May 11, 2002
This is the first year that I attended the Commencement Bay race organized by the Sound Rowers.
The forecast was for clear skies, reasonably warm temperatures, and calm conditions, and the forecast for Sunday (Mother's Day) was for more sun and warmer temperatures.
The night before the race I called Rusty Lane, owner of Pedalcraft, to see if he was interested in racing. He said that he was interested in coming, and his daughter Meredith and his neighbor Vince were interested in racing. Rusty offered me the use of a Cadence pedal boat for this race. There was some question, though, as to when Meredith was returning with the car the next morning, so I had to be prepared to race in my Escapade.
Looking at the boat launch web site for the nearby boat launches, it appeared that the closest one was the Asarco site. However, Asarco is no longer around, and their launch was probably also gone. This meant that I would have to use the next closest launch, at the Point Defiance ferry terminal site - approximately two miles from the start of the race!
Saturday morning arrived. Not only was it sunny, but the temperature was in the upper 60's. As I had not heard from Rusty by the appointed time I hitched up my boat and headed to Tacoma.
Arriving in Tacoma and cruising along the waterfront I was amazed at the changes since I had last been there. The shoreline had mostly been converted into a linear park, periodically separated by trendy restaurants. This was quite a change from the purely industrial setting it once had.
As I suspected, the Asarco ramp was history. After heading through the Superfund wasteland I found my way to the Point Defiance terminal and marina, and parked my car amidst several families of Canadian geese that were resting in the parking lot. It was 8:30 AM, and with the race starting at 10 AM I either had to launch my Escapade now, or hope that Rusty would get to the course in time.
I managed to reach him with my cell phone as they were heading out their door. He said he would be there at the race starting line in time for the race with a boat for me. Yes!
Returning to the race start I found that all but two of the dual length parking spots were taken. Luckily I managed to find one for my car and trailer, and parked. This time it was near a flock of plastic flamingos, which did a fine job of guarding the baskets of muffins, fresh fruit and soft drinks on the picnic tables.
The race registration fee was a mere $7 for members, and $10 for non-members.
9:30 AM came and went, with no sign of Rusty. The pre-race meeting was held, and the triangular course was described. We were to head away from Puget Sound towards the cranes at the center of the inner harbor area near the bauxite domes, turn right at the buoy heading south, then turn right at the last buoy near the southern shore, and return along the waterfront past a couple of moored freighters to the starting point.
The racers then dispersed to launch their boats and head to the starting line. There was still no sign of Rusty!
Finally, just a few minutes before the 5 minute warning was sounded, Rusty and his family pulled up. We quickly unloaded the Cadence and the two WaveWalkers, and carried them down to the stony beach. As I did not wish to expose my digital camera to the potential dangers of getting wet in the Cadence, I handed it to Meredith for safe keeping and, hopefully, picture taking in her WaveWalker. Just then the signal to start the race was heard. Yikes!
Rusty and I launched the Cadence, and I climbed aboard. I swapped my rubber boots for tennis shoes, and Rusty adjusted the crankset position to fit. Off I pedaled to the starting line.
All the other racers were gone, and almost out of sight by the time I made it to the starting line. The kind folks handling the timing took it with aplomb, gave me my own starting time (about 3 minutes after the rest of the group), and off I went!
For about 15 seconds all was well. I then adjusted the length to the crankset slightly, and continued pedaling. Suddenly, just as I started to warm up and begin to put some pressure on the pedals the entire crankset slammed forward with a bang!
Checking the crank unit, it appeared that all that had happened was the quick release adjustment clamp had not held. Some rapid adjustments of the nuts of the clamp soon permitted the clamp to tightly hold the crank in place, though I did have my concerns about it!
The water had some small ripples, indicating that there was a slight tailwind. All I know was that it was quite warm, in bright sunlight, and I was overheating. Heedless of the sanitary risks involved, I was forced to cool myself by dragging my hands in the water every so often. I guess the water wasn't too bad after all, as there were a couple of friendly seals poking their heads out of the water taking a gander at this strange boat passing them by.
About 15 minutes into the race I caught up with the tail end of the racers. After taking a momentary rest and sucking down some water from the two bottles aboard, I pressed on in an attempt to catch the next boat, which was a recreational two person kevlar canoe.
