Hull Lifesaving Museum Snow Row - March 10, 2012

Trip reports that don't have a page dedicated to them.

Moderator: Chip

Post Reply
User avatar
norm
Posts: 2126
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:13 pm
Location: Stoughton, MA

Hull Lifesaving Museum Snow Row - March 10, 2012

Post by norm »

The morning of the 2012 Hull Lifesaving Museum's 33rd Annual Snow Row started off with snow squalls. The ground on the south shore has been bare of snow for most of the winter. But as hundreds of people converged on the Windmill Point Boathouse, the skies were gray, the wind was gusting, the temperatures were below freezing and snow squalls covered grassy areas with a thin layer of snow.

Image


Image


I've been looking forward to trying this race for months and had been lobbying for others to try it also. Bea was willing but not able due to illness so she smartly stayed home. Sue was gung-ho and anxious to go - she just had to decide which boat to use. Briggsy was interested in coming if he could finish a home project in time, but ended up not making it. Jordan had to swap a scheduled work Saturday to get the day free. So, I knew we'd at least have 3 of us and thought maybe one or two more turkeys might attend.

Sue had joined me to carpool to Hull and we parked right in front of Hull High School. I thought we were pretty early arriving at about 8:30am, two hours before the race start, but there were already tons of row boats launching from trailers and a traffic jam of more boats on trailers arriving.

We sat in my truck with the heat running, waiting for Jordan who we knew would be arriving soon. When Jordan arrived, we got out and discussed whether we were going to paddle or just watch. The water on the bay side of Hull looked pretty calm near shore. The water on the ocean side was much rougher. At some point the sun came out and it seemed much nicer, so we decided to go over to the boathouse and register. I had my camera in my pocket and the inside of the boathouse was very interesting. I don't know why I didn't snap any pictures.

After registering, we decided to move down to the end of the municipal parking lot to launch where there was less traffic. There were about 15 to 20 kayaks and surf-skis launching from this area. This gave us some time to get comfortable in our boats as we paddled over to Windmill Point and floated around waiting for the race to start. Jordan had told us that last year, he just launched his boat in the water just before the race began and had no time to get comfortable before the race started, so he liked the idea of launching further down the beach.

This area seemed to be a favored spot for the serious racers to launch their surf-ski kayaks.

Image


The only drawback to our launch spot choice was that it made it impractical to go to the pre-race meeting. This didn't really matter to us since none of us were really interested in trying to win. It would have been nice to know the order of which type of boats went first, but again, it didn't really matter to us - I wasn't going to be able to get very good pictures from water level anyway.

As we geared up and got ready to launch, we saw Johnysmoke further down the beach and he came over to say hello. He would use his recently purchased yellow Delphin kayak today.

Image


So, there'd be four Wild Turkeys paddling today, all in yellow boats.

Image


We got into our boats and paddled over to the other side of the commuter boat pier where all the row boats were lined up on shore for the race start. We tucked into a little corner and waited for the race to begin.

Jordan got his kayaking smile on and actually wore a hat for a little while, while we drifted around. How many times have you seen Jordan with a hat on?

Image


Sue chose to use her Capella kayak today rather than taking a chance with her new Tahe Marine Greenland boat which is probably faster. I was happy to hear that she just wanted to be a race observer this year and would hang back and keep me company.

Image


It seemed like a very long time waiting for things to get started. The shore near us was packed with the larger row boats.

Image


John had launched at a different time than us, but he eventually saw where we were hanging out and came over to join us.

Image


There was a familiar face up on the pier - Kayak Ken had come to watch the race.

Image


Jordan and John moved closer to have a chat with Ken.

Image


As we sat there waiting, a gun or small cannon went off over at the boathouse, but none of the boats near us moved. Eventually, we could see that there were smaller, one and two person row boats out at the far side of the boathouse pier starting to race. I couldn't see if they had to start with their bows on the shore like the big boats or not.

It was another few minutes before the boats near us got the signal to go.

The long row boats line up with their sterns in the water and their coxswains seated.

Image


The crew has to wait for the go signal and then it's just a free-for-all launching, backing out and turning these long boats around.

Image


Image


Image


I had tried to switch my camera to take video of the race start, but I couldn't manage to hit the right buttons with neoprene gloves on and I wasn't going to take them off, so I just took the still shots.

As far as gear is concerned, we all had dry-suits on. Three of us had the 14" high neoprene NRS Boundry Boots on that keep your feet dry and warm while launching. Three of us used pogies and Sue had just neoprene gloves. I used a thin pair of neoprene gloves inside the pogies I just picked up for $20 at the REI clearance sale and my hands were toasty warm all day. We all wore hats while sitting around, but Jordan took his off before the race started. I got to try out a goofy looking neoprene hat that I bought a few years ago, so I'm happy nobody else had a camera besides me.

