A couple of weeks ago I attended the first official Sound Rowers race of the season. It starts below the Rainbow Bridge at the south end of the small touristy town of La Conner, WA, at the north end of Puget Sound.
As newly appointed photographer for the Sound Rowers, I was rather anxious to get to the race early. With plenty of time to prepare my boat I would also be able, hopefully, to take more and better pictures with the club's new Minolta A-1 digital camera. With that in mind I left early from home and headed up the freeway, my wine-colored Cadence pedal boat strapped to the roof of my aging Dodge Neon.
The traffic was not very heavy. I was able to travel within the tolerances permitted by the State Patrol, who seemed to be out in force.
Even with an early departure, however, I barely arrived at the race before the pre-race meeting was called. Perhaps I encountered a time warp en route!
Hurriedly I registered and prepared for the race. Fortunately for me Traci Cole's husband assisted with taking the boat from the car top carrier, and Paul Rollinger assisted with returning the boat dolly to my car. Thanks, guys!
Paul was not going to race, so I asked if he was interested in using my 8mm camcorder to shoot some videos. He was, so after giving him some instructions as to the locations of the "on", "off", "record" and "zoom" functions, he went off and took videos of portions of the race. (small)
Unlike last year, where the weather was quite challenging, this year the temperatures were in the low 40's in the shade, clear and sunny. There was no appreciable wind. It promised to be a beautiful day.
With the assistance from Traci's husband and from Paul, I was able to quickly get onto the water and start taking pictures.
The new camera came with a flexible waterproof casing. Made by Ewa Marine and designed for a standard manual focus SLR style of camera, this casing (a model U-FX) had all the appearances of a silvery gray plastic bib hung from my neck by a yellow and black striped band. There is an optical glass port in the front for the camera lens and a vinyl glove on the right side for access to the camera controls. Here are some photos of the two Ewa casings I tried with this camera.
With the chilly air temperatures, however, the vinyl was rather stiff and inflexible. It took several minutes with my hand inserted into the glove before it loosened enough to allow the camera to be properly operated.
One thing that was really cool with this new setup was that the zoom is manually operated. It is possible to merely push and pull on the outside of the optical port of the waterproof case to zoom in and out. This is significantly faster than the motor driven zoom of my old Casio camera. Also, with the 7X zoom versus the old camera's 3X, I was able to take far more closeup shots of people in their boats without having to be right on top of them. This was going to be fun!
All sorts of folks and boats were in the race this year. There were several four man rowing dinghies, representatives from the Traditional Small Craft Association, a home made ultra lightweight canoe, a six man canoe and the usual single and double rowing shells, outrigger canoes, kayaks and surf skis.
Unlike last year there was no tidal current pushing us around at the start. Everybody pretty much got into position when the one minute signal was given, and then we were off!
The double shell manned by Rainer and Adrian Storb, which had been right next to me at the start, quickly pulled ahead. It was followed by some guys in carbon fiber HPK's who were paddling like demons. On either side were people in OC-1's and surf skis, with more rowers towards the west side of the channel. Click! Click! Click! Boy, this camera was ready to focus and snap photos almost immediately, one right after another!
I found myself pedaling like crazy, too. The GPS was reporting a speed of over 8 mph! No wonder I was breathing hard! Still, some of the other racers were slowly pulling ahead while I concentrated more on taking photos.
It was time to start doing a little more racing and less photography. With the Cadence in the wake of a double kayak I could reduce my pedaling effort and start recovering from the fast start. Soon we reached the south end of the Swinomish Channel and entered Skagit Bay, making a sharp turn to the west after rounding the rocky corner.
I was sure glad I left my woolen sweater back at the car!
For some reason most of the other boats headed south towards Goat Island. I decided to head straight west for the channel marker buoy around which we were supposed to turn. Shortly thereafter a guy in a racing shell slowly caught up. As he passed we had a nice conversation about the race, the weather, etc. Hmm, perhaps I needed to put more effort into pedaling! 6.5 mph just would not be enough!
I was still taking pictures at the rate of one or more a minute. It almost made more sense to not turn the camera off and on, though I was not sure how long the battery would last if I left it on for the duration. There were so many more photo ops!
I got behind an OC-2 for a while. It was a lovely day!
