Team Northern Atlantic 2011

Today we swamped the gunning dory to see how she would handle completely full of water. This was a lot of fun, once we realized she would stay mostly on top of the water…

For all you wooden boat master craftsmen out there, this post is not for you. Move along. For all the rest of ya, who’ve not got an eye for symmetry nor detail, check out these pictures of the ‘Row the Pond’ Training Dory.

We’re putting cedar floor boards in the gunning dory, which we plan to row across the Chesapeake Bay in July as part of our preparation to row across the Northern Atlantic next year (but in a different boat, which is being built by a professional boat builder as I write).

We’ve got all the cedar floor boards cut now, and have but the sanding and screwing left to do on them. After that, all that’s left to do is to touch-up the paint once more and then we can take her out and try to sink her! We need to see how she performs totally swamped with water before we try to row her across the Chesapeake Bay. That’s one thing I did not do last year that I wish I had, so it’s definitely one milestone on the ‘project schedule’ now.

I am very fond of cedar. I think cedar floor boards in a wooden boat are a classy touch – they look and smell great. My nostrils and lungs are full of cedar dust now, hopefully to soon be replaced by the light July sea breezes of the Chesapeake Bay!

Mike and I are going sailing this weekend. If interested, watch the tracking section on our website for a near-real-time map of our location. Not much wind is forecasted for this weekend, so we might not be sailing far, but we’ll see.

Launch FineMeSPOT Map

Launch sat2twitter Map

The ocean rowing race around Great Britain has begun! This should be a really fun race to watch: men against women, mono-hull (‘Go Commando’) against multi-hull (‘Orca’). May the best team win!

http://bit.ly/9mQkU6

My Dad told me about an article in this weekend’s Parade Magazine about Tangier Island. It looks like a nice place. The thought of fresh crab makes my mouth water. Mike and I are planning a summer row cross the Bay in the gunning dory once we get her ready for two rowers. Stopping over at Tangier for a crab dinner sounds like a sweet plan.

http://www.parade.com/news/our-towns/2010/0516-an-island-refuge-remakes-itself.html

The November/December 2009 edition of WoodenBoat Magazine has a really good article on ‘Oars, Oarlocks, and Rowing’ in traditional wooden rowing boats (page 4). I love this magazine, by the way! I referred to this article when putting the rowing positions in my gunning dory. I worked on them some more this afternoon and got them mostly roughed in. The epoxy and wood need a bit more sanding, some painting, and a touch of varnish and then we should be about ready to put her on the water again. I can’t wait.

While Mike and I try to sort out our ocean rowing vessel for our transatlantic crossing next year, we will be using my Marblehead gunning dory for some open water training expeditions this summer and fall. What’s a Marblehead gunning dory, you ask? Gunning dory’s are beautiful, double-ender boats designed for duck hunting and surf launching in the Marblehead, MA region. I mostly restored a roughly ten year old gunning dory last year with the intent of her only being rowed by me. With Mike onboard as my ocean rowing partner, however, I’ve decided to modify my dory for two rowers so that we can use her for some open water training while we sort out what our ocean rowing boat will be.

This Summer, we hope to row across the Chesapeake Bay, from Reedville, VA to possibly Crisfield, Maryland. We are also hoping to participate in the Blackburn Challenge on July 17 as well as the Wye Island Regatta on September 11.

Today, we worked on fortifying the gunwales with some of my left-over white oak so we can put two additional rowing positions in the boat.

One of the rowers from Finland, who are rowing the Intracoastal Waterway from Miami to New York, checked-in today to let us know how they are doing. Here’s what he said:

“March 22th boat was at Georgetown (SC). Expedition (1 permanent member and 17 rotating crew members) was able to cross the Cape Fear River and advance up to Wrightsville in Wilmington (NC), which was the location at 27th of March. In generel, the expedition has been challenged with low temperatures during the over night rows and frequent (if not constant) head winds. At times it has been also challenging to manage with the tidal currents, which is fairly uncommon extra “spice” of rowing for the Finns. Approximated current location would be close to Cape Lookout (NC).”

