AN HONEST 6 MILES

Thomas, Jack, Jon, Stephannie and Emily traded e-mails around midweek with the idea to set out this passed Friday night to row what our fearless leader Pauli would call "Fat Friday". So, what is that you ask? Well it stands for Friday Afternoon "thebestwaytoendtheworkweekrow". First of all we would like to ask...what happened to both our "Iron ladies of rowing"? They turned out to be no shows. However in the true RnR fashion, we forged ahead without them. Thomas rowing my Peinert Dolphin that I'm hoping to sell to him. Jon in his black Alden and me in my first experience in the Maas Aero. (a boat that really impressed me).
Setting out from the basin, we decided to turn west towards Winter Island and Salem Harbor. We made short work of that leg due to sea conditions made flat by the lee shore of Peaches and Fluent Pt. Jon beating at 170, Jack at 140 and even Thomas working up a bit of a sweat at 115.
A turn to the north at the Salem Harbor Light House, the three of us rowing in sync brought stares and admiration from kayakers, and sail boats we passed.
A quick rest at the Beverly side light house was followed by a discussion about what to do next. To be honest it wasn't much of a discussion. I chided in that we have two options cross back to the basin from here or head up to the monument off Misery. Jon didn't even have a chance to answer before Thomas said we should continued. I quickly concurred and away we went.
As the law of "Rowing Physics dictates, what goes out to row must eventually return home.
It was by the time we rounded the momument, I realized that the return would be the most challenging. Boat traffic and a southeast fetch all away from across the bay...Cross current waves from all angles, challenged all of us at one time or another. Thomas would yell out this is definitely Echo territory. But the grins on all our faces told the true story. We were having the time of our life trying to figure out how to row through this stuff.
Eventually reaching flat water behind Gerry's and the dock. I looked at my watch to see our distance and commented that was an honest 6 mile row. Jon looked at his and corrected me saying that it was 8.6 miles. It was a great FAT FRIDAY....