive seemed to have fairly minimal friction and seemed
to be very quiet and sturdy.

The drives used in the actual boats use a much stronger opaque
material. If only a window could have been provided in those! It
would be nice once in a while to see how things are doing in this
critical area.

David said that they should just about never need maintenance, but
there is a screw tensioning mechanism available in the event that
the chain loosens up over time.

There was a demo scheduled at the Bell Harbor Marina on Elliott Bay
that afternoon. A brand new WaveWalker owner and I grabbed the bus
and headed over to check it out.

It was a nice, sunny day with the temperature in the low 50's and
very little wind. The new owner got into one of the three boats
available for demos and I mounted my GPS onto the drive unit lift
bar. He headed out and disappeared around some boats.

Eventually he returned, pedaling smoothly towards the dock. I
retrieved the GPS and showed the readout to him. It indicated that
his maximum speed was 5.3 mph (or so my fuzzy memory recalls). He
indicated that he had been pedaling close to or at his limit. He
also said that he bought the boats so as to get a good workout
along with his wife, and these would certainly do that.

It was my turn to try out a boat. I put on the PFD, mounted the
GPS on the lift lever and stepped into the foot wells. Immediately
water began flooding into the wells through a pair of large drain
holes. Oops! I quickly sat down so as to not get my shoes soaked.

The change in weight distribution was enough to cause the water to
then drain back out.

I gently pedaled away from the dock, trying to get used to the
steering lever (forward=left?, backward=right?). The boat was
very responsive to the steering lever, with only a little self
centering at speeds up to 5 mph.

My heart rate was registering at about 77 bpm, pedaling at roughly
30 rpm and achieving a GPS speed of approximately 3 mph. There was
no wind and certainly no tidal effect as I traveled along the
shore in this protected marina.

Increasing the speed to 4 mph was also pretty effortless, though a
small bow wave was now forming. My heart rate was about 88 bpm.

Increasing the speed to 5 mph raised my heart rate to 125 bpm. A
sizeable bow wave was formed.

Increasing to a full out effort raised my heart rate to 160 bpm
and climbing. The bow wave was quite large. It almost appeared
as though the WaveWalker was doing an tiny imitation of a Foss
tug going at full speed down the Sound. Water splashed onto my
crotch through the propeller access hole in the hull. There also
seemed to be some ventilation of the propeller every so often,
as the load and speed seemed to drop slightly, possibly when I
hit some large ripples (2") in the water. The maximum speed
recorded by the GPS was 6.2 mph.

I doubt that I could have gone much faster or maintained that
level of effort for more than a hundred yards or so. It is
unlikely that anyone short of an Olympic caliber athlete could
maintain even 6 mph on flat water without wind or current
assistance for more than a few minutes.

I was very tempted to take the boat out into the unsheltered
waters of Elliott Bay. It wasn't very rough out there, to be
sure, but the water was certainly pretty cold. If I *did* fall
in and have troubles getting back aboard there was no one
nearby to rescue me - at least not for the amount of time I
wanted to be in the water! Perhaps I'm getting too old and
cautious.

So, no, I didn't try to see how far I could tilt the boat
before it would go over. Fast turns at high speed did cause
it to tip towards the outside of the turn, of course. I suspect
that if one made a fast turn at the wrong time on a reasonable
sized wave one might be able to capsize - but then you would
learn to not do that sort of thing or, at the very least, find
out how far you could tip and still not capsize.

Returning to the dock I practiced parallel parking. It appeared
to me that the boat travels perhaps more effortlessly in the
reverse direction than it does in the forward direction, though
I didn't push it above 3 mph.

The weight and shape of the hull and the weight and shape of
the drive fin all combine to make this a fairly stable boat. If
the seat were a couple of inches lower I'm sure that if would be
even more stable in operation - though you might get a bit more
wet when those waves made it into the cockpit.

It would be interesting to try it on rougher and warmer seas.

Overall, I think the new WaveWalker is a great, fun boat. It is
a bit faster than a Hobie Mirage, has lots of easily accessible
storage, is highly maneuverable, has an apparently bulletproof
drive system with easy access to the propeller for defouling,
a comfortable and adjustable seat, and can handle beaching and
travel anywhere that a kayak can beach or travel. I'd highly
recommend it for newcomers to the world of human powered boating.