Shortly thereafter disaster struck. The LCD on the back of the camera, which is actually visible in sunlight (yay!), began showing everything as being extremely white. Hoping that it was merely some strange LCD malfunction I continued taking photos, including some of the first racers on the return leg. It was only when I pointed the camera at the dark interior of the Cadence that I could see anything at all on the display. Uh-oh...Could the camera be overheating? Could the sunlight on the black camera in the vinyl bag be creating some sort of greenhouse effect?
The water was pretty calm, so I removed the camera from the casing. It was not particularly warm to the touch. Could there be condensation on the lens? Nope. The dessicant was doing its job.
Still pedaling, though not quite at full speed, I decided to try manually setting the exposure levels. This seemed to work! At least now I could actually see images that generally appeared to be normal in the display. Whew!
I did not realize it at the time, but the next several photos had auto focus troubles as well. Middle age, having set in with a vengeance, is preventing my eyes from focusing well on objects right in front of my face. I couldn't see well enough to read the data on the LCD to quickly verify whether everything was correct. Oh, no - I can't be ready for bifocals!
Leaving the camera out of its bag I continued on with the race. I rounded the turn buoy at the same time as a guy in a kayak, and zoomed back in the direction of Goat Island. Shortly thereafter I caught up to the six man canoe, and started reeling in a couple of guys in fast sea kayaks.
Soon I came upon a man in a small white row boat. He said that he missed me in the Escapade, as he was able to go just about the same speed as that boat. I replied that while that boat is a lot of fun, it made taking pictures of the faster racers quite a bit more difficult. We bid each other adieu, and I went after some paddlers in the distance.
It was a spectacular day. The snow covered top of Mount Baker could be seen against the bright blue sky. The water was fairly flat, and the temperature was perfect for a strong workout. Ok, so sweat was pouring down my face and my clothes were soaked - that goes with the territory!
I passed the two paddlers and turned into the channel.
The channel was now a fast moving river - going the wrong way! My speed dropped to 5 mph, and then to 4. This was not good.
It seemed that if one kept close to the shore that the effects of the current would be reduced. If one was lucky, then there might even be some eddy currents available to actually help speed things along. So, rather than take the long route along the west side of the channel, I decided to hug the eastern side. This was probably a mistake, as at no time during my return to the finish line was I able to find respite from the current.
One of the guys I passed managed to catch up. We had a short conversation about the currents, and then he tried drafting. That didn't work very well, so he stayed more or less at my left rear quarter. Hmmm, the finish line is only a couple of hundred yards away, and there aren't many more photos to take. Now would be a great time to put some more energy into pedaling!
My speed increased to 5.5 mph. I thought that Jeff, the guy in the kayak, would try keeping up, and pass me at the end. Maybe he tried. All I know is that by the time I crossed the finish line he was nowhere to be seen!
Even with a wardrobe, er, camera malfunction, my time was 1:09:29. This was a couple of minutes faster than last year's time, but under much nicer conditions.
Fifteen seconds later Jeff crossed the line, followed by the 6 man canoe.
I continued taking photos of the other racers until the 512MB CF card filled up. The 2+ knot current in the channel made this rather interesting, particularly near the barge anchored just before the finish line. The water merely went under the barge, so if you got too close in a long vessel you could get stuck against the side! Oh, well. It was time to pack things up and head to the soup kitchen.
Soup and bread were provided at the town hall at the south end of downtown La Conner. There were several varieties. I chose the lentil soup, which appeared to be home made. Yum!
After quite a while the awards ceremony finally began. Part of the delay was due to the local police ticketing the cars of people who didn't pay to park in the lot for the hall. However, from what I heard later, if you were going to a function at the hall parking was supposed to be free. Hmmm, do you think the town will refund me the $3 parking fee that I paid? Probably not!
It was such a beautiful afternoon. After the ceremony I took a walk down the business main street for the first time in at least 15 years. It was quite busy with other tourists window shopping or dining at the cafes and bakeries. It was too bad the rest of my family was not there to enjoy it with me.
On the way home I took a short cut through Conway and stopped twice en route. The first time was to see a flock of large white swans in the tulip fields. The second was to observe a pair of bald eagles perched high in a tree right beside the road. Some other cars had parked nearby and a photographer had a camera on a tripod. I swear the lens on that camera must have been at least two feet long! It probably could have picked out the individual ridges on the feathers on those birds, especially considering he was no more than 40 feet from them.
What a day!
Photos I took during the race can be found here.
