Day 5 to Gerald Island
Dameon and Leigh continue to push on to the Georgia Strait. After laying up waiting for the tide to turn prior to rowing through False Narrows, Backwards AF threaded their way through Nanaimo Harbor without getting run over by ferries, float planes, or log booms. Making nearly 40 miles this day they camped on a pebble beach on Gerald Island. Backwards AF is the only human-powered vessel left in the race.
Day 4 to Wallace Island
Leigh and Dameon make an impressive run after leaving Victoria, in the lead for the first 2 hours and staying in the front quarter of the pack throughout the day, often making 5 knots. Smooth water and light winds negated some of the advantages of the sailboats. While many of the larger sail boats headed for the main channel leading to the Georgia Strait, Mursu's maneuverability allowed them to cut the corner between Prevost and North Pender Island, then up the Trincomali Channel. With the sun setting Team Backwards AF had only a handful of boats ahead of them. But as they made camp at Cabin Bay on Wallace Island the sailboats asserted themselves and pressed on. There is a video of Dameon and Leigh rowing on the R2AK website (or below).
Getting some love from R2AK!
Victoria- A Small Taste of Victory!
We arrived in Victoria! 24 miles in 4.5 hours. Very challenging water, but Mursu performed well and we always felt in control. 3-6' chop through much of it.
Happy to be in BC celebrating with sushi!
Out of 51 entries 36 made it to Victoria in time, 7 of those needing repairs.
-Dameon
Arrived at Dungeness Spit
Only 11 am and we're done for today....winds were ok this morning but picking back up now and will be close to gale force this afternoon (see weather report from R2AK's instagram below). Made it to Dungeness Spit where we'll spend the night before heading across the Strait tomorrow when the wind is supposed to die down.
The way over to Dungeness was really not bad, but there was some initial drama when we found ourselves on the wrong side of a tongue of gnarly water extending out from Point Wilson, just north of Port Townsend. We thought we could skirt around it but were prevented from doing so by the Vessel Traffic no-go zone (entering it means you are disqualified from the rest of the race). So we had to turn around and buck the increasingly strong ebb current to head back to Point Wilson. All of this time we were in 6-9' steep swells, though we stayed well out of the terrifying area - we'll call it the Tongue of Destruction - where these tall, steep swells were breaking. As we neared Point Wilson again, thinking we'd have to go back to port and wait to try again later, we found that near shore the Tongue of Destruction (aka, the Point Wilson tide rip) was nonexistent, and we were able to turn west along the shoreline and everything was fine after that.
I'm sure this is only the first of many times when local knowledge would have saved us some time....but we're excited to learn as we go. Lots of lessons already today.
A toast to Mursu...and friendship
Sometimes you are given an unexpected gift that fulfills a desire you barely knew you had...until the moment the gift arrives, and you instantly recognize it for what it is: the answer to that unspoken wish. We recently had that experience when our friend Wes presented us, in his very humble way, with the gift of Mursu - not the boat, but a hand-carved walrus to serve as both figurehead and carrying handle on the bow of our new boat. (Mursu is the Finnish word for "walrus"....see the April 21, 2019 post for a very long explanation of why we chose this outlandish name.) The serene and cheerful Mursu that Wes carved is perfect in every way...not unlike the Margalo bird that adorns Wes and his wife Willie's own rowboat...which I had secretly coveted for some time. Thank you Wes for this amazing gift.
The adventure has begun!
Well, for some of us. :-) (I love you Dameon, even if you get to begin your adventure while I finish tying up loose ends here on the homefront.) Yes, Dameon is currently en route Port Townsend, somewhere in Iowa. Pictured above is everything we'll take on the journey: food, clothes, camping gear, rowing gear, etc.
144,000 calories
....is approximately how many calories we are bringing with us to fuel our journey. This is what we would need for 20 days of rowing with no stops to re-supply.
Our strategy for food is to just bring everything we will need for the journey. Though it will make the boat heavier, it will save a lot of time not to have to make detours into towns to seek out grocery stores, shop, unpackage, and repack. And our experience with rowing NORPPA fully loaded is that she handles quite well and we don't feel the added weight as much of hindrance.
The daily menu is something like this:
Breakfast: home-mixed muesli soaked overnight (rolled oats, rye flakes, coconut, almonds, dried cranberries, dried currants, dates, powdered whole milk). 1 cup of this for Leigh, 1/2 cup plus a shake for Dameon. Also 1/2 cup each of freeze dried berries.
During the day: beef jerky or nuts, Cliff bars, gummies, dried fruit, powdered energy drink mix. Breaking every 45 minutes for a quick intake of food and water - 100 calories each time (on average...sometimes more, sometimes less).
Dinner: either ramen with freeze-dried veggies and meat added, couscous with freeze-dried veggies and meat added, or a ready-made backpacking meal. Plus recovery shake and a Riesen chocoloate candy.
Some R2AK quick stats
44 teams: 30 sail boats, 7 human-powered, and 7 hybrid (human powered with a sail) . To be clear, these are our own distinctions - the race has no formal classes. We are in the group of human-powered boats with no sail, along with 2 other rowboats, 2 kayaks, and 2 stand-up paddleboards.
750 miles - starting in Port Townsend, WA & ending in Ketchikan, AK
15 knots - the maximum current through Seymour Narrows
3-5 knots - the amount of current that is present in several areas along the route
4.5 knots - our average speed over the course of a full day of rowing
6 knots - our (estimated) top speed in MURSU if rowing all out
21'4" - length of our boat MURSU
209,000 - number of strokes to get us to Ketchikan (estimated)
145 hours - number of hours of rowing to get us to Ketchikan (estimated)
2 checkpoints - for the entire 750-mile route. Seymour Narrows & Bella Bella.
2 attacking bears - the number we can deter with the amount of bear spray we are bringing
Thank you!
A huge thank you to our first several donors, who have collectively sent us 40 miles across the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the qualifying leg of the race! (These numbers according to our estimate that every mile of the 750-mile race will cost about $7.) Thank you so much for helping us turn this dream into a reality.
41 days till we are setting off across the Strait of Juan de Fuca for that first 40 miles. If you'd like to help us make the next leg, please click here to go to our GoFundMe page. And thank you! Anything we raise in excess of our goal will be donated to ComeBoating!
Bio posted!
Our bio was just posted on the R2AK website - click here! We've been anticipating this day (probably way too eagerly) because we love reading the ridiculous bios the R2AK organizers "lovingly" craft for each team....and because we're dorks. Caution, reading them is oddly addictive.