Side note: It is unfortunate that their web site claims that
normal humans can achieve much faster speeds, i.e., "effortless
cruising at 6 mph and speeds of up to 10 mph". Find their PDF here.

This certainly was not the experience of anyone at the demo.

It was pretty effortless at speeds up to 4 mph. As you approached 5 mph,
however, there was some effort involved. Going over 5 the effort seemed
to increase exponentially.

A similar statement for their tandem: "Twice the fun and twice the
speed". Ok, while I might agree with twice the fun, it certainly
won't be traveling at 12 mph, let alone 20 mph!

The rest of their literature is quite close to the mark.

--------
Photos taken at the boat show can be seen here.

GPS stats are included, too.

I took a short video of Harry Howard, the inventor of the
WaveWalker, riding in one of his boats.

Had I known that the video and audio capture of my camera was
working so well (it had major troubles in the past) I would
have taken quite a few more videos. Oh, well.

Cascade Distance Race Report

2006-10-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I took a Cadence to the race. Unfortunately, however, I ran out of time the night before trying to fabricate and install a better rudder and install the smaller 16 tooth sprocket. The end result was that the boat was raced with the smaller sprocket and the same rudder as at the last race, but with some of the trailing surface area removed.

The temperature was a rather cool 44 degrees F, foggy and with a light S-SE breeze blowing onto the lake.

I launched early to make sure that I'd be ready to go at the scheduled 10 AM start, pulling the boat onto one of the floating docks at the Renton Boathouse.

As I had done this race many times I more or less ignored the pre-race meeting and registered. It was good to see and talk with all the folks with whom I had raced over the years.

The few minutes I was at the meeting were spent taking photos.

After the meeting I got myself ready for the short race and launched. It was quite foggy out on the water.

The lake was empty for quite a while. A couple of boats finally appeared - and disappeared into the fog as their occupants warmed up. Where were all the other boats?

The fog slowly began lifting. I took some pictures of my boat's wake at 4 mph and 6 mph, noting that my heart rate was only 90 beats per minute at 4 mph. Very interesting. I suspect that most casual users of the boat would probably find this gear ratio and the effort level to be quite agreeable.

As for me, it wasn't too bad, though it took a bit of getting used to reaching hull speed within a couple of revolutions of the cranks.

The rudder seemed to work better in its cut down state. There was still a pull to port, but it did not seem as strong. Maneuvering at slow speeds was not very good, however. Oh, well - back to the drawing board!

Eventually the 15 minute warning was given. Quite a few boats were now on the water.

About 10 minutes later the 15 minute warning was given - again! Weird.

Having been on the water for nearly 40 minutes my bladder announced that it was getting rather full. I started pedaling quickly back to the dock at the boathouse.

The 5 minute warning was given. Oh, no!

After taking care of matters I sprinted back to the boat, got in and headed for the starting line. About halfway there the starting signal was given - and they were off!

Rats! This must be the 3rd year in a row that I've missed the start of this race!

Watching my heart rate monitor settle at about 144 bpm I headed west down the course. The gps was reporting a speed of around 6.5 to 7 mph, and the water was definitely gurgling quite a bit behind me. Not having a cadence readout on the Cadence, and my watch being occupied with displaying heart rate info, I can't say for certain what my pedaling speed was. However, it certainly was not as smooth over the entire cycle as it is with the smaller gear.

Most of the other boats were ahead, and the leading boats were stretching the distance even further. There was quite a bit of milfoil around the boathouse as well as around the mouth of the Cedar River, so I stopped a couple of times to clear the propeller. That seemed to help improve the speed and pedaling effort a bit, possibly increasing the speed by 0.5 mph with the same pedaling effort.

The sun had come out and I was getting extremely hot. The air temperature had reached the upper 40's, but the wind had become a tail wind. There was no apparent relative air movement. Dipping my hands in the cold water helped a bit, but it also slowed me down. As I was now just wearing two shirts, shorts, socks, shoes and PFD, there was not much I could do to get cooler. Yes, I was also wearing leg warmers, but those had been pushed down to my calves and doing so made no difference anyway.

