Rat Island Regatta
The weather for this year's race was perfect. While there were some overcast skies before the race it cleared up enough to let the sun through at the start. The water was almost warm at the nice, sandy beach of Fort Worden State Park, the seas were quite flat, the tide was high enough that the rapids over the bar at the north end of Rat Island could be pedaled, rowed or paddled over without much trouble. The current in the lagoon behind the island was not nearly as fast nor as helpful as in previous years, but it certainly beat having to portage!
As in last year's race I passed the OC-2 pair of Vern and Janet on the return stretch. I'm not sure if they start out strongly and finish slow, or if I start out slow and finish strongly. I'm inclined to think it is the latter.
One surprise I had was that I more or less caught and kept pace with Shane Baker in his OC-1. Shane is a fairly strong paddler and typically beats me, at least in his surf skis. He and I battled along the long stretch from Rat Island to the finish, where he managed to slip across the line just before me.
After the race he asked if I had been working hard on the last stretch. I replied that I was working harder than earlier, but not quite at my maximum. (That would have been a short lived anaerobic sprint.) It appeared that he had better assistance from the tidal current by taking a path further away from the shore.
Still, I managed to beat an 8 person rowing shell, only 2 minutes behind a quad that had broken the old record by 17 minutes, and still was feeling pretty strong after the finish.
I then took a short side trip to the light house at the tip of the peninsula. There I encountered the full force of the tide rushing like a river towards the Pacific. It took quite a bit of fast pedaling to make headway against that current, through some 1 and 2 foot waves. It certainly would have been a struggle in any other sort of craft!
After the race we dined on desserts and salads while waiting for the salmon and sausages to cook. These hungry folks just couldn't wait!
Thank you again, Steve Chapin, for organizing this marvelous event.
The entire set of photos can be found at the Sound Rowers site.
posted by Michael Lampi @ 7:43 PM
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