My wine colored Cadence is now on the opposite side of the country. So long, faithful vessel!
In its place and on its maiden voyage for the Sound Rowers Manchester race was a brand new blue boat with a white deck and red trim. This would also be my first test of the new aero strut with its weed cutting blade.
I car pooled with Deb and Paul, hauling their kayak alongside the Cadence on the roof of my car. This managed to cut the cost of taking the ferry in half and I had pleasant company as well. Thank goodness the car and boats managed to make it under the 7 foot 6 inch height restriction, otherwise we would have ended up paying quite a bit more.
As we waited in line for the ferry to arrive we met a newcomer to the Sound Rowers races. Vadim, a paraplegic from Russia, was going to try racing his kayak. He manages to load and unload his kayak from the roof of his car by himself, and is able to launch and retrieve his kayak by himself, too! Simply amazing - and definitely proves that where there is a will there is a way.
The ferry ride over to Southworth from West Seattle was uneventful. The water was calm, the sky was mostly clear and blue, and Mount Rainier could be seen in the distant haze to the south. I spent most of the trip talking to Steve Bennett, who runs the Bainbridge Island Marathon boat race. Apparently this was going to be his first race in about a year and a half. He and I both agreed that we would be happy with times under two hours for this 10 mile race, though we both would be much happier with times closer to 1:40.
Manchester State Park was pretty quiet upon our arrival at about 8:30 AM. There was a line of cars at the entrance with their drivers filling out the parking permit envelopes, stuffing in the $5 fee payments, and depositing them in the steel box near the gate. I did likewise, and drove to find a parking spot near the beach.
The race registration and staging area was at the picnic area just above the beach. People were carrying their vessels down to the grass lawn and setting them on the ground or onto stands they had brought with them. I used the beaching dolly and a seat pad for the Cadence. After all, the fewer scratches on the hull the faster it would be!
Unlike other races, today several families were in attendance. While one member of the family went out racing, the others would stay behind and play. Now if only I could convince my family to come along more than once a year...
It wasn't long before Bela, the race organizer, held the pre-race meeting. Everyone gathered around and listened intently as he described the course.
We were to warm up in the water right below the picnic area, and wait until Bela tooted his air horn. When he tooted a second time the race would begin. We were to head east to the end of Rich Passage, and then head southeast going around Blake Island. It was up to us to determine which way around Blake was the fastest. After rounding Blake Island we were to return to the starting/finish line and lunch on home made soup, chowder, baked goodies and fruit.
After the meeting I swapped the memory card in my camera for an empty one, and put the camera in its waterproof pouch. With the help of Paul the Cadence was carried down into the water. With the minus low tide the water was far away from the normal shoreline, and we had to walk quite a way through really mucky, weedy gunk just to reach the edge. Once we were at the water we still had to walk out quite a ways to get to a depth of a foot. With all the weeds and eelgrass this was certainly going to be a good test of the weed cutting blade!
I got into the boat. With my somewhat mucky feet (in water shoes) hanging over the sides I paddled my way out into deeper water. There I rinsed off my feet, dried them with my socks and put on my bike shoes. There! Now I'm ready to rock and roll!
People were warming up throughout the area, or just sitting there waiting for the signals. I took a number of shots of the contestants, some of whom hammed it up (Hi Mom!). Eventually the first signal was heard, and everyone lined up.
There was a fairly strong current flowing through Rich Passage. Several boats, mine included, kept drifting past the starting line. There were a few catcalls from some of the racers chiding me for drifting past the line, too. Thank goodness for reverse!
It seemed like forever, but the starting signal was finally given. We were off!
The Cadence accelerated smartly through the water. My initial concerns regarding using a larger diameter propeller than I had been using on the wine colored boat dissipated rapidly. This boat could move! With the GPS reading between 8 and 10 mph, and switching scales from 0-10 mph to 0-60 it appeared that a new pedal boat record could be set today.
Ahead and towards the middle of the channel were most of the rowing shells. Traveling closer to the south shore were most of the kayaks and outrigger canoes. I chose to follow a fast moving OC-1 for a while in order to conserve energy. Shortly afterwards, however, he began veering off. His rudder had broken! He decided to turn around and head back. (He re-entered the race without his rudder, and still managed to have an excellent time.)
A couple of hundred feet ahead I saw Shane, a strong paddler. If I could reach him he could pull me along just as he did at Commencement Bay. Let's go for it!
Wait a minute - what's that green stuff floating in the water? Oh, oh - weeds!
Sure enough, a barrier of weeds presented itself in my path. Crossing through them I could instantly tell that they were fouling my propeller as it became harder to pedal. Pedaling backward until the Cadence stopped, and then forward cleared them off completely. Unfortunately, it also cost me some time and nearly a collision with a boat that had been following me. Yikes! Sorry about that!
They continued on their way, and I tried following them. Unfortunately, I encountered another couple of weed banks and soon dropped behind.
With the forward and backward pressure on the propeller shaft I felt a clunk occurring. Uh, oh. That clunk could only mean that one or two of the set screws holding the couplings must not have been fully tightened. Hopefully it wouldn't get worse!
My speed was now in the 7 to 8 mph range. Shane and company were off in the distance, somewhere in or beyond the flotilla of boats anchored along the west side of Blake Island. I had never seen so many boats here before. I'm sure the fact that the weather has been hot and sunny for a week with forecasts for more of the same had absolutely nothing to do with it. Still, it was pretty peaceful even with people playing on the nearby sandy beaches.