I managed to pass a couple of boats as we approached the Atlantic City boat ramp buoy at the far end of the short course. Quite a few boats had already passed the buoy, either continuing on towards Seward Park for the 13 mile long course or returning back to the start to complete the 5.2 mile short course.

Soon the turn buoy was behind and I was heading back to the finish. The tailwind was now a light headwind, which helped dramatically to cool me off. Whew!

All the way out to the buoy my pulse stayed around 144. My respiration was somewhat measured, but nowhere near its limits. On the return segment my pulse started creeping upwards, primarily due to my cadence increasing. My legs just wanted to pedal faster.

Since my legs weren't complaining nearly as much as I thought they would be by this time I decided to maintain a rate of 152 to 155 bpm. I caught and passed a mixed double racing canoe, after exchanging pleasantries, of course.

There was a fast laminated strip kayak ahead that I wanted to catch, so I pedaled a little harder. My pulse increased to the low 160's and I was breathing a bit harder, but still not at my limit.

Another patch of milfoil caused me to stop and remove it, giving up some of the distance I had gained. Sigh...

I continued pedaling at the 162 bpm rate until we were about half a mile from the finish. At that point I pedaled harder, pushing the pedals as fast as I could. A glance at the heart rate monitor showed 170, and the LCD of the gps was not able to be seen due to the angle of the sunlight. Rats! I'd have to wait until after the race to see how fast I was going.

I was gaining on the kayak but ran out of course. He crossed the finish about 10 seconds before me.

My time for the 5.25 mile course was 49:37, which is a personal best. My maximum speed was 7.8 mph.

After a bit of a cooling down period I tried a couple of short sprints. The top speed during those sprints was about 8.7 mph, which is still almost 2 mph lower than my personal best in a Cadence. Maybe there were some weeds fouling the rudder or propeller, or perhaps I was a little tired from the race. It is possible that both things were true.

After the race Dan Henderson, the race director, served freshly grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, chicken, salads, etc. It was all very tasty!

Photos are available at the Sound Rowers web site.

GPS tracks are available at my web site.

Medina-Mercer Race

2006-10-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

The Medina-Mercer race was held on Saturday, Oct. 7. The morning was rather chilly, with the temperature around 47 degrees F when I left the house at 8:30 AM, and reaching no higher than the upper 50's as the day progressed.

There was no wind, however, which kept things reasonable and the waters of Lake Washington nearly mirror flat.

Surprisingly enough there were still a couple of choice parking spots directly adjacent to Medina Beach Park. Folks probably got burned in years past trying to find empty spots there and suffered when they tried to turn around in the tiny cul-de-sac at the end of the road with long boats on top of their cars. Oh, well.

There were quite a few new racers registered at this race. Most were in various sorts of kayaks, but a couple of new rowers were there, too. As usual I was the only pedal boater present. Apparently none of the other pedal boaters in the area are interested in racing - at least with these folks!

Adrian Storb ran the pre-race meeting. The courses had not changed from previous years. The short 6 mile course and the long 14 mile course both had the same start and finish. The short course turned back after passing one of the sets of four pillars supporting the I-90 freeway bridge from Bellevue to Mercer Island. The long course continued onward, circumnavigating the island before returning.

After the race would be a variety of freshly grilled hot dogs, bratwurst, knockwurst and other sausages. After all, the was the Medina-Mercer Sausage Pull!

The water was rather chilly as I launched my Cadence. There was no dock, so one had to wade into the water a bit in order to get into the boat without it grinding into the sand and stones. Brrr!

I pedaled backward for 50 feet or so with my hands in order to free up some beach space while I then attended to drying my feet and putting on my bike shoes. That was much better!

The new rudder, which was merely the old rudder used at the Lake Samish race the previous weekend but with a chunk of it nearest the hull removed, seemed to maneuver fairly well. There was still a pull to the port side, but it seemed to be not quite as strong. I guess the best solution is to make it extend a couple more inches into the prop wash in order to balance the thrust.

After a few loops among the other competitors, taking photos whenever possible, the 5 minute warning signal was heard. Even though the early sunny skies had given way to a fairly thick overcast I was getting pretty warm. Off went the windbreaker, which was then stowed beside the emergency canoe paddle. I was now wearing bike shorts, long sleeved nylon shirt, lightweight long sleeved wicking shirt, socks, shoes, PFD and my trusty Sound Rowers baseball-style cap. That would be plenty!

