Deception Pass Dash 2008

Today the Deception Pass Dash was held. The roughly 7 mile long course starts at Bowen Bay, in Washington, goes around Deception Island to the west of Deception Pass, heads through Deception Pass to go around Strawberry Island, and returns through Canoe Pass to head back around the first island and then to the start.

There was a pretty strong SW wind (15+ mph, gusting to 26, so flags spread almost completely horizontal), which turned this into a rather interesting event.


Approximately 132 boats were there at the start, including one Cadence pedal boat.


Having never been on the water here before, other than in a big whale watching vessel a couple of years earlier, I figured that it would be a good idea to have the outriggers on the boat. While we were supposed to be going through the pass around slack, the area was still known to have lots of waves and eddies. In addition, since this area was new to me I decided to make this more of a photo excursion than a serious race.


The start was rather chaotic with all the boats trying to keep station at the starting line in the not quite headwind. The 1 to 2 foot chop in the bay also splashed me and my camera lens. This resulted in most of the pictures I took to be of poor quality.


As we headed out to the island the waves quickly grew higher, and most of the paddled boats started falling behind. Piercing wave after wave I needed to open the speed bailer, or suffer with a flooded cockpit.

Interestingly enough, the prop on the Cadence didn't aerate very much, and I was able to keep within fairly close range of some of the really strong paddlers. My heart rate was in the upper 150's, and the speed was over 6 mph.

Since I was doing pretty well relative to the paddlers, and since the camera was being continually spattered by spray, I decided I might as well put forth a little more effort and actually do a bit of racing after all.


Going around Deception Island I encountered a tandem surf ski that had capsized, but by the time I reached them they were back under way.




Shortly after that I ran into a large kelp bed. After clunking into one with the prop I paddled through the rest of the bed into clear water. The prop was able to spin, and off I went towards Deception Pass with the wind at my back.

Heading east I was able to surf on quite a few of the waves. The outriggers worked very well in their raised position, though every so often they would dig into the water and rotate on their axis into the lower position. I just flipped them back up and kept on pedaling. While I could have secured the outriggers into place with their integrated spring pins I didn't bother. There might have been a situation where I would want to be able to put them down and it might have been more of an effort to so do. (I can't think of any good reason right now. Sigh.)



Heading downwind I was able to catch a couple of outrigger canoes and another surf ski, but as the water grew calmer in the pass they stuck close to the shore. I stayed a little further out into the channel, but realized that the ebb tide must have begun. My pace was only 4.2 mph as I pedaled under the bridge at the pass, perhaps 200 feet above me. It was also possible that my prop still had some kelp or eel grass fouling it, but I didn't want to stop and clean it.


Not much further we reached Strawberry Island. There was a big kelp bed on the southern and eastern side, so I steered clear - until I noticed a kayaker taking a line very close to shore in an area that seemed kelp-free.

A paddler I had been following headed towards the shore through an area that seemed clear, and I followed. It was great - no problems were encountered and the route was several hundred feet shorter than the "great circle" route.



Heading back towards Canoe Pass (the pass on the north side of Pass Island), the wind started rising. Again the paddlers dropped behind, due to their more significant windage. I stopped for a moment and cleared the prop, seeing bits of eel grass float by in the reverse prop wash.



Canoe Pass was much like a narrow canyon, but at the west end I saw some really large standing waves as the ebb flow met the Sound. Some of these waves were 5 or 6 feet in height. I decided to try going around the waves rather than through them, which was what I had inadvertently been doing by concentrating on photography rather than navigation. Outriggers really work!



Heading into the waves was getting a bit tiresome, and with the temperature in the upper 40's or low 50's I was even starting to get a little cool. Getting plastered by waves (not spray - full-on waves) tended to reduce my body heat a bit, even though I was wearing Gore-tex insulated winter cycling tights, two layers of wicking shirts under a thick PFD covered with a large windbreaker, and thick wicking socks on my sandaled feet. I really hoped that we merely headed back to Bowen Bay after Canoe Pass.

Unfortunately, however, the guys ahead kept heading west towards that Deception Island. I kept pedaling, and even managed to catch up to them on the other side of the kelp patch.



The other guys took a course that kept them far away from the rocks and breaking waves on the west side of the island. They were near a couple of safety boats that had their lights flashing for some reason, probably picking up some defunct paddlers. I took a course a bit closer to shore, but with enough of a margin that the side wind and waves wouldn't force me against the rocks.

Rounding the island I was again able to surf downwind, though not quite as well as before. I was getting a bit tired, or perhaps there were some weeds on the prop. Clearing the prop seemed to help a bit, and then I had to dodge a field of kelp that had grown up in the bay between the start of the race and now. I hate it when that happens.



