On Saturday, January 30th, 2010, Mike and I had our first fund raising activity at Mid Atlantic Erg Sprints. The Erg Sprints were held at TC Williams High School in Old Town Alexandria. We put up a table with our banner and did our best to get people interested in our $5 ticket raffle for a Nielsen Kellermen Stroke Coach and a Kestrel Wind Meter. We had a bucket representative of our ‘loo’ (our toilet) on our table, in which we put purchased raffle tickets, and from which we had our drawing. Was that too gross???
Congratulations go to Bill Yeingst and Phil Hayward for winning both of these items. We were able to award the NK Stroke Coach yesterday to Bill Yeingst, but are still trying to track Phil Hayward down in order to get him the Wind Meter.
James participated in the Men’s 40+ 2k and managed a third place finish, even though he was not happy with his time of 6:47.8. Two years ago he pulled a 6:32 so the slow down in time is a bit discouraging especially since he just turned 40. Time, after all, is only in the head.
Team Northern Atlantic 2011 Newly Printed Banner
The Odd Couple
Mike drinking some fancy tea trying to wake up. Real men drink coffee…
All ready for the raffle.
We roped the Krofcheck’s and their son into marketing for us. Trisha also drew the winning lottery tickets for us from our ‘toilet’. Thanks Trisha!
Alan and JJ erg a 3 minute race on the tandem erg.
This Saturday is Mid Atlantic Erg Sprints. We will have a table in the hall at TC Williams High School marketing our 2011 ocean rowing plans, so stop by if you plan to be competing. We will also be raffling off an NK Stroke Coach and an NK Wind Meter for $5 a ticket to raise money for our boat.
I will also be ‘competing’ in the men’s 40+ 2k event. It’s my first year in the 40+ event. I have not trained very hard this Winter. Erg apathy has set in badly after finishing the C2 Holiday Challenge.
So today, my partner (Mike Altarace) and I go public with our plans to row the Northern Atlantic Route in 2011. We will row from Battery Park in New York City to Bishop Rock Light House (and beyond) in the Isles of Scilly just off the southern most coast of the UK. My partner Mike used to work in Manhattan, and I went to visit him a year or two ago where I went up in the Empire State Building and walked around Battery Park, taking the ferry out to Ellis Island and to the Statue of Liberty. At the time, I would have never imagined we would hatch a plan to row across the Atlantic starting at that point – Battery Park. Since agreeing to undertake this challenge, we are both very anxious to get started rowing, but we also realize there is a huge amount of preparatory work that needs to be done first.
We begin some early fund raising at Erg Sprints next weekend as we look for an ocean row boat suitable for the crossing. I have grown to dislike the process of boat shopping…There are probably less than a handful of ocean rowing boats in the United States. In the UK, however, there are more, but maybe still only two or three handfuls of available ones. In the coming weeks, we will have to decide whether to have a boat built from scratch or to buy a second hand boat. And if we could find a Title Sponsor before hand, who would be willing to buy the boat for us, that would be all the more awesome!
If you, or someone you know, might be interested in sponsoring our historic row, please contact us at go_team ‘@’ rowthepond.com.
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.
Key West –> week 1 from 01Feb –> Miami
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Miami –> week 2 from 07Feb –> Palm Stuart City
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Palm Stuart City –> weeks 3 and 4 from 14Feb –> Brunswick
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Brunswick –> week 5 from 28Feb –> Hilton Head Is.
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Hilton Head Is. –> week 6 from 07Mar –> Mt. Pleasant
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Mt. Pleasant –> week 7 from 14Mar –> Southport
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Southport –> week 8 from 21Mar –> Morehead City
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Morehead City –> week 9 from 28Mar –> Point Harbor
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Point Harbor –> week 10 from 04Apr –> Norfolk
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Norfolk –> week 11 from 11Apr –> Solomons
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Solomons –> weeks 12 ja 13 from 18Apr –> Cape May Canal area
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Cape May Canal area–> week 14 from 02May –> Brielle
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Brielle –> week 15 from 09May –> New York
One of the best ocean rowing books I have ever read, ‘Daring the Sea’ by David W. Shaw, was also the very first ocean rowing book I ever read. This book immediately swept me away in the adventure of it all; I could not believe it was a true story. Moreover, being a rower myself for many years at the time, I was completely amazed I had never heard of George Harbo and Frank Samuelson: two humble American immigrants from Norway who decided to try to improve their way of life by being the first to row across the North Atlantic. It’s a tremendous story of superhuman achievement, dashed hopes and dreams. Just like America today
But my real point in discussing this duo is to share my confusion about some of the professional ocean rowing web sites which make reference to Harbo and Samuelson as George Harbo and Gabriel Samuelson. Is ‘Gabriel’ Norwegian for ‘Frank’ or something, or is this just a typo that has gotten propagated?
According to Wikipedia (and Shaw’s book, ‘Daring the Sea’), Samuelson’s first name was Frank, not Gabriel.
So why do so many ocean rowing web sites call him ‘Gabriel’? Here are some examples:
Is anyone else following the Atlantic Rowing Race ’09 as amazed as I am that solo rower, Charlie Pitcher, is leading the fleet after the first week at sea?
I’ve just received some books I ordered through Amazon – ‘The Long Way’ by Bernard Moitessier, ‘Rowing the Atlantic’ by Roz Savage, and ‘A Pearl in the Storm’ by Tori Murden McClure. I have some other books in my queue at the moment, but I can’t wait to get to these.
My ocean rowing thoughts have steered toward having a go at rowing the Northern Atlantic Route, W-E. It’s tougher than the Trade Winds Route, due to cold weather, bigger waves, ice bergs, and strong currents from the mixing of cold water from the Labrador Sea and the warmer water in the Atlantic.
One of my 2010 New Year’s Resolutions is to make a decision on doing an ocean row, plan it, and make it happen. That’s a tall order, but we’ll see what happens.
The 2009 Atlantic Rowing Race is about one hour away from starting (January 4th 1348 GMT). I’m looking forward to watching the tracking dots over the next several months as teams inch their way across the Atlantic from La Gomera to Antigua. The start has been a long time coming this year due to adverse weather conditions. In 2007, the Atlantic Rowing Race got it’s start on December 2nd.
In the solo category, Leo Rossette, the only American rowing in this category, is my local favorite. Hailing from Boston, MA, Rossette is a Retired US Marshall who has attempted the row in the past but failed to complete it due to medical complications. He’s a dark horse, but being the one American in the race, he’s the one I’m pulling for. His competition will no doubt be tough as Charlie Pitcher (UK), rowing a one-off boat design, Peter Van Kets (SA), who rowed the race in 2007-2008 once already in the pairs category (and won his category no less, taking second overall), and the younger competitors David Brooks (UK) and James Ketchell (UK), who have the obvious advantage of youth, should all prove to be very stiff competition. The fighting Irishman, Sean McGowan, is an unknown; however, it’s never wise to underestimate the Irish. There’s also the unconfirmed rumor that Roger Haine’s partner, Tom Lee, had to drop out of the race, and that Roger is still planning to race in the solo category. Roger and partner rowed in the Indian Rowing Race in April of 2009 but had to drop out due to injuries.
According to Katie Spotz’s twitter feed, she is now approximately 8 hours into her row across the Atlantic, from Dakar to French Guiana. Her latest ‘tweeted’ position is just off the Senagalese Coast; approximately 11nm from Dakar and it took her roughly 8 hours to go that distance. Sounds about right. Very inspiring. Glad there are Americans out there willing to take up an Ocean Rowing Challenge.