The starting signal was heard and off we went!

As usual, the surfskis and other HPK's were among the first off the line, with the rowers not far behind. Most of the rowers soon overtook the paddlers and gradually headed off into the distance. Of course, there were a couple of strong paddlers who kept up with the faster rowers, such as Joost Zeegers in his custom Z-1 boat, but most of the rest were more or less grouped behind.

The GPS reported speeds in the 7 to 8 mph range as I headed towards the I-90 bridge. This was not going to be a sustainable pace for 14 miles, so I dropped down a bit after deciding I couldn't quite catch the OC-2 being paddled by Bela Kovacs and Steve Bennett. Rats! They could have given me a "free" ride all around the island, too, if only I could have caught their wake. Oh, well. Taking photos does have its downside if one is also trying to race.

I caught a white surfski paddled by a guy in a red shirt. He was going about the same pace, so I asked him if he was doing the long or the short course. "Long", he replied. With that I decided to trail behind until the bridge, figuring that I could save a bit of energy and then dash off for photos of the returning short course racers.

That didn't last long. There were some very fast boats in the short race, so I split off and tried to snap a few photos. I also managed to get some shots of a rower who put in at a nearby private beach, apparently to fix his riggers. Since a safety boat went to investigate I decided to continue onward.

Shane Baker in his green OC-1 was traveling nearby as I passed under the bridge. It appeared that he was also going the same pace as the white surfski and, as it turned out, a guy in a gorgeous laminated wood kayak. However, between having to clear my propeller of a small weed infestation a couple of times and taking still more photos, I managed to drop behind a couple of hundred feet. I managed to keep ahead of Shane through most of this, eventually passing the guy in the white surfski.

A light southerly breeze started up, helping to cool me off. It was going to be a tailwind on the other side, though. Rats!

The guy in the wooden kayak was now several hundred yards ahead by the time I reached the south end of Mercer Island. The pack of faster boats, including the OC-2 with Bela and Steve, was over 4 minutes ahead and barely visible in the distance. I figured that if I was going to ever catch them I had best start doing it now.

Putting the pedal to the metal, i.e., pulling as well as pushing on the pedals to make a smoother pedaling action, my speed crept up by about 0.5 to 1 mph. It seemed as though the distance between the Cadence and the wooden kayak visibly shrunk in a much shorter time than would expected.

I caught the kayak in just a couple of minutes, trailing in his wake for a while. We talked for a moment about catching the OC-2, which the paddler said was what he had been concentrating on for the past several miles. I responded with "Let's go get them!" and pedaled off at the same rate of speed I used to catch the kayak.

This I kept up for perhaps 5 or 6 minutes. The kayak was not able to keep up and was quite a ways behind. Oh, well.

Mercer Island has a wide bay on its west side. It is is actually shorter to cut across the lake towards Seward Park and then towards the eastern rise of the floating section of the I-90 bridge than it is to hug the island shoreline. During this crossing I was making pretty good time, but my strength was starting to ebb. I finished the last of an energy gel and the last of one of the water bottles, hoping that it would keep me going. All I knew was that my arms were very tired from forcing the rudder to the right and my legs didn't really want to move very fast.

About 2 minutes ahead of me I could see the OC-2 making the crossing to Seward park. They were able to maintain that distance until we reached the northern tip of Mercer Island, though their zig zagging navigation certainly helped as my speed dropped primarily due to exhaustion. I also made sure the propeller was clear of weeds by stopping every so often. Nope - just my imagination, though there certainly were small mats of milfoil floating around.

During the crossing from the northern tip of Mercer to Medina I focused on what I thought was Medina City Hall. The OC-2 and several other boats were going quite a bit to the south, so I thought they had the wrong landmark in view. I picked up the pace as best I could.

As it turned out, we were both wrong. They had veered too far south and I had gone too far north. I corrected my course and found that the OC-2 was now perhaps 30 to 40 seconds ahead. Could I catch them?

Much to my surprise I saw Shane in his OC-2 a boat length ahead and to the right. How did he get there?!?

