June 8, 2002
The Manchester Race of the Sound Rowers is located on the west side of Puget Sound in Washington State. It is approximately 5 miles due west of Seattle, and can be reached either by driving south through Tacoma, WA, and back north, or via ferry from West Seattle. I chose the ferry route.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Washington State Ferry System finally accepts major credit cards for payment of fares! It certainly took them a long time to enter the 20th century - one can only wonder when they will reach the 21st!
The crossing from West Seattle to Southworth where one then drives on to Manchester is interrupted by a stop at Vashon Island. While the ferry was docked I was able to see the baby orca whale that has taken a strong liking to another ferry docked at the island. Yes, this is the same baby whale that Ron McDonald and I tried to find on a previous E.S.C.A.P.A.D.E. trip, without success. Eat your heart out, Ron!
I met several other Sound Rowers on board, and we recalled the rough conditions of the previous year. This year, however, the waters were fairly calm, though the skies did threaten to either drop some moisture or clear up. We all hoped for the latter possibility!
At Southworth we drove to Manchester State Park, located a couple of miles north of the town of Manchester. I was carrying Lilac on top of my car yesterday afternoon. Lilac, a Current Designs kayak contructed to accommodate a pilot pedaling Bob Stuart's SpinFin drive unit, had been lent to me for testing.
I dropped off Lilac near the registration table, parked my car and registered for the race. Rusty Lane and Vince came by with a pair of Cadence pedal boats. Rusty said his knees were bothering him (old skiing injuries), so he declined to enter this race.
The pre-race meeting was held, and the route was described as being 10 miles long. We were told to head towards Blake Island, go counter-clockwise around it, and return. There was no long 20 mile race scheduled, contrary to what the web site listed.
Quickly trying to join the other racers and simultaneously take photos I pushed with quite a bit of effort on the pedals. Lilac responded, and soon the boat was knifing through the water near the head of the pack of sea kayaks and surf skis. A couple of two man rowing shells were already out in front.
Wait a minute - the kayaks and surf skis were not going any faster than I was. Sure, there was a single person kayak out in front with some extraordinarily strong paddler going hog wild, but this was the first time I had been in a pedal boat and holding my own! In fact, some boats were lining up behind me to take advantage of the slipstream! Yahoo!
My lungs and legs were both working hard, and I was trying as well to take pictures. That is the main reason that these shots ended up being a little poorly composed. Still, Lilac was performing well, and I was keeping at the front of the pack of paddler! (huff)(huff)(huff) - (drink)
Suddenly, I heard the sound of something ripping, and the right side of the seat back gave way. I almost caused a collision with the boats behind me as I stopped pedaling to see what was going wrong. Oh, no! The attachment from the right side of the seat to the adjustable position rail had torn completely off!
Quickly I took off my life jacket and my big nylon coat, and jammed the coat behind me in an attempt to fill the gap. Shortly after putting the life jacket back on I decided to jam that back there, too. Damn! It still was not enough to fill the hole, but there was nothing else I could do, and boats were passing me on the left and right.
I hunkered down and did my best to adjust my body and the stuff behind me so I could properly pedal. Unfortunately, this new position prevented me from being able to breathe as deeply, and one leg was extending further than the other with each pedal stroke. Still, I was generally able to keep up with some people in an OC-2 outrigger as we approached Blake Island.
The course went through several floating patches of weeds. I stopped a couple of times to make sure that nothing was fouling the drive unit. Each time there was nothing on the propeller, and I got further behind. Soon, a two man wherry approached and passed close to shore.
The second time I pulled up the drive unit my right leg calf muscle suddenly seized up with an incredible charley horse cramp. I had been sucking down quite a lot of water since the start of the race, so it should not have been due to dehydration. After a few minutes the cramp eased, and then the left leg cramped! Yikes!
It was time for a short rest.
I quickly grabbed my 6 oz. carton of Tangerine-Kiwi juice I had stowed up in front with the extra water bottle and tools, and sucked it dry in seconds. As if by magic the cramps in both legs seemed to melt away. They did not return for the remainder of the race. Time to pedal!
Rather than travel in the shallow water near the shore, and possibly hit rocks or weeds in pursuit of a shorter course, I stayed about 50 to 100 feet off shore. There was a kayak keeping pace with me, and the wherry was not too far ahead. While passing a couple of mooring buoys, however, I noticed that I was fighting a fairly strong current as I approached the east side of the island.
The east side of the island was pretty quiet, with the kayaker staying pretty close by. Off to the north I spotted an old-style two masted sailboat. With the present lack of wind it was not making much progress.
I seemed to drop the kayak behind as I turned the northeast corner of Blake Island and passed Tillicum Village. Off to the west I could see some rather dark and gloomy skies, with patches of rain here and there. In addition, a breeze from the west began to pick up.
My legs were definitely feeling the exertion in this new position. All I could do was plug away at the pedals, and wish that I could spin them more rapidly. My neck and shoulders were getting sore, too, as the broken seat back and head rest forced them into a rather uncomfortable position. If only I had another box of juice, and did not eat that donut before the race!
Still, I forced myself to pedal harder. Off in the distance I saw the wherry move from the center of Rich Passage towards the south shore. Thinking that they were somewhat lost, I chose the straight route and headed directly back to the park. Meanwhile, the breeze continued to grow stronger, and a light chop was beginning to form.
I never did quite catch up to the wherry, but I did gain on another kayak. He crossed the finish line a minute or so before me. My finishing time was 1:36:49, for an average speed of 6.25 mph. Not bad, but certainly not as good as it should have been had everything been working well - me included!
Resting a while to rebuild my strength after the race I took some photos of some of the people finishing behind me. Finally, I landed near the wherry, where Rusty came over and helped me carry Lilac up near registration area.
Vince crossed the finish line about twenty minutes after me. He had run into the weed patches as well, and they ended up fouling his propeller quite a bit. Reverse pedaling seemed to make most of them drop off, but there was still a fist sized clump on the prop when he and Rusty carried the Cadence out of the water.
The lunch feast was superb. The home-made Hungarian goulash was quickly consumed, followed by the clam chowder and some sort of sausage soup. The bagels, pretzels, cookies, brownies, watermelon and bananas were also decimated by the race contestants. It certainly hit the spot!> -
While eating I was nearly beseiged by a number of kayakers and others, wondering what sort of boat it was that enabled me to keep up with them so long at the beginning of the race. I gave them references to Bob Stuart, and told them what little I knew of the history of Lilac. People were quite impressed with the torque and speed produced by the puny little model airplane propeller, and with the ease of pedaling the unit (in air).
One of the Maas shell rowers there mentioned that he owned a WaveBike, and lived just across the lake from my house. We discussed that worthy vessel, as well as the Cadence, and talked about future races.
The fastest boat across the line was a two person rowing shell, with a time 1:12:13 - just ahead of another two person shell with a time of 1:12:30! They must have been at each other's side for most of the course!
As expected, I finished first in the pedal boat class. In recognition of this honor I was given a beautiful hand-cut steel plaque of a kayaker with his paddle raised high over his head. Thank you, Bela!
Most of the pictures were taken with my digital camera encased in a home-made shrink wrap plastic pouch. It seems to work moderately well if one takes care to stretch the plastic over the lens before snapping the photo. Unfortunately, either due to my inattention or the presence of a sea water film that seemed to grow as time went on, the pictures taken later in the day got steadily lower in quality. Finally, during the awards ceremony I removed the camera from the pouch.
To see all the pictures, in larger and better formats, visit this link.
To see the map of the course, visit this link.
