No, I didn't hop on a plane and fly over to the U.K. Rather, I drove through the rain in Bellevue, emerged into overcast skies in Renton and drove around and over the south end of Puget Sound (via the Tacoma Narrows Bridge), ending up just shy of Bremerton, WA near the town of Manchester, WA. The state park of that same name is where the race is held.
I arrived at the park around 8:30 AM - plenty of time to get ready and take some unhurried photos of the event. If I had taken the ferry who knows when I would actually get there, or even if I could reach the ferry in enough time to make the 7:15 AM(!) departure. People were already setting up the registration table and setting out pre-race munchies.
The beach dolly for my Cadence pedal boat still had not arrived, so with the help of another racer the craft was carried down to the beach. The tide was slowly coming in, so we placed it at the water's edge, planning to have a somewhat easier one man launch later on.
I carefully sprayed some dry lubricant on the chain and small cog, hoping to quiet some squeaking that has been occurring during pedaling. With over 30 minutes before launch time the liquid carrying the lubricant would have plenty of time to dry.
Shane Baker held the pre-race meeting. There was nothing new this year from last year's meeting. People would be leaving Manchester State Park and head southeasterly to Blake Island. You could travel either way around the island, and head back to the park.
There would be at least one chase boat, but otherwise people were expected to be able to handle their own affairs on the water and provide assistance to anyone that was in need. I offered the use of my hand held VHF radio to the organizers. No one took me up on it, so I stowed it in my carry-on luggage.
The meeting ended and most everyone headed with their boats to the water. There was a small group of younger racers being given a pep talk by their coach. Apparently these racers would be doing some sort of a relay race in double sea kayaks over the same course as the other racers. A motor boat would follow them and carry the members of the relay team. An adult racer would be in each kayak at all times, providing guidance and power throughout the event.
The boats were launched and people began their warm ups cruising around the south end of Rich Passage, which bordered the park.
The sun was starting to break through now, and the temperature was in the low 60's. There was a light breeze from the southeast, and it looked as though the water was not going to be the flat, glass-like texture it was last year. I stripped down to bike shorts with woolen leg warmers, t-shirt, long sleeved nylon shirt, Sound Rowers baseball cap and open front PFD.
The first warning signal was sounded, and everyone lined up for the start. I remembered to reset the trip odometer for the GPS. Yes, you read that correctly! I finallybought a GPS! It is a Magellan SporTrak Color, and cost me an arm and a leg even after the rebate. More about that can be found on my new GPS page. I also activated the pre-programmed route for the race, so I would know if I was going the right way or not. (Yeah, right!)
There was a false start by Rainer and Adrian Storb at the next warning signal. We kidded them about imposing a 2 minute penalty, but they just shrugged it off. When the starting signal finally came they were off like a shot in their two man shell.
I was pedaling quite rapidly. How fast? I couldn't tell as the GPS was hard to read due to the reflections from the plastic bag in which it was wrapped as well as the tape used to secure it to the drive tower. Oh, well. At least the track stored by the unit would enable a replay after the race was over.
We approached Orchard Point and quickly left it behind. A couple of guys in an OC-2 were moving quite rapidly between me and the shore, but I was able to pull ahead and drop them behind.
Still, it seemed as if I just didn't quite have the same energy as in previous races. For a while I managed to keep up with Shane Baker in his Orange Crush surf ski, but he chose to go around Blake Island in the clockwise direction and I wanted to go in the other direction.
After we went our separate ways I rememberd that the GPS was still set to automatically record the track points. This was not necessarily a good thing, as I have found it to sometimes discard useful points detailing exactly where I have been. In the few seconds it took my fumbling fingers to change this to record my position every 0.01 mile a guy in a red and white OC-1 passed by. "Got a flat?" he asked with a smile. Grrr!
Those were fighting words. Immediately I poured on the power and began to close the distance separating us. His boat swerved to the right, and then to the left. Why would he do that, I wondered. Then I saw it - a floating mat of prop bane. Weeds, weeds and more weeds floating directly in my path.
Stowed alongside the cockpit was a canoe paddle for use when the prop drive should not or could not be used. Here, however, I was able to make a quick steering maneuver and head out of harm's way. Shortly thereafter I was back on course, gaining on the red OC-1's stern.
The light breeze from the south, combined with my heading directly into it made for a fairly strong, cooling wind. The tide was also pushing water against my direction of travel, so my progress was not as fast as it otherwise would have been. A couple of small waves came over the bow, splashing some water into the cockpit. Opening the speed bailer made short work of removing the water, but it still soaked my cap which had fallen to the bottom of the cockpit.
