Aug 22 2010
August 20th, 2010. From 0445 to 1645, Mike and I rowed from Smith Point, Virginia, to Tangier Island and back for a total of 28 miles, in one day. It was painful, it was beautiful, it was awesome. While I can’t talk to Mike about rowing for at least two weeks now, I can share a video of our adventure. Check it out:
Aug 15 2010
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…
Aug 01 2010
Amazingly, Leven Brown, Ray Carroll, Don Lennox & Livar Nysted (‘Artemis Investments’) have just smashed the 113 year old Harbo and Samuelson crossing record of 55 days by completing their crossing in 43 days, 21 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds. What a row!!! Congratulations to these men on board ‘Artemis Investments’ for such a great and historic accomplishment! Of course Mike and I are a bit disappointed that the 113 year old record will not fall to us, but all is fair in the sport of Ocean Rowing. ‘Tis an awesome accomplishment to have rowed the ocean, record or no record. Nevertheless, we will now be striving to smash the new crossing record of 43 days, 21 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds and to bring the record back home to the United States of America where she belongs!
As ‘Artemis Investments’ was arriving at St. Marys in the Isles of Scilly, Mike and I were taking our training dory out on the Potomac river for our first training row together (on the water). We left Gravelly Point Park in Arlington, Virginia yesterday afternoon around 4:30pm and rowed up river to Potomac Boat Club and back to Gravelly Point Park. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had an awesome row. This is the first time I’ve had the dory on the water this year. I’ve been working on her off-and-on over the last few months putting bow and stern rowing positions in her, touching-up paint, etc. I definitely spend more time working on the dory than rowing her, but hopefully that’s about to change.
Next weekend Mike and I are making tentative plans to try the row out to Tangier Island to complete the row I did not complete last year. Getting this row done will be a huge psychological boost for me and will be excellent training for Mike and I in preparation for rowing on big water. The row to Tangier Island from Reedville, VA is only about 14 miles, but the route is across some significant open water, shipping lanes, etc., so one never knows what might happen. Right now, we’re planning on rowing to Tangier Island and back all in the same day, so we hope to cover around 28 miles in one day. That’s a pretty heavy lift, but will see how it goes.
Jul 27 2010
Leven Brown and crew aboard ‘Artemis Investments’ are well on their way to breaking the Harbo and Samuelson 55 day crossing record for the Northern Atlantic, W-E. They are in to day 40 of their expedition with under 340 miles to go until they reach St. Mary’s Island in the Isles of Scilly. What a fantastic accomplishment it will be when they complete their journey. I especially appreciate them raising the bar for us the year before we leave on our expedition, as we have similar goals. Luckily, we are still able to claim the Harbo and Samuelson 55 day crossing record in the pairs boat category. I’m pretty sure at this point, however, the new overall record we will be chasing will be to make the crossing in under 45 days.
Here’s a video we took of ‘Artemis Investments’ during her first attempt to row across the pond:
Jul 09 2010
Here are some more pictures of the progress being made on our multihull ocean rowing boat. These pictures show the planking of the vessel’s hull in progress. She looks awesome!
Think we can get all that education and training in by next Spring? I hope so.
Jun 30 2010
Even with all the controversy surrounding this year’s 33rd America’s Cup, it was still not difficult to become sidetracked by the sheer coolness of the multihull sailing vessels involved in the race – Alinghi and BMW ORACLE. These multihulls evoke shock and awe when considering their speed, size and beauty. Team Northern Atlantic are hoping to further the acceptance of the multihull concept in the sport of ocean rowing.
Our 30 foot multihull ocean rowing boat is being built on Shelter Island, New York by Captain Roy Finlay. Roy built and skippered ‘ORCA’, the first multihull ocean rowing boat ever rowed across any ocean. ORCA’s four-man crew left the Canary Islands and arrived in Barbados in 36 days. We believe that multihull ocean rowing boats in general, and the ORCA design in particular, hold great potential for setting new ocean rowing speed records.