After the big boats were out of the way, all the kayaks swooped in from the sides and lined up behind a flag bouy a hundred yards off-shore for a running start. A count-down came from a man with a loudspeaker on the beach and we were all off without any starting gun or cannon. At this point my camera was put away till after the race...I was slow enough without stopping to try to take pictures.

On the first leg we had the wind at our backs and the water got choppier as we moved further out toward Sheep Island. Sue, Jordan and I started probably 50 yards behind the rest of the kayaks but Jordan moved his way up into the crowd while Sue stayed back with me. John had gotten closer to the head of the pack during the start and I could see him off to our right taking a different line than everyone else.

About half-way out to Sheep, the following waves started coming from two directions and riding them became more difficult. I began to question my decision to paddle but there was no turning back - I had to earn that t-shirt they'd handed out at registration. There was a small Coast Guard boat a few hundred yards away, so there was no need to be too scared, but I just didn't want to find out what it's like to swim in 40 degree water and suffer the embarressment of needing a rescue.

For a while I could see John out to the right on his own distinctive line toward Sheep, but I soon lost sight of Jordan amongst the crowd of boats. I lost track of both of them and soon didn't see either of them again till the race was over.

As we got closer to Sheep island, we could see why the whole pack of boats had swung far to the left of the island. There was a wave breaking on the sand bar that points from Sheep toward Bumpkin Island. The smaller boats were able to cut closer to Sheep and get over the sand bar in a few inches of water. After crossing the bar, there was a momentary respite from the wind while in the shade of the island. Sue had gotten ahead of me and nicely waited for me to catch up here. I took the opportunity to pull my gloved hand out of the pogie to stick the hydration tube in my mouth for a sip of water.

After rounding Sheep, the next target is the Peddocks Island day marker. This leg had the wind and waves hitting us at an angle on the starboard bow. I prefer these waves much more than waves from behind - at least you can see what's coming at you. For a couple minutes, I actually stayed ahead of Sue.

At the day marker we turned directly into the wind and the rest of the race was just a slog back to Windmill Point. We caught up to some row boats and Sue went off to the right and I stayed to the left. Sue passed a bunch more boats than I did and by the end was probably a couple hundred yards ahead of me. I was happy to not be the absolute last one to finish, but I thought I was the last kayak to finish till Jordan sent me the link to the race results. http://www.lifesavingmuseum.org/_fileCabinet/Snow_Row_2012_RESULTS.pdf By my count, the turkeys were an odd crowd - we finished ninth, eleventh, thirteenth and fifteenth.

After finishing, we gathered at the pier and headed back to our launch spot. When we landed, it was nice and calm and warming up, but even though we had only paddled 4 miles, it was time to pack up and leave.

Image


Ken came by for another visit as we packed up. He took a closer look at the keel strip material that Sue had put on her boat and gave his approval. We chatted for a while and then all said our good-byes. It was just about lunch time, so Sue Jordan and I stopped at Stars in Hingham for PPR.

Here is a topo map of the area with our track highlighted.

Image


A few specs from the trip:

Launch time: 10:17am
Race start time: 10:52am
Take-out time: 12:10pm
Total Distance Paddled: 4.1 miles

My GPS doesn't have the same features that the Garmin brand GPS's have, where they give you things like average speed and top speed, but it does give the speed between the waypoints that it has recorded. The top speed it showed on the first leg was 7mph with most of the first half mile at 6mph. On the last leg my speed dropped to 3 and 4mph heading back into the wind.

It really felt to me like I was very slow, but now thinking about it, this was a real race. There was nobody out there taking it easy. I guess you have to be serious if you're willing to show up in snow and freezing air temperatures to paddle in water that's 40 degrees and winds gusting to 25. According to the official race times, we all finished the 3 3/4 mile race in 46 to 56 minutes on a day with pretty stiff winds. That's pretty decent considering it's March and we haven't been paddling much in the last 4 months. I was very happy to finish and had a great time.

Norm
NorwayLady
Posts: 1338
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2005 12:03 pm
Location: Marshfield, MA

Re: Hull Lifesaving Museum Snow Row - March 10, 2012

Post by NorwayLady »

Wow. You guys rock!
Bea
Proud foster mother of Athena (P&H Cetus LV turquoise-white)
User avatar
kayakerjnj
Posts: 2720
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:12 pm
Location: Randolph MA

Re: Hull Lifesaving Museum Snow Row - March 10, 2012

Post by kayakerjnj »

It was a fun event, and it was made even more enjoyable because there were some many Turkeys.

Thanks Norm for all the photos and of course the great write up.
Paddle with a big smile, its contagious 8)


Jordan
Post Reply