The signature race for the Sound Rowers is the Great Cross Sound Challenge. It starts at Alki Beach in west Seattle on the shores of Puget Sound, travels across the sound (as the name implies) towards Bainbridge Island, turns southward around Blakely Rock (near Blakely Harbor), heads to the buoy marking Decatur Reef, and returns across the sound to Alki. The total distance for the race is about 7.5 statute miles.
As this part of Seattle is quite popular and has limited parking facilities near the water, the race was scheduled to start at 9 AM. I got there at 7:30 AM, and still had to park nearly a block away.
Near the registration area there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty. This statue had been erected years ago by a local Boy Scout troop in keeping with the idea from the original settlers in this area; i.e., this place would be New York Alki, or New York by and by. Since New York had a Statue of Liberty, so would Alki.
Registration was set up near the beach house. This year the beach house was being remodeled, so the entire building was fenced off. I guess there would be no showers available this year!
Since I had preregistered my boat number and bag of race goodies were merely waiting for me to pick up. The bag contained a nice T shirt imprinted with this year's race logo, some munchies, coupons for discounts on sports clothing and several issues of a local sports newspaper. I returned to my car and put all the goodies inside. Flagging down a passing racer who was carrying his 45 pound kayak on his shoulder, we got my somewhat heavier Cadence down from the roof of my car and onto its dolly.
After loading the boat up with safety gear, seat cushions, water bottles, etc., I dragged it down to a staging area near the registration booth. This area was filling up fast with all sorts of rowing shells, kayaks and canoes. Someone had even brought a trailer loaded with rowing shells and parked it on the sandy brown grass nearby.
The skies were thick with clouds, though it appeared from time to time that the sun just might make an appearance. As far as I was concerned, however, racing under overcast skies with temperatures in the mid 60's was perfect. Even the winds were fairly nonexistent, though there was a light breeze coming from the south which is often an indicator of inclement weather heading this way. Regardless, I started removing my overgarments and putting on sunscreen.
Jeff Knakal, the race director, held the orientation meeting fairly promptly at 8:30 AM. Where we were located on the embankment above Alki Beach we could just barely make out the two turns we were supposed to make. It would be kind of difficult to see the precise locations from water level. Of course, for those of us with experience in the race from previous years and who could remember which distant landmark to head toward it would not be a problem.
After the meeting I left my good camera with Beverly in the hopes that she would be able to use it for shots of the racers as they came across the finish line. I did not want to take it with me as the waterproof housing for it had been sent back to the factory for replacement. In its place I had my old 3 megapixel camera and home-made housing that had served me so well previously. At least we would have photos from the race!
With the help of Paul the Cadence was carried over the embankment, down the high tide-covered beach and into the cold waters of Puget Sound. I got in and pedaled some distance from shore before stopping to dry my feet and put on my bike shoes.
While cruising around to take shots of all the racers as they warmed up I came across the same OC-6 that had been at the Elk River Challenge a few weeks earlier. Aha! If I got in position near these guys perhaps I could draft in their wake and have a nice, fast crossing!
During the warmup phase I quickly remembered all the reasons I liked the new camera better. While the new one is a bit heavier, it has a manual zoom lens, the LCD screen is legible through the plastic, it has a very fast cycle time between shots, and it lasts much, much longer on a set of batteries. I wish the Ewa factory would replace the "holey" housing soon!
The signal to go to the starting line was given, and I made sure that I was right beside the OC-6. The signal for the start of the race was delayed, however. Deb was a bit late getting into the water and she needed to row into position at the far end of the line. Because of the delay the southerly breeze started wreaking havoc on the boats as they began drifting into one another. Oh, well. What's a few scratched hulls and paddles among friends?
Shortly thereafter the starting signal was heard. We were off!
Some 56 boats started their mad dash across the sound towards Bainbridge Island. The OC-6 accelerated quickly to 8 mph and I struggled to stay on their tail while taking photos of the race. The old camera and its translucent plastic bag wrap made it difficult to see precisely what it was pointing at or focused on, and concentrating on that made it difficult to keep as close to the OC-6 as I needed to be. To make matters worse a double kayak was attempting to draft the outrigger of the OC-6 right alongside me. This wouldn't have been so bad except water was coming off the front paddler's paddle and spraying me! So, in addition to being careful about steering, pedaling fast enough and taking photos, I had to keep removing the spray from the lens of the camera housing.
This was getting rather annoying, especially since I couldn't seem to detect any benefits from staying in the wake of the OC-6. There would be no way that I could maintain my current 8+ mph pace for the duration of the race - especially if I encountered weeds along the way.
I decided to drop back and let the double kayak take my place. Shortly afterwards I ran into some weeds and had to clear the prop. It took but two seconds and an OC-1 that had been following leaped ahead and grabbed onto the wake of the double kayak. So long, guys!