Just before the finish a pink double sea kayak managed to slip ahead, putting me in 23rd place overall out of a field of 92 or so boats that completed the race. My time was 70:41, which surprisingly enough was about what I thought I'd do before encountering the waves and wind.



For me this race was a blast! It would have been suicide without the outriggers, which pretty much let me do whatever I wanted with the camera - like wipe off the lens time and time again. Many strong surf ski paddlers and kayakers did not finish the race due to the waves, wind and kelp.


After beaching I had a great lunch of home-made vegetable soup, garden burger with roasted chilis, chips, etc., provided by the organizers. The raffle was fantastic, and everyone who stayed got some sort of prize. I got a nice, warm paddling vest.

Woo hoo!

After the race I heard that the Sheriff's safety boat encountered waves of up to 8 feet as the currents in the Pass grew to full strength. Wow!

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My stats


More Stats


My photos can be found here.

High Tech Racing

A couple of months ago I made it easy for my family to figure out what I wanted for a birthday present by picking up a Garmin Forerunner 305. This large wrist watch sized GPS came with a heart rate monitor so I could finally keep track of my engine's performance at each point of an outing rather than just the highs, lows and averages that my Polar HRM did.

Since this particular model of equipment has had a checkered history of water proofness and durability, I chose to try it out on a few boat races first before getting the cadence sensor to go along with it.

Well, the first race I used it was the Manchester Race. I had mechanical (boat) and mental (perceptual) difficulties. The drive tower had become loose and I had to return to the start to pick up a wrench to tighten the bolts securing it to the hull. By then, of course, everyone else had gone far from the starting line and I was racing alone. Oh, yeah - I guess I should check how my fancy wrist dangly thing was doing. Oops! It wasn't told to start timing until about a third of the way into the race. Just because the thing was showing speeds and heart rates doesn't mean it actually was recording anything!

The next race I had the cadence sensor installed. Well, the unit is actually a combination wheel sensor and cadence sensor. Of _course_ I could use the wheel sensor, which has a nice adjustable arm to detect the RPM's of the crank, right?

Well, no, as I discovered after the race was over. The wheel sensor is just for wheels and the cadence sensor is the only device that will actually be used for recording RPM's at any point during an event.

Ok, so the before the third race I went through a test run on a lake, making sure that the heart rate was being detected and the cadence was being measured. This was very cool!

On the day of the third race (Round Shaw Row) everything was ready. I had my mapping GPS on and ready in the PFD pocket, the Forerunner was on the wrist and had found all the satellites, and the cadence sensor was perfectly adjusted. The air horn signal for the start of the race was sounded and, after pressing the Start button on the wrist GPS I was off and pedaling.

About 9 miles into the race I was tired of looking at the fields displayed on the wrist GPS, which had a minutes per mile display (for running) and not a miles per hour display. Trying to change the display settings I managed to accidentally tell the unit I was now doing a different sport in a multisport event and the darn thing started everything all over. Rats!

Eventually I found the right way to change the data field display and got the desired MPH, heart rate, distance traveled and cadence fields all visible at the same time, and went on to finish the race.

Of course, the handy dandy software that comes with the Forerunner just couldn't be convinced that the two activities were really just two parts of the same race. No - they absolutely had to be two completely different events because I pressed the wrong button in the middle of an oxygen deprived state of mind, and when I could actually think clearly and calmly at the computer was no time to change my mind!

I also couldn't see why Garmin's software decided that I somehow traveled 6 extra miles in the blink of an eye between the two events. The shareware SportTracks software did a much better job of joining the "two events", without padding the distance whatsoever.

Oh, well. I'll post stats and graphs some day when I get my act together with those tools. Meanwhile, the photos at the Sound Rowers web site will just have to do.

Dan Harris Challenge

This race was one that would probably have been on the Sound Rowers schedule, but didn't make it. Hopefully, they will be on the schedule next year.


Anyway, the weather was perfect: calm, light overcast and cool temperatures. The launch was very nice, too: a coarse sandy beach, protected from most waves and not very far from the staging area.

There were quite a few paddlers, rowers, but only one pedal boat at the start of the race.

I was trying the outriggers in a new configuration on the Cadence. The mounts where they connect with the hull have been angled slightly upward with the intention that the floats would be just above the water when the boat was occupied and perfectly balanced.

Unfortunately, the angle was not quite enough. The floats were still in the water, though not by more than perhaps half an inch or so of depth. It was a definite improvement as the drag was reduced, but it was still present.



