August 24, 2002
The Great Cross Sound Race of the Sound Rowers starts just off Alki Beach in West Seattle. The course crosses Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island, turns south at Blakely Rock, and turns back east to Alki after passing a navigational buoy just off Decatur Reef. The total distance is given as about 7.4 miles. Perhaps this is in nautical miles, since MS Streets & Trips claims something more like 8.6 miles for the course. Another possibility is that the race info flyer says it starts and stops at Alki Point, which is about half a mile short of the actual start and finish line.
This year's race was scheduled to start at 9 AM, so rather than wake up the neighbors loading things on my car in the wee hours of Saturday morning I got all packed and ready to go the night before.
Since there was not going to be a lot of scenery to be viewed during this race, and since the weather forecast was for relatively calm conditions, I chose to take Lilac. Lilac is a kayak with a dagger board style pedal prop drive unit and flying amas. This boat can travel considerably faster than my Escapade, and it does not require a boat launch. These are both good things, since this race invites some of the fastest paddlers and rowers on the West Coast, and since the nearest boat launch is a couple of miles away. The only problem is that it does not take much for water to come into the cockpit of this boat and make things a bit wet.
It was sunny in Bellevue when I started driving to West Seattle. Just before I entered the Mount Baker tunnel a layer of low clouds cut out the sunlight. There was absolutely no hint of the sun at Alki Beach, but the temperature of the low to mid 60's was just about perfect for a race. There was also a very light breeze from the south. Otherwise, visibility at sea level was excellent - possibly 30 miles or more.
Parking near the registration pavilion was nonexistent, but I managed to find a spot about a block away.
With some assistance from another racer I was able to carry Lilac and all the rest of the stuff I needed down to the beach. After speaking to Jaff Knakal, the organizer of the race, I handed my digital camera to someone who brought it to one of the chase boats. This way there would be some pictures of the race. I certainly did not trust keeping my camera dry on Lilac!
Jeff held the pre-race meeting, and described the various hazards along the course. He reminded us that the tide was starting to ebb, and there could be a current of half a knot or so to the north. He also mentioned that since the course was very tricky that everyone should just follow him to the finish line.
Vince McGowan, a neighbor of Rusty Lane, also entered the race with a kayak-like Cadence pedal boat. Fortunately for him, a parking spot opened up right next to my car, and I was able to help him carry the boat down to the beach.
After assembling Lilac, which consisted of bolting the amas (a.k.a. training wheels) to the hull and stuffing things behind the seat back to help it better take the strain, both Vince and I launched and headed towards the starting line. Lilac responded to my pedaling by smoothly cutting through the water, dodging the other boats as they rowed or paddled about the area.
On previous voyages with Lilac I had used a thin closed cell foam pad to soften the interface between my posterior and the plastic seat. This time I chose to put a boat cushion there instead. The main reason was to try to raise my body slightly relative to the pedals, with the hope that my blood circulation would be improved. A side effect, unfortunately, was that the flying amas had more of a tendency to land; i.e., the boat was a bit less stable. Oh, well. Hopefully the delaminating seat reinforcements would hold up through the race!
The blast from the starting horn came just after 9 AM, according to my watch. The adrenaline kicked in, and an insane amount of splashing from paddles, oars and bow waves kicked up the water.
As usual, I forgot to pace myself. After a couple of minutes of over exertion my legs reminded me that my lungs were not keeping up. I had to reduce my effort and forget about trying to keep up with the top notch rowing shells and fast sea kayaks, who were already starting to disappear off in the distance. My rapidly dessicating throat demanded I take frequent sips of water between gasps for air, so the mere act of reaching for the water bottle also threw off my pedaling. This boat needs a water bottle holder!
After another few minutes I could hear the double canoe approaching from the rear. Their regular chant served as further inspiration for pacing myself, and they passed quite close to my starboard. So close, in fact, the people on the left hull had to paddle on the inside so that they wouldn't hit my amas! It was a little unnerving, but no harm was done.
The barking sound of a harbor seal could be heard from across the waves. It seemed to cheer us on, or perhaps scold us for disturbing the peace.
Most of the other racers opted for a more southerly route, hoping to take advantage of the current. It was not obvious to me that the current was sufficiently strong to warrant going so far out of my way, so I pretty much headed straight for Blakely Rock.