With the southerly wind pushing everything to the north I decided to make doubly sure that I was headed directly towards Blakely Rock. Most of the other racers were apparently unaware or didn't care that the wind was pushing them off course, except Shane who, surprisingly, had been behind all this time and even a bit further south than me. He slowly approached and passed, as I encountered several more floating weed patches.
A couple of other boats eventually passed as I encountered more weeds en route to the first turn, mostly rowing shells and a kayak or two. I didn't really care, so long as my GPS indicated my speed was showing approximately 6.5 to 7 mph and my heart rate monitor was indicating at least 150 bpm. If my speed dropped I could tell it was either because of weeds or because I was slacking off. Otherwise, most of the boats were just too far away to feel like real competition.
As I approached Blakely Rock I could see the boats ahead of me gave one area quite a wide berth. In fact I was beginning to wonder if they were going to go around the rock the wrong way - or skip it entirely! Aha - cheaters! I would catch them on camera, too!
They had good reason to go as they did, though at nearly the last moment they actually changed course and did go properly around the rock. There was a very large mat of weeds, logs and other debris floating just to the east of the rock.
I chose to go the southerly route, ending up very close to the rock. If this were low tide I would actually have been on the rock!
I took care to make certain that there was adequate water below my keel as I scooted around the rock. Not too many other boats tried to go as close as I did. I wonder why?
Turning towards Decatur Reef I was now heading into the wind. It felt nice and cool upon my face. However, the water was getting a bit choppy. Hey - perhaps this would slow down the other boats!
Nearing the buoy at the reef I noticed a large seal or sea lion jump off into the water. Perhaps there were a few too many small boats going by for his comfort.
A couple of kayaks and a rower were just ahead of me. We were heading into a current emanating from Rich Passage which pushed all three boats much closer toward the buoy than they had been planning. I waited for the rowing shell to make her turn and then cruised around the buoy back in the direction of Alki. At least I think it was the right direction. It was rather hard to see precisely where the beach house was from here.
As expected the wind, now at our side, and the chop made the going rather interesting. I had to exert a bit of body english to stay upright, though nothing nearly as significant as in the La Conner race of 2003. The rower who had been just ahead of me was having troubles making headway. I soon passed another rower, too.
The two kayaks were keeping fairly close together, going just about the same speed as I was. With a bit more effort, perhaps they could be caught!
Sure enough, after a few minutes the distance between us slowly shrank until I was right on their tail. That wasn't so bad. Perhaps I could maintain that effort for the remainder of the race.
After a few moments I pulled over to their left and passed, taking their pictures while doing so.
As it turned out my earlier directions were nearly flawless. Alki Beach appeared just where I thought it would. With my heart rate still in the low 150's I kept a good, steady effort pedaling through the now considerably less choppy water.
Just after passing the Akli Point lighthouse I became aware that one of the rowers I had passed was catching up. Uh, oh. I had better work harder if I was going to cross the finish line before her!
Pedaling as fast as I could, considering the earlier effort, I managed to stave her off only temporarily. She saw what I was doing and managed to find some additional speed as well. Meanwhile, the race announcer on the shore was cheering us on over a public address system.
Seeing that the way we were approaching the finish line I decided to make my crossing closer to the buoy anchored out in the water. The rower chose to head closer to shore, which should have resulted in her crossing after me. However, the race officials gave the rower the signal first, and then after what seemed an improbably long delay gave my finishing signal. Oh, well. I guess if it really meant something to me I would have done more earlier in the race!
Anyway, my time was 1:12:36, which wasn't too bad considering all the weed encounters. It was close to my record of 1:10:xx set the previous year with glassy smooth water. With the heart rate monitor indicating I was in the 130 and up range for 1:13:40, and an average rate during race of 150 bpm I guess it was a rather good workout. The GPS reported a distance of about 7.5 miles for the race.
After spending some time taking photos of other finishers, and nearly colliding with a rower who seemed to be heading directly into the beach (sorry, Steve!), I carried the Cadence back to the staging area with the help of Paul, who had helped me launch that morning.
There was plenty of time to wash down the boat, change into dry clothes and converse with the other contestants before the awards ceremony commenced. I used a garden sprayer to assist with the boat washing, and also used it to wash off my feet. Ahh, it felt good to be wearing dry socks and comfy sneakers.
Jeff Knakal presided over the awards ceremony. He presented the top male and female finishers with Windermere sponsored trophies, and the Windermere Cup to the fastest boat across the finish line (a two man shell with a time of 53:56). Many other awards were presented, based on class and place in that class.
Afterwards people stayed to talk with one another, eat at the local restaurants, or left for home.
It was a fine day for an excellent race.
Photos I took during the race can be found
here.
Other photos and videos can be found
here.
My route and statistics