After cruising around the boats at the starting line taking photos I found a spot near a couple of guys in a Merry Wherry and waited for the signal to start the race.

In the distance I heard a countdown, and then we were off!

With the outriggers deployed the Cadence did not have the acceleration nor the high cruising speed it otherwise has. I was working hard to keep up with an OC-1 and the Merry Wherry as we traveled en route to the first turn, but eventually I decided that I would have to bite the bullet and remove the outriggers if I wanted to be competitive. With the flat seas and no wind there was no need to have them deployed.



After rounding the buoy I tried pedaling while pressing on the release button and pulling out the aka (support tube), but it took a bit of effort before the right one finally was removed. I had to stop to remove the left one, and after a short time of pedaling along with them held across my lap decided that there had to be a better way.

I reinserted the outrigger akas back into their mounts on the hull, but with the floats up side down. This left them both several inches above the water but still available to provide stability if the boat tipped to one side or another. Hmmm, perhaps future amas could be mounted to be this high normally!

Having stopped for a while to make these modifications meant that I had fallen still further behind. Oh, well. It was time to put the pedal to the metal.

Never having been here before it was good to have other racers ahead to point out the way. Still, from what I recalled from the various maps of the race course as well as maps of the area, it seemed to me that most of the racers were heading quite a bit to the west of the land mass I thought to be Chuckanut Island, which marked the halfway point. I decided to head on a more eastward heading.



A little while later I encountered the first of the racers returning en route to the finish. The rowers tended to be on the right side, and most of the paddlers tended to be closer to shore on the left. Maybe the paddlers knew something about currents or something, or the rowers didn't want to worry about navigating around the rocks near shore. I don't know.



Eventually I reached the north end of Chuckanut Island, where I decided to go around clockwise, which was the opposite direction that the racers were heading. There were still some photo ops to be had, and meeting the racers face on was better than from their backs.




The island was rather pretty. Apparently made of sandstone, there were quite a few interesting erosional features along its eastern shore. I shot a few pictures of the sculpted rocks and sea stacks between shots of racers. It was very nice!

Rounding the south end of the island I encountered some seaweed, feeling the tug on the pedals as it wrapped around the propeller. A couple of cycles of pedaling forward and then reverse seemed to do the trick of clearing it and I was on my way again.

There were still a few kayaks heading south towards the island as I headed away from the island and towards the turn buoy. During this time I saw Todd and Lucia, two Cadence owners who apparently started the race quite late, having missed the entrance to the park several times.


I began pedaling in intervals at higher speed, followed by a more moderate cruising speed. This strategy enabled me to slowly catch up to and pass a couple of kayaks that had been about half a mile or so ahead at the island shortly after I reached the turn buoy.

There was one more kayak ahead that I hoped to catch before the finish. My legs were starting to talk to me, though, and for whatever reason I couldn't seem to go much faster than 6 to 6.5 mph. Hmmm, perhaps there were still some weeds in the drive train.

After going through a quick cleaning maneuver I continued towards the finish. The speed didn't appear to change much, so I just kept plugging away at the pedals.

The distance between me and the kayak was slowly shrinking as we passed the Washington State ferry at the shipyard, getting a new coat of paint along with other repairs. A train also passed by on its track along the shore, with it horns blaring.

Soon we could hear the air horn at the finish line signaling that other boats had completed the race. Pedal faster!


The finish line came too soon and the other boat crossed before I did. Oh, well.
With a time of 1:36:37 I finished the race. Whew - what a workout!


I pedaled around the finish line area for a few minutes taking pictures of the incoming paddlers. Eventually I returned to shore and examined the propeller for entanglements.


Sure enough, a bit of eel grass managed to get past the weed cutter and was wrapped around the prop shaft in the ball bearings. It was just enough to prevent my sprints from exceeding 6.5 mph and passing that last kayak.

Oh, well. It was time for lunch!



During the race my lovely wife and son went to the local natural foods co-op and bought some vegetarian beef hamburger, organic mushrooms and some non-dairy, non-soy chocolate cocoa nut ice cream. The burger and mushrooms were grilled by the race chef along the other, lesser race-provided burgers and came out absolutely delicious. The ice cream was also very tasty, even on a cool day such as this one.



In addition to the awards there was a drawing for various prizes, including paddles, PFD's, etc. As luck would have it, I managed to drive away with absolutely nothing but memories and photos of a good race and friendly competition.

More photos can be found
here.

Medina-Mercer 2007

The standing joke here is "What do you call the sunny, warm day preceded by two cold and wet days? Monday.".