I picked up the pace further. There was no way that I was going to let Shane beat me!

Shane also picked up the pace. He asked why I had gone so far to the north, and I explained it as navigational error.

I was now behind his outrigger, then pulled alongside. There were only a few hundred yards before the finish. After taking a final snapshot I had to make my move!

I poured what was left of my energy into the pedals. The Cadence leapt ahead of the OC-2. Shane paddled furiously for a few moments, then went back to his previous rate.

Meanwhile, I continued to pedal rapidly. Shane was now several boat lengths behind when I crossed the finish line, with a time of 2:16:05. Whew! What a finish!

Recovery from the effort took a bit longer. I pedaled slowly back onto the course, taking some shots of the remaining incoming racers.

When I finally landed my legs were not quite as steady as they usually are. I definitely needed some lunch and a bit of a rest!

The bratwurst were very tasty.

A number of folks in surfskis and rowing shells complained about all the weeds. Ha! That's a first, because I had very little trouble with them this year.

With the two races and all the different classes of boats and competitors there was only one person who didn't walk away with a ribbon. He ended up getting a string of wooden sausages instead. Lucky guy!

My best time for this race was 2:15, so perhaps if the rudder had been correct I would have been able to complete the course much faster. We'll see next year!

Photos and my stats can be found at the Sound Rowers Photography page

Elk River Challenge 2006

2006-07-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Elk River Challenge, held in the tidal estuary at the mouth of the Elk River near Westport, WA, is unique among the Sound Rowers races. It is the only one located on a river, and the only one where competitors as far back as the middle of the pack can see the progress of the leaders not once but several times during the course of the race. It also has the most opportunities for tired or overwhelmed racers to bail out and return to the start without having to travel a significant distance.

This year's race included quite a range of different boats and competitors. The boats ranged from plastic sea kayaks to lightweight surf skis, single lightweight rowing shells to doubles, single dories to a 6 person "huge boat" and, of course, a fast pedal boat. The competitors ranged from teenagers to folks many years past their retirement - and a dog named Scooter.

The tide was still incoming when we launched at Brady's Oysters, the very generous benefactor of this event. It had covered the oyster shell gravel driveway just enough to permit one to launch on it rather than have to put in on either side into some very weedy water. With the clear skies and warm weather over the past week the water was quite warm, too. Vern Heikkila, the race organizer, claimed that the water temperature was 65 degrees. It certainly felt warmer to me than that!

Some folks chose to carry their boats on a rudimentary trail to the shore at the base of the bridge over the river. Apparently they fear the navigational hazards of the oyster bins along the driveway, or had bad experiences with scraping their boats against the oyster shells. I didn't worry too much about it as I took the time and caution to avoid those hazards.

With the incoming tide came floating patches of weeds. The warm weather helped the plants grow prodigiously. There seemed to be a lot more pieces of eelgrass in the water, along with blobs of eelgrass and other sorts of algae and seaweed bunched together. I called them Vern's Mines. Catch them with your propeller and your speed drops immediately by 1 to 2 mph.

After a while during which most people were warming up we lined up in the shade under the bridge. It was going to be a hot one today! The forecast was for temperatures in the upper 90's inland, and the humidity was high. At least here, near the coast, there was an alongshore breeze that kept it a bit cooler.

The starting signal was given and away we went.

For some reason, just like in the Quartermaster Harbor race, I started out rather slowly. Perhaps it was because I didn't really have much of warmup, or perhaps I was still a bit groggy from the 2.5 hour drive to the start and a short night's sleep. For whatever reason, most of the other boats were soon ahead of me. It didn't help that I had to dodge some of Vern's Mines while shooting photos, or that I had to stop momentarily to clear the propeller a couple of times before reaching the first turn buoy out in the bay.

Several of the rowers in shells, who had mostly congregated in the center of the channel, had established their lead on the field by the time they reached the buoy. Only the guy in the surfski was still with them. The OC-2 paddled by Vern and Steve was not very far behind.

A short while later I reached the buoy, turning inside just before a kayak and a short distance behind Deb, Janet and Bela. There did not appear to be a whole lot of boats behind, but it was somewhat difficult to see with the sun now reflecting off the water into my eyes.