The purr of the drive unit of the Cadence was about the only sound I heard other than my huffing and puffing. It was very quiet on the water, and there were few boats. I did run across a couple of mild wakes, and while the waves did go over the bow there never was a time when the water got near the cockpit. In rougher water, however, I wouldn't be so dry. The boat was quite a bit tippier than my Escapade, of course, but not nearly as much as a normal kayak.
It took only a couple of minutes to catch the canoe. My next target was someone piloting a kayak a hundred yards ahead. Meanwhile, off in the distance I could see the dragon boat crossing towards the southern buoy, and a couple of fast rowing shells already on their way back towards the finish line.
The Cadence seemed to slice through the water like a knife. Without a GPS or other reference, it was difficult to determine how fast I was going. All I could tell was that I was gaining on other racers and catching them, even with them having a 3 minute head start. This would not have been possible in my Escapade.
As I passed the woman in her kayak (who was willing to ask for directions to the buoy) I could see the dragon boat starting to head back towards the finish line. Ahead was a rowing shell (!) and a couple of kayaks and an OC-1. I finished off one of my two water bottles and stepped up my pace.
Approaching the first buoy I noticed that the tide was still ebbing. Yes, I was heading upstream. Turning around the buoy I finally felt the wonderful tailwind, the one that was traveling the same speed and direction that I had been heading, the one that was making me roast under the hot sun. Whew!
It took a bit of time, fighting the former tailwind, now sidewind, to keep heading in a straight line towards buoy #2. The racing shell went quite a bit closer to shore in an effort to stay out of the flow of the channel, but the other boats seemed to ignore it. Either way, these guys were not quite so easy to catch as the others.
Rounding the #2 buoy and heading back to the finish line I tried staying a bit closer to shore. This put me quite near the two gray freighters, with their bulbous bows looming out of the water, and their sterns the size of houses hanging over the water. The kayak and OC-1 were now behind me. So was my hat, as it was now catching the fairly strong headwind.
Recalling the race director asking that we try to stay inside the buoys on the return, I did so - even though there were actually quite a few buoys and no one else seemed to be taking heed of them. Oh, well. Perhaps I missed something in the translation.
With the finish line only a few blocks away, I put even more pressure on the pedals. By this time my pedaling cadence was about 75 rpm, which is a bit below my comfort level of around 90 rpm. Even so, it seemed that the boat responded to the additional effort and actually went noticeably faster with the additional effort. The rower in the shell, however, also began to place more effort into his oars, and was not letting me catch him.
With one final burst of energy I powered through the finish line, with a time of 1 hour, 2 minutes, 36 seconds. Over a course of about 7 miles, this means I had a speed close to 7 miles per hour! This included the minutes spent adjusting the drive unit clamps, and the several coasting stops went I grabbed for my water bottles.
Returning to the stony beach, Rusty helped me carry the boat onto the beach. He was freezing in the cold water, I was cooling off nicely, though my delicate bare feet did not care so much for the barnacles and stones. After a short walk to the registration area for a muffin and a soft drink, I was feeling much better.
Several of the paddlers came over to me and made the comment "I always wondered how fast those things would go if a real cyclist was in them". I replied "Well, you still don't know, because I'm not in very good condition, and am recovering from the flu.".
The awards ceremony was held, and Meredith (who started much later than I) finished with first place in the women's pedal boat class. She and Vince actually finished together, with a time of 1 hour 25 minutes. They were taking it a bit easy, and just enjoyed the day on the water.
During the race the Cadence handled quite well. The steering was not as responsive as that of my Escapade, but generally quite adequate and definitely better than most of the paddled boats. The boat has a tendency to heel over when the rudder is turned, which was something of a new experience for me.
About the only major problem I had with the boat had to do with the seat. This has been redesigned from earlier versions so as to not become a small bucket in which water coming into the cockpit would sit, leaving one with a wet posterior. Instead, it was now designed for someone with an extremely large hip spread. Unfortunately, this means that you now need some sort of thick foam pad in order to be comfortable. As I write this several days later, my posterior on both sides of my tailbone is still quite tender from the experience.
Vince and Rusty put the Cadence back on top of Rusty's car, and then went back to load the two WaveWalkers onto the trailer before heading home. I did a little maintenance on my boat trailer, and headed back as well.
Wow! 7 miles in an hour - and here I was, an out of shape guy still not over a nasty cold. Maybe there is hope for me after all. :-)
To see all the pictures, in larger and better formats, visit this link.