Shortly after rounding the southwest corner of the island the first of the boats going in the opposite direction passed. They had the benefit of the tidal currents; we had the detriment. I guess it would have been better going the other way after all! I waved to Rainer and Adrian, but they didn't notice.
Steve Bennett managed to catch up to me. How did he do that? Is there possibly more friction in my drive train? I'll have to check it out later. Anyway, he and I pretty much kept pace around the shallow south east corner of the island, where we dodged bull kelp and tried to escape the effects of the current as best we could. My GPS was showing a speed of around 6 mph.
About this time I noticed that the camera bag and lens were fogging. Apparently the silicone dessicants were overwhelmed. Sigh. There was nothing that could be done except to remove the camera from the bag and hope it would not get wet.
As I took it out of the bag I noticed the camera was rather warm. Hmm, that could explain why the LCD viewfinder seemed to display a rather strange version of what my eyes saw. The beast was overheating. Of course, the fact that it was sitting in full sunlight with not much in the way of a breeze cooling it might have had something to do with the problem.
Paul (in the rowing shell) and Steve slowly pulled away as we headed towards the north east corner of the island. I took more photos of clockwise racers and tried keeping closer to shore to reduce the effects of the current. It didn't seem to help.
Of the two water bottles on board one was now empty. The bottle of fruit juice I picked up from Paul & Deb's place was also depleted. It was getting pretty warm out there!
As a going away gesture both Paul and Steve tarried long enough to ask if I knew which way they should go to head back to the finish line. Rather than steer them in the wrong direction (ha!) I told them to head towards the rightmost cloud on the western horizon. It was aligned right above the park. They thanked me and disappeared into the distance.
I ran into yet another bank of weeds and applied my normal backward and forward pedaling technique. This time, however, the weed cutting blade began making sounds as though it was cutting into the hub of the propeller. Normally, this would be OK if this was a brand new propeller just being used for the first time. However, in this case it meant that the prop shaft had loosened enough that the propeller hub was moving against the prop strut. Uh, oh - Would the shaft remain tight enough to let me pedal back to the finish? Only time would tell.
The pedaling resistance increased substantially. The best speed I could make was only about 4-1/2 mph. With the lack of wind I found myself dripping with sweat. In addition, the toes of my right foot were starting to hurt significantly. I had to stop, take off my shoe and sock, and put them back on. Wardrobe malfunction, anyone?
About midway into the crossing from Blake to the western shore a guy in a brightly colored HPK caught up and slowly passed. We exchanged greetings and I snapped a couple of photos.
A while later I noticed a medium sized cabin cruiser moving at fairly high speed in a direction that would soon have the two of us colliding. He seemed to take no heed of my presence, so I decided to just stop to wait and let him pass. He did so, coming within about 50 or 60 feet, and his wake caused my boat to bob up and down a couple of feet. I guess this guy just doesn't give way for man powered vessels!
In the distance I could see some of the clockwise direction racers traveling quite a bit closer to shore near the town of Manchester. I entertained thoughts of catching up to them, but the resistance from the drive train was just not going to let me do it. Oh, well. I would just have to keep plugging away.
The guy in the HPK could be seen about a quarter of a mile ahead. He was turning to the north in order to cut across the wake of another boat as well as that of the Bremerton-Seattle ferry that was leaving Rich Passage. I took those waves broadside rather than have the bow splash through them. Ok, so it required a bit of a balancing act; still, it worked with nary a drop of water in the cockpit or on the unprotected camera.
I decided to try to escape some of the current still emanating from Rich Passage by getting closer to the western shore. This enabled me to gain a bit on the HPK, and by the time he crossed the finish line I was not far behind.
With a time of 1:56 I finally crossed the finish line. Deb was out in the water in a Maas Aero borrowed from Jeff Knakal. I congratulated her on beating me. She was quite surprised to have done so, especially considering she had not rowed in over a month. These things happen!
The tide was even lower than it was at the start of the race. The walk from the water's edge to terra firma was about twice as long, and even muckier than the walk out that morning. I decided to beach the Cadence and get the dolly to wheel the vessel back to the picnic area.
The fat wheels of the dolly worked quite well in the muck. They worked even better with Paul pushing on the stern, and he helped push it up the rocky bank to the lawn. Thanks a million, Paul!
Most of the racers were sitting in the shade, chatting and eating the delectable home made sausage soup and white clam chowder, or the brownies, cookies, pretzels and fresh fruit, or drinking the various cold soft drinks or other beverages. There was plenty to eat, even for late arrivals such as myself.
I had a couple of bowls of soup and a plateful of fruit and cookies, and a home made frosted cupcake. Yum!
After a while the awards ceremony was held. Bela presented torch cut metal figures of a kayaker to each first place finisher. While they are a little rough around the edges they are still very nice. Thank you for the personal touch, Bela!
As it turned out, a record time for the course was set by Rainer and Adrian Storb in their double rowing shell. They finished in 1:08:09, covering the 10 mile course at an average speed of 8.8 mph. Way to go!
We stuck around to the end, slowly loading things onto and into the car. Paul and Deb spent quite some time talking to Vadim, and tried to convince him to come to future Sound Rowers races, such as next week's Rat Island race and the Round Shaw Row.
It was a short drive back to the ferry terminal, and a short voyage to West Seattle. After dropping Deb and Paul off at Jet City Espresso I headed home.
Photos I took during the race can be found here.
Map of the course I took, along with my statistics
Detailed map of the course, unedited track