Honorary Member of the Men's 50+ Crew

An acquaintance restrung a necklace of rose quartz chips into a shorter necklace and bracelet for me. She lives in Everett and Ed, good guy that he is, coordinated it's collection for me. I was to be down at SSP to get them from him Thurs evening at 6, just before the men's practice began. Well, it wasn't paddling related so I completely forgot about it, got hung up at work and didn't walk in the door at home until 6. As I was leashing the boys for their potty walk my phone rang. It was Ed, "Grab your gear and get down here!" "But, I *just* walked in the door, dogs, potty, change clothes, take me at least 15-20 minutes to get there. "Well, hurry, we've only got three people tonight!" So left a pile of clothes in the entryway of my apartment and scrambled into my paddling duds, inhaled a quick snack to keep the blood sugar from totally crashing and raced out the door. Of course people were driving sooo slowly, what are they thinking driving the speed limit, people never drive the speed limit on Lake City Way. And every light between my house and SSP was red. Finally got there as they were moving the boat down to the water.

Clem was stroke in 1, me in 3, Ed in 4, and Doug steering for the first time in 6. Wind was looking pretty significant, too. We were faced with a similar situation a week ago and the Wednesday night practice was canceled. With this crew I was confident we'd be fine. We set out to the north, wind to our backs, holding close to the shore to help minimize the effects of the wind. Clem kept a nice pace and we easily slipped into a strong rhythm with me calling changes every 20 strokes. We made quick time to the two point light in someone's yard, it's about 2.5 miles north of SSP, and we kept going and going and going and going. I turn and ask Ed, without breaking stroke, "how far *are* we going?" "until Doug turns us around" he replied, nonplussed. Dang, this wasn't like the Wed/Sat workouts at all. We went a ways further and finally got the call to hold up. Nobody had any idea what time it was but it seemed like a good place to turn around.

The trip back was where the workout really kicked into high gear. The wind was brutal and the wind swell was pretty big. I was thinking that I wouldn't have wanted to be out on an OC1 in that swell or wind. I was also glad that I wasn't sitting stroke after seeing some of the waves break over Clem's waist. It was time to dig in and 'git er dun'. Conditions like that always pump me up, I'll reach further and dig deeper, hoo ya! It's an odd sensation, sometimes it feels like we are paddling faster into the wind than when we have the wind at our backs, can be with just about any crew, too. Don't know why. Past the two point light, keep going, watch out for that bouy Doug, keep going. Finally coming up on Matthew's Beach, only about half a mile left. I swear that was the longest half mile I've ever paddled. I think the wind was stronger there, too. Can see the end of the SSP dock, we're nearly there, can't ease up yet, the wind is still too strong. Finally, we make the turn around the dock and get in close to shore, we can ease up, warm down.

As we were clambering out of the boat I learned that this was Doug's first time steering. Dang, talk about a challenging maiden voyage, all that wind and having Clem and Ed paddling on the same side (if you have more strength on one side the boat can tend towards circles) and me on the other. All that really put Doug to the test. But he did an excellent job, I'd never have guessed that he'd never steered before.

Wow, we went about 9 miles round trip, felt like more with a small crew. Thanks guys, Clem, Ed, & Doug, for letting me come out to paddle with you. I had a great time.