It was a "SWELL" of a Sunday Row

No matter what your rowing pleasure happen to be, this past Sunday Row had it to offer. Well everything except perhaps flat calm, but who wants that anyways. "Mr. Bill" our resident hurricane 200+ miles to our east provided some great rolling swell sets alternating between large and REALLY large. A light WNW breeze and a falling tide made for some crazy mixed up patterns. The further out of the bay you ventured, the bigger the thrill. Kudos's to my team (Stan and Shelia). Sheila decided to row the early AM slot because as she said to me. "I want to row to Children's Island". Well with alot of Rockn and Rollin' we managed to get out as far as the western point of the island. Going around did not look that appealing to us so we turned west towards Gray's Island and what we hoped would be calmer seas. They were but not by much. G-d bless the Echo's. Shelia "popped" a pin but proceeded to stay upright. Check you equipment fellow warriors especially in rough seas.

The other team members made up of Jon, Emily, Sarah and Eileen decided to round the East side of Children's. From what I heard afterwards they had a fine taste of open water rowing by disappearing and re-appearing between the monster swells. But as Jon pointed out later, it wasn't as bad as we all predicted it to be. Another lesson learned by Eileen was to make sure your bow port is closed properly. Evidently, some one had opened it up in the Alden Star while it was stored on the racks. She took on water everytime the bow submerged. Check all ports before departing!
Hey, just asked anyone who made it out that morning. It was definitely a "swell of a time"