This race is organized by theRat Island Rowing Club. It takes place in the stretch of Puget Sound between Fort Worden State Park, WA, on the northern end of Port Townsend, and Rat Island, a small sandbar located just off the northern end of Indian Island across Port Townsend Bay from the southern end of town. Port Townsend is located on the furthest northeastern point of the Olympic Peninsula.
While this was the first time I had entered the Rat Island Regatta I was fairly familiar with the area due to my participation in years past in the Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race. While the GPTBKSR did not go nearly so far out in the bay it still covered much of the same area, especially around Fort Worden.
I drove up to the park about 9:45 AM, roughly an hour and a half before the scheduled start. It was a gorgeously beautiful morning, with the temperature in the low 70's and a light breeze from the north.
Quite a number of racers and their boats had already arrived, and were in various stages of preparation for the race. Many had camped overnight or stayed in nearby motels or B&B's, and didn't have to sweat getting up early to meet the ferry schedules.
I registered for the race and returned to my car. Several people offered their assistance in unloading my Cadence, as it is a rather unwieldy thing to take down from the top of a car. However, I thanked them and turned down their offers as I was going to try doing it myself with the help of the OWC dolly that I finally received late the week before.
After installing the small hard rubber wheels in the cartop carrier bunks (similar to the Thule or Yakima rack rollers for kayaks), I was able to slide the boat rearward almost half way off the car. Next, by lifting the overhung rear of the boat and continuing to pull the boat rearward and then downward the stern of boat was able to rest on the waiting dolly.
Walking back to the car I could life the bow from the cartop carrier and the move the Cadence wherever I wanted. In fact, the large diameter pneumatic tires worked extremely well on the loose beach sand and were able to negotiate the semi-buried beach logs with aplomb. This was great!
After dropping the boat off on the beach I returned to the registration area for the pre-race meeting where a discussion was being held among the officials and participants. Apparently the race was being held during an extremely low tide and Rat Island was currently no longer an island. It was felt by most of the racers present that trying to portage the isthmus would not be reasonable. So, as an alternative, it was decided to head around a green buoy, marked #3, not far from the southern tip of the former island and return.
As I had my brand new GPS pre-programmed to go around the island, I decided to modify the route to accommodate this change. It was fairly quickly done by just going to the map page, zooming and panning the map until the "green can #3" was visible, clicking on the can's icon (latitude 48 degrees 05.007 minutes N, longitude 122 degrees 44.343 minutes W) and making it a new waypoint. Editing the route was pretty simple, too. All I had to do was delete the two waypoints describing the channels at the two ends of the island and insert the can's waypoint. Technology can be so much fun. Really!
People dispersed to prepare for launching their boats. After removing my shoes I wheeled the Cadence down the nice sandy beach into the water. The stern of the Cadence was held up by the rather buoyant dolly, so I ended up walking out to it in the rather chilly water, lifting the stern out of the water and extracting the dolly. Leaving the dolly high up on the beach next to some of the racing shell stands for safe keeping, I returned to the Cadence and shoved off.
Close to shore was a patch of seaweed. Rather than pedal through it and possibly foul the propeller, I used a canoe paddle and headed out to deeper and clearer water. I dried off my feet, put on my socks and bike shoes, and warmed up a little prior to the race.
The light wind was quite a bit stronger as one got away from the relatively protected shoreline. My ventilated hat was catching too much wind, so I returned to shore and handed it to Paul, who promised to put it in a safe place. My Sound Rowers baseball cap would have to do for this race.
In addition to the standard complement of rowing shells and kayaks were two four man rowing shells. These were from the local Rat Island Rowing Club. One boat had a mixed set of men and women; the other had all women. It would be interesting to see how they performed, as neither team appeared at first glance to be quite as athletic as the regulars in the Sound Rowers races.
It was a pretty fast start. Between taking pictures, many of which didn't seem to turn out very well, unfortunately, I managed to take a glance at the GPS. It was reporting speeds in the neighborhood of 8.4 mph as we reached Point Hudson. The northerly winds that seemed so strong seemed now to be nonexistent. In fact, we were traveling about the same speed. In the bright sunlight it was getting quite hot, and I now wished that I still had my other hat!
Unlike most of the other races I was able to keep several of the rowing shells in sight for quite some time. In fact, one of the rowers ahead of me flipped over. As I approached to offer my assistance the gentleman declined, rueing that now his picture would be all over the Sound Rowers newsletter.
Shortly he was back into his boat and on his way.
The field was fairly widespread, with most rowers taking an easterly course and everyone else staying a bit closer to the west side of the bay nearer to town.
As the race progressed it seemed that some of the boats in the distance far ahead were either too far east or too far west of where the GPS seemed to indicate we should be heading. Considering that these folks might not have the benefit of such navigational instruments, I just continued on the course indicated by GPS. My speed was decreasing to 7+ mph, and my water supply was diminishing. Whew!