While the US Midwest was basking in clear skies and temperatures in the upper 80's, we in the Pacific NorthWet were having a typical weekend: sunny Friday, drizzly and chilly (low 50's) Saturday, drizzly and not quite as chilly (low 60's) Sunday, and partly cloudy Monday.

Two layers of shirts, fleece lined jacket and a wind breaker were not enough to keep me warm before the race. Replacing the fleece jacket with a kayak PFD did the trick. Putting on an insulating headband and baseball cap certainly helped, too.

After registering for the race I returned to the car and prepared for the race. This involved taking the Cadence off the roof of the car and onto its dolly, loading it with water bottles, seat pads, tow rope, GPS receiver and a safety paddle. The Coroplast race number was then taped to the rear deck. I carefully walked it down the steep asphalt path to the beach where the guy in the backhoe had just finished smoothing the beach for us.

With all the construction gear and concrete forms blocking most of the access to the beach I decided to park the boat as far from the access path as possible. I couldn't be accused of blocking anyone by leaving the boat there!

As it was still a bit early and the drizzle was getting a bit heavier, I decided to return to the car. It was quite a bit warmer and drier inside, and it gave me a chance to put the camera in its waterproof case in preparation for the race. It also seemed to be time to switch from sneakers to sandals, as there were very few dry places around the registration shelter where I could conceivably stash my belongings.

About 10 or 15 minutes later the rain subsided. I got out and took more photos of other folks preparing for the event, most of whom were bundled in warm clothing, hats and jackets. Some even wore mittens or gloves.

The pre-race meeting was held soon after my return. Rainer Storb, the race director, told us about the two courses, the long and the short. They both start at the same place and time and head the same direction - south, towards Mercer Island and the East Channel Bridge. The short course turns back after crossing under the bridge while the long course continues down the East Channel, rounds the bottom of Mercer Island and heads back to Medina Beach park by way of the west side of Mercer Island.

For today's race we had the assistance of the Medina Police Marine Unit as well as a private volunteer safety boat. Of course, we were expected to provide assistance to other racers if they were in trouble and if we could help in any way.

During the meeting another Cadence pedal boat arrived, this one owned by Todd. He parked it alongside mine and quickly got registered.

I asked Todd which race he had intended to do, as I intended to the other one. You see, this would mean that we both could get first place ribbons so long as we finished our respective races. When he replied "The long one" I was pretty happy. Given how chilly it was and how I was feeling about the weather I really did not feel like pedaling the long one.

People started launching their boats, stepping into the cool water and clambering aboard as quickly as possible. The little breakwater did a pretty good job of reducing the chop, so launching and boarding was easy to manage. The water also got reasonably deep close to shore, so I was able to have the bow of the Cadence on the sand, the stern out in the water, and not have to step too far into the water to get into the cockpit.

While still beached I got in the boat, sat down, dried my feet with the socks, and put on the sock and sandals.

Backing away under pedal power worked out pretty well, too. I was able to turn around between some of the other boats and head out into the lake.

There was still a bit of a drizzle and a strong breeze from the south. This kicked up the water a bit and also coated the optical port on the camera case. It was good I carried along a couple of cloth handkerchiefs with which to dry it!

Quite a few people seemed to be troubled one way or another by the conditions. Still, no one seemed to capsize during the warmups, and the two safety boats kept close by in case any problems occurred.

I noticed that turning around in the wind was a little more difficult than usual. Deciding that the problem was due to the sail effect of the race number on the stern of my boat I had some guys in another boat remove the number and stow it flat on the rear hatch. Thanks, guys!

While warming up I heard the 5 minute and 1 minute signals. All too soon the starting signal was heard and I was about 100 feet behind the starting line. Oh, well. At least I'd get some shots of the field as they departed!

I started pedaling at a moderate pace, resigned to the fact that I'd be well behind most of the other racers.

A funny thing happened. I was gaining on just about the entire field.

It turned out that the strong headwind and the chop was slowing down everybody else. With a little additional effort I was able to catch up to the field and motor past almost all the other competitors!

As far as I could tell through the droplet covered bezel the GPS was reporting a speed of around 6.5 mph.

This was especially true of the rowers. Their oars kept catching "crabs" as they hit the waves, and I was able to keep up with rowers that would normally be far out in front. Even some of the OC-1's and OC-2's had problems as during the recovery stroke their paddles would hit the oncoming wave tops if they didn't raise them high enough.

Hurray for propellers!

I kept pace with Rob, one of the normally fast rowers, for quite a distance. He took a slight break at one point, whereupon I scolded him for slowing down. I went around his boat and continued onward towards the bridge.