Near the shore on the west side of the island was a docking buoy. Several boats were tied up there, and their former occupants could be seen frolicking on the beach. I found myself dodging mats of weeds that appeared to pop up just about everywhere. Several times I stopped pedaling to let the Cadence coast through an infested area in the hopes that the prop woulnd't pick up anything. This, of course, drastically reduced my overall speed. However, it seemed to work, and the prop did not seem to get fouled - at least not so much that it was obviously degraded.
The red OC-1 had pretty much disappeared around the island.
The southwest corner of the island appeared about the same time as a mixed double sea kayak. This kayak was powered by an extremely strong guy (Greg Gilda) and his fiance. They didn't look like they were working all that hard then, so I asked if they could take a moment and check to see if my prop was clean. They obliged and reported that it was - and off they went.
Shortly afterwards Shane appeared from the opposite direction. Just as he came by an old World War II bomber flew overhead at a fairly low elevation. I tried taking a few shots of it with my camera, but the waterproof casing around the camera prevented me from doing a very good job. Oh, well.
Soon after Shane came a bunch of other racers who had taken the clockwise direction. The relay teams were neck-and-neck, with several other boats preceding and following them by only a short distance. A scattering of other vessels were behind, keeping close to shore or as far as several hundred yards offshore.
Since I already knew my time was not going to be all that great I chose to take a side trip closer to shore to snap a picture of someone I thought I recognized. This probably only added a couple of minutes, but that was OK by me. I think that the Gatorade I was chugging might have had something to do with my slower pace. It couldn't have been the extra drag from the weeds!
Being closer to the eastern shore I could see the bottom. Here there were very few weeds, and not very many rocks to worry about. I rounded the northeast point of the island and headed along the marina breakwater at the main entrance to Blake Island State Park and Tillicum Village. I seemed to have gained a little on Greg's kayak in the interim, but they soon skedaddled.
This last leg of the race was the worst. It was long, relatively boring out in the open water and, worst of all, I was traveling at the same speed as the tailwind. This meant I had no air cooling whatsoever. Sweat seemed to pour from my scalp, arms, legs and back. My sleeves were soaked and were next to useless for removing the stinging water that was dripping into my eyes. I ended up dragging my hands in the sea in order to get some semblance of cooling. Whew!
Several times during this long haul the drive system emitted a loud vibratory tone that would seem to come and go on its own. Pedaling faster or slower had little effect. I theorized that one of the internal bearings in the prop shaft had some sort of problem. (After the race Jeff Beres said he thought that some seaweed got stuck on the prop or shaft, throwing it slightly out of balance. With a little play in the bearings, this could be the source of the noise.)
The approach to Manchester State Park came none to soon for me. As luck would have it someone was following behind, which was enough to rejuvenate my competitive spirit. I gave it my best effort, which was really pretty puny this late in the race. The finish line was crossed at a time of 1:44:44 - about 15 minutes longer than I had originally expected.
After cruising around slowly and taking a couple more pictures I landed near the finish line area. Paul Rollinger helped me carry the boat up to the lawn area - thanks, Paul!
There was some eelgrass wrapped around the prop shaft between the skeg and the propeller, as well as some slightly larger stuff hanging from the propeller blades. This might have just been snagged at the landing, or it could have been there for quite some time. Such is life!
After changing into some dry clothes I headed over to join the lunch festivities in the large covered brick shelter. Shortly after I did so it began to rain. In fact, during lunch and the awards ceremony it just dumped buckets and buckets of water. Everyone was glad they didn't have to worry about that stuff out on the water!
Rainer and Adrian Storb finished with a time of 1:12:46, which was apparently within a minute or two of the course record. I finished in 17th place overall. The last boat in had a time of 2:39:14.
The GPS reported the race distance at almost exactly 10 miles. My time translates into an average speed of about 5.7 mph. Considering the stops and starts on the west side of the island, plus the short side trip, that overall speed was not too bad. Last year, in Bob Stuart's Lilac, I finished about 8 minutes faster. It was quite a bit easier to check the condition of the prop on that boat, however, though it still involved stopping pedaling, removing the drive unit, cleaning the prop, replacing the drive unit, etc. Eating a Krispy Kreme donut before the race probably didn't help that much last year either!
The course map above also includes a speed report from my GPS unit.
Well, I guess I won't be taking along any Gatorade in future races. It just made me thirsty for plain old water!
The complete set of photos I took during the race can be found here.