An OC-2 was approaching from the rear, and a double rowing shell that had been out in front was returning from the still distant buoy. I was able to take their picture as they maneuvered out of each other's way. The four man shell came by - not just a bit closer!
We were getting closer to Rat Island now. However, it was difficult to see which of the three buoys I could now make out ahead was the right one to go around. The GPS pointed me to the center one, yet several of the other boats ahead were going around the others. I decided to follow the GPS.
The field was starting to bunch up now as we approached Rat Island. Several kayaks had caught up, along with some single rowing shells. It looked like the GPS was right after all as we headed to the green buoy that was quite close to the shore.
One of the rowing shells was making the turn in the direction opposite to that of the group I was in. I yelled "collision alert", and she was able to avoid any mishap.
Admittedly I was taking it a bit easier in this race than some of the others. It was a beautiful day, and I was feeling more like enjoying a somewhat slower pace. However, after rounding the buoy there were quite a few boats nearby going similar speeds. This whetted my competitive spirit somewhat, so I started pedaling harder. The fact that I now had a head wind rather than a tail wind also helped, though my speed suffered. The GPS was reporting approximately 6 mph.
About half a mile from the buoy I managed to catch and pass the OC-2. I had my sights set on a two man (man and boy, actually) fast sea kayak that had kept up with me en route to the buoy that was now not too far ahead. Their wake would enable me to rest up a bit for my next attack.
After pedaling furiously for a few minutes the kayak was caught. Shortly afterward the Keystone to Port Townsend ferry could be heard blasting its departure signal. This meant that it soon would be crossing our path!
I mentioned this to the folks in the kayak, saying that it would be in our best interest to head towards Port Townsend, as the ferry would quickly be in our way. They suggested that they might be able to get ahead of it - ha!
I pulled away and headed along a course that would give the ferry a wide berth.
Off in the distance I could see a lone rower, apparently oblivious to the ship crossing her path.
Some time later, just before reaching Port Hudson, I ran into some floating mats of seaweed. My speed dropped immediately to 4 to 4.5 mph. Using the trick of pedaling forward a few cycles, backward a few cycles and forward again seemed to release the weeds and my speed went back up to about 5 to 5.5 mph.
I asked the guys in the kayak if they could see any weeds on my prop. They said that they didn't, so onward I pedaled.
It was tougher keeping up with these guys now. I thought that it might just be due to me running out of steam. Anyway, they pulled ahead and rounded Point Hudson, which was showing signs of a local tide rip current.
The GPS was reporting that I was going only 4.5 mph now. The tide couldn't be that strong here, so I made a more concerted effort to clear the prop. Lo and behold, my speed was now back up to 6 mph! Hah! Those guys thought they could put one over on me, did they?
With renewed speed and vigor I put the pedal to the metal.
Unfortunately, so did they. They managed to keep their distance, crossing the finish line 36 and 53 seconds before me. Oh, well. With a time of 1:14:08 for 6.8 nautical miles and 10th place overall out of a field of 19 boats I was not complaining.
The fastest boat across the finish line was a double rowing shell manned by Rainer and Adrian Storb. They completed the course with a time of 59:11. They were followed by the 4 man shell with a time of 1:01:19.
Apparently this boat can be rowed by two people. However, it was configured for just one person for this event.
Some people wanted to try out each other's boats after the race. I offered the Cadence, and several people took me up on the offer. So many, in fact, that I was late to the lunch buffet!
The entree was barbecued salmon. People were supposed to bring a side dish to share, so there were several varieties of salads, dips and desserts from which to choose. The farm fresh mixed salad with edible flowers I bought at the Port Townsend market that morning had not made it out to the table so I quickly retrieved it from the lunch cooler.
The food was simply delicious!
Everyone spent a lot of time talking, eating and generally enjoying the beautiful weather. Other people could be seen playing on the beach, eating their lunches, etc. I was thinking how much fun my family would have had if they had come - but realized that they were having fun at the Cub Scout pool party and other activities that they wanted to do. C'est la vie!
Unlike other Sound Rowers races, this awards ceremony was considerably more laid back. There was some confusion as to who finished in which place, but while that was being cleared up a number of other prizes were awarded. These included "best dressed", which was given to yours truly on account of his hat, a Hawaiian hula doll for the OC-2, and others. They were quite humorous, and well received.
After the awards ceremony I walked back to my boat and hauled it up to the parking lot. There I washed off the boat and managed to place it back onto the top of car without the assistance of anyone else. Hurrah! Now, if only I could get it from my garage storage location onto my car without help, then things would be perfect. I'll have to work on that...
All in all, it was an excellent race, and a great day on which to have it.
The complete set of photos I took during the race can be found here.
The course I followed during the race and some metrics can be found here.