The Bremerton ferry also decided to head this way, rather than wait a couple of minutes for the racers to get out of its way at the start. Finally, upon reaching Blakely Rock the ferry captain decided that he was not going to be able to get around the racers, and he slowly turned to the south and slowly, slowly made his way through the swarm of boats that now enveloped him.
When I reached that area the water certainly had some strange residual currents and whirlpools!
I reached Blakely Rock about 33 minutes after the start of the race. It seemed that perhaps two thirds of the other boats had already rounded this shallow and weed-prone reef by this time, and I tried to keep as close to the rock as possible without endangering my boat in order to try not to lose any more time. While I could see the bottom, the tide was still high enough that my prop cleared all obstacles with no problems.
Blakely Rock served to bring all the racers much closer together than they had been earlier in the race. At this time there were several boats in my company, including two rowing shells, a couple of kayaks and a surf ski. This close proximity helped to rekindle some sense of competition, and everyone seemed to push a bit faster towards the Decatur Reef buoy.
The white rowing shell seemed to pull slightly ahead, and made a line fairly close to the buoy. I could see a change in the color and surface of the water, implying a fairly strong current, so I aimed a bit wider. I was glad that I did, because as we approached the buoy we all were pushed pretty strongly in that direction. The rowing shell ended up right against the side of the buoy, almost capsizing. With the extra room that I took I was able to easily make the turn and head back towards Alki Beach.
I came alongside his surf ski, and hung onto the bow. He was able to then climb back on board. after a few moments I asked if he was ready and, when I thought he had everything under control, I gently released his boat. Over he went, again! Oops!
This time I told the man that I would not release his boat until he absolutely, positively, told me he was ready. He climbed back aboard, settled in, and gave me the go ahead. I released his boat, and then we continued on with the race.
It was an interesting return to Alki. Most everyone seemed to take a much more southerly route, heading towards Alki Point and then along the beach rather than directly towards the finish line. I chose the direct approach, and seemed to go slightly faster overall. Some of that could have been due to my putting forth a bit more effort. Still, I had to stop a couple of times to remove some sea grass from my propeller. This certainly added a few seconds to my overall time.
Finally, the finish line buoy came into view. It seemed to take forever to actually cross the line, however. Maybe those folks traveling along the beach had the right idea after all.
The white rowing shell managed to catch up due to the time spent in the rescue, and crossed the finish line just before me. Oh, well. I felt I had put forth quite an effort, and with a 3 minute credit for the rescue had a time of 1 hour, 13 minutes 37 seconds. This was my best time ever! In fact, after a quick check of the records, this might be the fastest time for a pedal boat in the history of the course, too!
Vince crossed the finish line about 20 minutes after me. The two pedal boats gathered something of a crowd of curious people, so while he recovered he let some people try out the patriotic colored Cadence.
Shortly after this the sun came out. This was good, since I and many others were quite wet from the race. The embroidered Kavu caps that were given to the race participants became quite useful in shading our eyes. It was also good to sample the muffins, pretzels, gorp and various soft drinks and juices that were provided.
An announcement was made that the last two boats would be across the finish line in an estimated 20 minutes. This was partly because one of the racers was 81 years old, and partly because the vessels were big wooden fixed seat rowboats. Vince and I took advantage of this to load the boats back onto our cars, and watching the slow progress of the boats across the Sound. It was also interesting to see the gigantic wake from a large ocean-going tug as it passed them by!
However, as these last boats were running a bit slower than forecast, it was decided to hold the awards ceremony without them. Silver cup trophies were awarded to the fastest single man and single woman finishers, and the large Windermere Cup trophy was awarded to the fastest overall boat for the year. The fastest boat was a two man rowing shell. They completed the course in 51:03. The fastest single men were in a rowing shell and a kayak, with times of 53:44 and 53:45. Yes, Greg Barton almost did it again!
Blue ribbons were handed out to the first place finishers in each boat class. Red ribbons were handed out to second place finishers, and white ribbons were given to the third place.
The race was quite well run due to all the work by these great people. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the weather cooperated, and the crowd from the weight competition on the other side of the park was not a problem. Thank you, Jeff Knakal and company!
To see all the pictures, in larger and better formats, visit this link.
To see the map of the course, visit this link.