A strong paddler in a surf ski was keeping pace to my left, while two strong paddlers in an OC-2 slowly began catching up on my right. Their periodic shouts signaling they were switching sides on which to paddle could be heard clearly above everything else.

I timed a similar shout as a joke. Steve, one of the OC-2 paddlers, thought it was pretty funny and was wondering if I was trying to confuse them. Yes, I was!


The closer we approached the bridge the quieter the wind and waves became. The propeller drive advantage was being lost. The normally faster boats started performing "normally"; i.e., they started pulling ahead. If there was any good news it was that the drizzle had by this time mostly stopped. I was getting warm enough that I actually had to take off my hat and open up my wind breaker.


Another rower managed to catch up and pass me just before reaching the bridge. Meanwhile, I took a few shots of the leading racers returning from the bridge on the short course.

I began to wonder if Todd was actually going to go ahead and do the long course. The conditions further ahead looked pretty easy; perhaps he would continue on after all.

I rounded the four pylons of one of the bridge piers and headed back towards the start. It was amazing how far ahead of the rest of the field we had gotten.

Rather than take a bee line back to the start I decided to try to get fairly close to the incoming racers for some photo ops. This worked out fairly well, though I'm sure it slowed me down a little. However, with the wind at my back I was heating up quite a bit. Going a little slower meant I could feel more of a breeze. Ahhhh!

Unfortunately, however, going slower would also mean that other folks would eventually catch and pass. I continued pedaling faster, with the GPS reporting a speed of about 7 mph.

Todd appeared at about the middle of the pack. He seemed to be pedaling strongly and was still planning to head around the island on the long course. Go Todd!

The GPS was reporting my speed as a bit slower than I expected for the amount of effort. I paused a couple of times, pedaling backward and forward in an effort to dislodge any milfoil that might have accumulated. It was hard to say if there actually was an improvement, or whether I was merely getting tired.

Heading further away from the bridge the wind and waves started picking up, as expected. I began pedaling a little faster. This enabled the Cadence to go faster than the waves were moving and eliminated any surfing effects.

About half a mile from the finish I noticed a rower that had slowly and slightly crept up close to my position. Oh, no! I wasn't going to let him catch me!

I pedaled harder, trying to make nice circles with my pedals.

It seemed to work. The boat appeared to be cutting faster through the waves and the rower seemed to be dropping behind.

At long last I reached the breakwater and heard the horn signaling my race was over, with a time of 1:01:55 and 8th place overall. Not bad, but it didn't break my record of 56:23. Of course, that was in smooth conditions with far fewer photos taken.

About 20 seconds later the rower crossed the line.

I circled back and took more photos of some of the incoming racers. It didn't take too long before the wind cooled me off, perhaps a bit too much. It was time to return to shore.

I raced back, passing another boat as he crossed the finish line. Woohoo!

Back on shore I wheeled the Cadence on its dolly most of the way back up the path towards the car. I left it there, returned to the car and changed into dry clothing. That felt much better!


In honor of the Medina-Mercer Sausage Pull name a lunch of freshly grilled fine German sausages was offered. I picked out a tasty bratwurst, some sauerkraut and ketchup and consumed it hungrily. Yum!

By this time the weather had lightened considerably. The drizzle was long gone and every so often the sun would break through the cloud cover. The wind was still fairly strong and chilly, but nylon pants over woolen leg warmers, two layers of jackets, an insulating head band and baseball cap kept me nice and warm.

Many of the short course racers decided to head out rather than wait in the cold for the long race to complete. The rest of us had pleasant conversation and watched for boats as they arrived one by one from across the lake.

There was some excitement when two boats arrived neck and neck. Though they tried mightily, the two man boat finished just behind the one man surf ski.


As the crowd dwindled further it was decided to hold the awards ceremony, even though the last of the racers had yet to arrive.

I found out that another racer started 30 minutes late and was given his own time. He ended up in 8th place, pushing everyone else (me included) down a notch. This didn't sit too well with a number of other racers, as it was felt that the conditions might have been easier later in the morning. I suspect that this might be a topic for the club's annual meeting in December.

Shortly after the awards ceremony was over I walked back to the fence along the shore. In the distance one could see the Medina Police boat escorting a racer from Mercer Island. After much squinting through binoculars it was determined that it was Todd, finishing the course under his own power. Go Todd!

After Todd neared the finish the police boat left to find another boat to escort.

I helped Todd get his boat from the water, pointed him in the direction of the hot food and scored the last of the soft drinks for him. He was a little late and had some family obligations to rush off to. Congratulations on finishing!

Even with the cold and rain it was a fun event. Thanks, Rainer and all the volunteers!