He also forwarded me some pictures to share of their journey…

We’ve completed week 2 of the Concept2 World Rowing Challenge.  As of 11pm this evening, March 29, 2010, we have 2,227,875 meters behind us, or approximately 1,385 miles.  So we’re not quite to the half-way point yet and we’re still behind schedule.  The great news we received last week, however, was that the guys from the newly formed team, Ocean Adventure Racing Northwest, composed of Jordan Hanssen, Greg Spooner, Adam Creek and Richard Tarbill, graciously signed-up to our team and are now helping us slog our virtual way from New York City to the Isles of Scilly.  Jordan Hanssen and Greg Spooner were two members of the 2006 four-man crew who actually won an ocean rowing race over this same course becoming the first Americans ever to successfully row this stretch of ocean, land-to-land, West to East.  So it’s great to have them on our team!

If you notice on the Google Map image below, we’ve just cleared the coast of New Foundland and The Grand Banks area, and we are just about at the same longitude of the location in which the HMS Titanic sank.  You’ll also notice, many miles off of to our port, the Hibernia Oil Field.

In consideration of the markers of interest just pointed out, and the fact that we’ve just cleared the New Foundland coast and are now at a spot where the warm waters of the Gulf Stream race eastward while the cold waters of the Labrador Sea flow southward, I imagine this to be a particularly scary stretch of ocean.

We are, virtually, at 48 degrees West, 46 degrees North.  This, oddly enough, is almost the exact location where Harbo and Samuelson reported coming into near contact with their first iceberg.  When I read about this is David Shaw’s book, ‘Daring the Sea’, this literally made the hair on my arms stand up.  About 330 more miles East is where Harbo and Samuelson experienced their big capsize where they lost most of their provisions and water, so we have that to look forward to this week!!

Here’s a video of Team OAR Northwest’s West to East fours race in 2006:

Mike and I attended an ISAF Safety at Sea Seminar at the US Naval Academy this weekend (March 27-28, 2010). It was a great event and we both learned a great deal about seamanship and boating safety. The speakers were exceptional, and the information provided was, for the most part, lucid and pertinent. One of my favorite presentations was made by Captain Matt Klunder, USNA Commandant, who admonished the importance of the sea throughout American history, and exhorted us to help expand appreciation for the sport of sailing and nautical sport in general.  As Americans, the sea is in our blood.

I also particularly enjoyed the talk presented by Gary Jobson as he provided a number of colorful, and somewhat scary, anecdotes from his heavy weather sailing experiences, particularly the 1979 FastNet race and his experiences on board Ted Turner’s vessel, Tenacious.

The in-the-pool demonstrations were enlightening in that we learned how difficult it is to get into a life raft with foul weather gear on. Moreover, life rafts are not comfortable – even in a calm swimming pool.

The Navy Midshipman did live man-over-board demonstrations in their 44 foot yachts and we got to see a live demo of a rescue at sea operation with a real Coast Guard helicopter!  The real-life demonstrations truly helped to interject a sense of reality to rescue at sea and the difficulty thereof.  Stuff happens!

Especially pertinent to our own objectives were the discussions on weather, heavy weather sailing and the Gulf Stream – the warm water current running South-to-North up the Eastern Seaboard. The information on warm and cold water eddies off of the Gulf Stream were tasty morsels of information. We want more!

More importantly, however, I think this weekend helped us to better understand just how much more we need to learn!

Education + Preparation = Success

Happily, Mike and I passed our ISAF Certification Tests so we are both eligible for international offshore sailing events now!

I’ve just setup the ‘Row The Pond’ online store in order to help raise some funds for this rowing project of ours. Wednesday, March 17th, 2010, is St. Patrick’s Day this year. Before next Wednesday arrives, however, you must get yourself a ‘Row The Pond’ St. Patrick’s Day T-Shirt from our online store. Look cool, impress your Irish friends while drinking a pint of Guinness, and support a worthy cause all in one purchase. Talk about a return on investment!

This Sunday, March 7th, 2010, Mike and I are setting up an erg out at Gravelly Point Park in Arlington, just North of the Reagan National Airport, to do a 100,000 meter erg piece for charity. That’s right! We each owe the other 50,000 meters of continuous ergging, but we’ll take turns doing 10,000 meter pieces until we hit 100,000 meters. It’ll be great training for an ocean row, and we’re hoping to raise awareness, as well as some money, for our Charity, the Prostate Cancer Foundation in the process.