The picture on the left (below) is our new boat starting to take shape: MDF frames on the strong-back almost ready for foam planking and fiberglass to form the hull. The picture on the right (below) is ORCA, rowed by a four-man crew from the Canaries to Barbados in 2007/2008 in just 36 days. Our boat will be a very similar design. She’s fast, but the boat is only part of the equation: Speed = Boat + Crew + Weather. I believe Team Northern Atlantic are well on our way to taking care of the first two operands in the equation!
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Jun 24 2010
I joined the Rockville Sail and Power Squadron (RSPS) in June. Mike is doing the same. We want to take advantage of their navigation and seamanship member classes as well as glean as much maritime information as possible from the experienced members of the club.
Last weekend, we went for a sail on the Chesapeake Bay with members of the RSPS. I took my SPOT device and recorded some lat/longs from our excursion. I created a SPOT Adventure out of our trip. Check it out.
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=208134
Jun 17 2010
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.
Jun 03 2010
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
May 17 2010
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
May 16 2010
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.
May 02 2010
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.
Apr 22 2010
This past weekend I (James Caple) flew out to Antigua for a weekend visit (Mike Altarace stayed back this trip). It was short and sweet, I did not miss work, nor did I have to take any vacation days to go down. The Atlantic Rowing Race ’09 is drawing to a close and I wanted to get down there (Antigua) to talk to Simon Chalk and any ocean rowers who might happen to still be lingering around; I also wanted to see some ocean rowing boats in person, as well as just simply experience the magic of English Harbor. Come to find out it was Sailing Week when I was down there, so there were tons of huge sailing yachts and lots of sailing folk from all over the world. My only regret is not being able to stay a couple of months longer…
I had a brutal layover at JFK Airport on my way home from Antigua to DC, so I checked in my carry-on and took the train in to Manhattan to walk around. I ended up in Time Square where there were plenty of lights at 1230 at night.
On my flight back I finished Tori Murden’s book, ‘A Pearl in the Storm’, about her solo ocean rowing attempt across the Northern Atlantic and then across the Tradewinds Route. I thought her book was excellent: I marked it up and dog-eared a number of the pages like it was a text book or something.
Apr 11 2010
A few members of our Concept2 World Rowing Challenge Team got together early Sunday morning, from 0600 to 0900, to row as many meters as we could stand during that time period. Collectively, we almost put our team past the 4 million meter mark. Thanks to Alan Weatherley, Dave Wilson, John Street, Wanda Street, Joanne Goodwin, Bill Yeingst, and Sebastian Martinez for showing up on an early Sunday morning and doing work! Between the 30k meters I did Saturday and the 30k meters today, my backside is in some serious pain right now…
Apr 05 2010
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…
Mar 29 2010
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:
Mar 28 2010
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!
Mar 21 2010
Our Concept2 World Rowing Challenge Team, ACR – NYC to Isles of Scilly, has ergged a whopping 856,604 meters so far in the first week of competition. That’s approximately 532 miles. There are only 21 members on our team; so that’s about 40,791 meters per member over the last week. Those are not bad averages. Our goal is to cover the roughly 3000 mile distance from New York City to the Isles of Scilly in just four weeks, however, so that puts us far behind schedule, unfortunately. We should have about 1,206,750 meters behind us by this point (we are 350,146 meters short!). So we only accomplished 70% of our first week’s distance quota.
WRC Challenge - First Week Distance Covered
Mar 16 2010
Day two of the C2 WRC for Team ‘ACR – NYC to Isles of Scilly’ has been fantastic! What a great way to start St. Paddie’s Day! We’ve gone from from 12 members to 16. On the first day, we logged just under 100,000 meters. As of right now, we have logged 218,956 meters!! And I know my partner Mike Altarace is currently slogging out another 20k, so we should finish the day with just under 240k meters in two days. That truly is an amazing accomplishment! I hope we can keep the momentum up!
Our goal is to row the 3000 mile distance between New York City and the Isles of Scilly in just thirty days. In ergometer parlance, that’s 4,827,000 meters! As of today, the 16 of us have gotten us roughly 4.5% of the way to our goal on day two.
My body is really hurting right now. In addition to the pain, I’m trying to train myself to get up at 0430 again for the start of the Spring Rowing Season. We’ll see how I do tomorrow, for my second attempt this week. Thankfully, the season does not start until March 31st!