I caught up to Bela when I encountered another mine. It was quickly dispensed, but that dropped me back another 20 or 30 yards. The heat was also starting to build as we were now traveling with the wind and in a virtual dead calm. The shade under the bridge was but a short respite as I caught and finally passed Vern en route to the first slough. The gps reported my speed at over 7 mph.

A few more mines were encountered, but I still managed to keep ahead of Bela in his OC-1 and pass Deb and Janet in their double fast sea kayak before the 2nd buoy at the end of the slough. The lead racers passed going in the other direction and I cheered them on.

When Vern and Steve went by I asked if he couldn't have chosen a hotter day. It was absolutely boiling hot. Even paddling with my hands in the water while pedaling wasn't enough to cool me down, though it did serve to splash water on the camera lens, much to my chagrin as I discovered later.

I was now trying to catch a white and blue OC-2 and a yellow OC-1. The OC-2 rounded the buoy and headed back, and I started taking pictures of it and the OC-1, when suddenly the OC-1 flipped right at the buoy and dumped its rider into the water. Perhaps it was intentional, as that would have been a great way to cool down!

The paddler said he was OK and didn't need any help, so I continued onward.

What a difference the change in direction made! The tailwind was now a decently strong headwind. My speed dropped to about 6, but I was slowly gaining on the OC-2 anyway. The wind was probably affecting them more, especially with two bodies high above the water.

I cheered the incoming racers and shot them photographically as they passed. The third buoy was soon sighted and I headed southeasterly up another slough.

There were far fewer mines up the sloughs, but there were still a lot of weed fragments and plants growing on the bottom. I had to keep quite a distance from the apparent shoreline in order to have adequate depth to separate the prop from the plants, some of which resembled furry green ropes.

Rounding the last buoy I was somewhat surprised to see how close the OC-1 that had overturned had come. That dunk in the water at the end of the hottest leg of the course must have been invigorating!

It was time to put the pedal to the metal.

The distance between me and the blue and white OC-2 ahead had been shrinking and growing ever since the first turn, mainly due to the mines. With the wind and tide blowing most of that stuff to south side of the slough and the return course heading along the north side, it was literally clear sailing for most of the way to the finish. The gps was showing speeds in the 7+ mph range, which I attributed partially to the current of the Elk River. Gradually I crept closer and closer to the OC-2, which should have had the benefit of the current as well, but for whatever reason was not keeping pace. Could I finally catch them?

We soon reached a set of ancient wooden pilings stretching into the channel. Vern had described them as the remnants of an old whaling factory. Considering that the place must have shut down by the turn of the previous century it is amazing how long that stuff has lasted in this environment!

We were now in the wide channel at the mouth of the river. It seemed almost easy to catch and pass the OC-2, taking a few shots of them and saying "Thanks for slowing down for me!".

I think they were a bit perplexed.

If I was pedaling strongly before I really started working hard now. All I had to do was hit another mine and the OC-2 might pass me.

Far ahead I could see the double kayak with Jeff and his partner nearing the bridge and the finish line. There was no way I could catch them, but I would certainly try to reduce the time as much as possible.

One final sip drained the last of my water bottle. It would have to hold until the end of the race.

With the bike shoes and Speedplay Frog pedals helping greatly to enable me to pedal nice, even circles, my speed increased to nearly 8 mph. Ha! Try and catch me now, OC-2!

Things were going well until about 100 yards before the finish. I was trying to take some photos when suddenly my legs felt the propeller drag increase significantly. Rats! Because I wasn't watching carefully I had run into a mine!

My speed was now only 6 mph, but there was no way I would stop to clear the prop. I'd just plow on through to the finish.

With a time of 1:13:43 I crossed the line. Hurray!

This was my slowest time for the course by about 4 minutes, but this was the first time I placed in the top 10 boats. Perhaps if I had more time to exercise these days I'd have done better, too.

After the race Vern had drawings for prizes. They were frozen cooked crab, a life jacket, and certificates for discounts at the local restaurants.

The first place overall finishers were awarded some hand made paddling kayak whirligigs, which were very nice. The guy in the surf ski, the folks in the double rowing shell and the father/son pair in the slow (a.k.a. poke) boats were the recipients.

Thank you, Vern, for having a another great race!

Photos can be found here and here.