So take your bike out on the Mt. Vernon Trail to encourage an early arrival of Spring and stop by and say ‘hey’! I’m sure we’ll be the only two people at the end of the airport runway sitting on an erg Bring your family and friends too!

Please also consider giving some spare change to our charity, the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Make a donation on behalf of Team Northern Atlantic 2011 here: http://tinyurl.com/ydk979z.

The World Record Time for Tandem Heavyweight 40-49 year old men is 5:58:48.9. Two college women captured a World Record for their category last December with a time of 7 hours, 17 minutes and 56 seconds. Here’s a video clip of some news coverage of their success.

I stumbled upon this blog today (oddly female-centric I thought, but that’s ok, I dig females), which pointed to a Popular Mechanics article on ocean rowing boats and the gadgets involved in both sustaining life while at sea for months on end, as well as making life a bit more comfortable. From solar cells, to batteries, to laptops and satellite phones, I can’t help but wonder if all the equipment is really necessary. I wonder if I could have the true grit to make such a crossing with merely a sextant, compass, some oars, food and a hand-pumped water maker. What would Harbo and Samuelson take with them if they were on the eve of their crossing today?

Just caught a tweet from Shaun Quincy, who is planning to row the Tasman Ocean…tomorrow in fact.  According to his tweet, he is ‘…scared, nervous, excited, happy.’  I wish him the best of luck on his adventure and godspeed.  He’s got a great story and great foot steps to follow in, as his Dad, Colin Quincy, made the same trip in 1977.

I’ve been working hard on my own story of late.  Details on my next rowing adventure should be forthcoming soon.  Hopefully, they entail completing the Chesapeake Row I set out to do last Fall…

Sepi Soutaja recently checked in to let us know his team’s boat is on her way to the USA and due to clear Port Everglades in Florida on the 21st of January.  Seeing other adventure rowers put their adventure rowing dreams in motion continues to give me hope that I too will one day be able to pull it off – and keep my marriage!  It’s a high tightrope we married adventure rowers walk when entertaining rowing on the high seas.  But I digress…

Soutaja emailed a copy of his project itinerary.  They do not have a website, nor do the have any kind of tracking enabled, but perhaps we can meet up with them at one stage of their journey?  They plan to row for five days on, two days off.

I thought having to race a couple of hours late was well neigh intolerable, but the poor souls awaiting the race start of the Atlantic 2009 Rowing Race are having to wait about a week-and-a-half beyond the scheduled race start.  So, while we await the start gun, here’s another original composition.  This one is more rowing related:

A Rower’s Winter Lament

Amongst a field of British rowers, and a hand full of French, sits a lone 59 year old American (not including Anne Miltenberger rowing with Team Britannia III) from Boston, Massachusetts, Leo Rossette. Leo is fixin’ to row solo across the Atlantic in his row boat, ‘Halcyon’, as a competitor in this year’s Atlantic Rowing Race. Slated to start this coming Sunday, December 6th, 2009, the Atlantic Rowing Race is undoubtedly one of the toughest rowing races around. Nevertheless, taking part in a rowing race, sponsored and supported by Woodvale Challenge Events, is understandably a safer way to get your ocean rowing adventure on.

If you recall, Leo attempted to row the Gran Canaria to Antigua route earlier this year, around the same time Paul Ridley was setting off, but had to cancel the row due to health reasons. I called Leo, sometime after he had returned stateside, to chat with him a bit about what went wrong with his first attempt to row the Atlantic. He indicated that in addition to some stomach problems he was having prior to his departure, he suffered from severe sea sickness which prevented him from keeping anything down, including fluids, which led to severe dehydration, muscle cramping, etc. Sounds wonderfully miserable, does it not?

Woodvale built his boat, ‘Halcyon’, for him. Woodvale also packed the boat with food and supplies and shipped it to La Gomera to await Leo for his first solo attempt across the pond. Now, Leo is taking another crack at the challenge, but this time as part of a fleet of ocean rowing boats all vying for a top finish position across the finish line in Antigua.

As I think about Leo’s second attempt to row the pond, and as I ponder Leo being only one of two Americans competing in this Winter’s field of competitors, I can’t help but wonder why the American contingent is so small. Perhaps Americans are so concerned about doing their part to buttress the Global Economy working (or looking for work), that taking part in such ‘frivolity’, such self-centered adventure, is simply unthinkable? Or are we simply a nation who has conquered all and are now simply content to kick-back and enjoy the fruits of our labor, drinking beer, watching TV and accumulating more wealth? Or maybe Americans on the whole are simply too practical to expend time and wealth on such adventures? I’m not sure why Adventure Rowing is not more of an American phenomena, especially in light of the fact that ocean rowing was started by two American Norwegian immigrants (Harbo and Samuelson) in 1896. I wish it were. We need to continue our diligence in keeping British maritime dominance in check. That’s a joke, come on.

As for myself, I’d love to be competing in this Winter’s Atlantic Rowing Race. I’ve dreamed about it almost daily for over a year now. Unfortunately, my financial position got hammered by the economy this year, which made buying a $40k ocean rowing boat a bad move for me and my family. Secondly, convincing my wife, and mother of three (ages 12, 10 and 6), that allowing me to spend 2-4 months at sea in a tiny ocean rowing boat is actually a good idea for all parties, is no small undertaking. I know, excuses, excuses. These are merely set backs in my opinion, however, not roadblocks…necessarily (my wife does scare me, however).

In contrast, Leo is a retired U.S. Marshall. He’s also got tons of money from his Government Pension. That’s a joke, come on. As I understand him, his wife is not all that happy about him rowing the ocean, but tolerant of his plans. As usual, best to get on with it and ask for forgiveness later.

So good luck to Leo this go around on the Atlantic – and God’s speed. Go USA!

Here is an interesting interview with Katie Spotz, where she discusses her attempt to row across the Atlantic, from Africa to South America, this month. She’s rowing the ocean row boat, ‘Liv’, which was designed by Phil Morrison and built by American company Aquidneck Custom for Paul Ridley’s row across the Atlantic (E-W from La Gomera to Antigua) earlier this year.

I have not cleaned out my shed since my last feverish flurry to get my boat ready for my first Chesapeake Bay Row attempt. The inside of my boat shed has been caked in inches of wood and fiberglass dust since then. Today, I finally decided to clean it up a bit. I donned my ventilator mask and goggles and set about blowing the dust outside. From without, it looked like someone set off a smoke bomb inside.  In addition to the dust, half filled cans of paint, containers of epoxy and resin, pieces of White Oak, Okoume and Cedar littered the floor – all contributing to fond memories of this summer, which continue to feed my desire to get out there on the open water in my wooden row boat again. After awhile, the inside of the shed starts to look somewhat clean again.  I feel like it’s about time to dust off those old Chesapeake Bay row plans and begin anew for next year’s attempt.

Last night, my parents and I went to hear Colin and Julie Angus speak at a National Geographic Live sponsored event.  Colin and Julie talked about their adventures riding their bikes and rowing their custom designed (and built) row boats from the top ‘o Scotland all the way down to Syria.  When they were unable to row, they rode their bikes, towing their boats behind them on custom made boat trailers.  When they rowed, they disassembled their bikes, stowed them in their boats, and went rowing.  It looked like an amazing way to travel through Europe (which included the UK, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey, etc.) and to see the country-side.  Their trip took them about 7 months to complete.

They had one of their boats on stage and I got to take a pretty close look at her after their talk was over.  It looked like a stitch-and-glue ply construction with a single sliding seat rowing position built-in (the rowing position was conspicuously closer to the stern than the bow).  The bow section was used for stowing their bikes and other gear, so I’m sure getting the weight distribution correct was not easy to figure out.  The boat has a wing rigger, which seemed to be constructed of wood.  I wish I could have taken a picture of it, but Nat Geo Live!, sadly, do not allow pictures. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!!!!

All-in-all, I came away from this talk excited about future adventure rowing possibilities.  I think this winter I will build-in a sliding seat rowing position in my dory for my next attempt to row across the Chesapeake Bay – an adventure that seems like child’s play comparatively speaking, so I need to get ‘er done.

Here’s a video lifted from AngusAdventures.com:

Here’s a video, recently posted by Shaun Quincey (rowing from Australia to New Zealand in November of 2009 – next month), providing a really interesting background to Shaun’s solo rowing project.  Of particular interest is Colin Quincey’s boat: she appears to be a flat-bottom dory with a fixed seat, mostly covered with decking.  I found this to be a really interesting video!  Thanks for sharing, Shaun, and best of luck with your row!