More rockin, less rowin'

For the soundtrack to today's row, you would have heard the gravelly-voiced baritone growling: "More ROCKIN' and less ROWIN, at WRNR Marblehead!" The winds were a steady 10 knots with gusts to near 20, out of the northeast, and the tide was running in. As soon as Jon, Stephanie and I passed the rocks and day-marker just off our dock, the waves were fast, steady and strong. While I thought rowing down to Salem Harbor might make sense, cool-headed Jon thought that rowing straight into the wind was our only option. And he was right. We didn't want to be taking these waves abeam, especially not Jon and Steph who were rowing easy-to-swamp Aldens. We slowly made our way past Gray's Rock, our cockpits filling with water, and headed towards Eagle. Jon and Steph were some 50 yards ahead of me, their boats often out of sight in the waves. Just as I was wondering, "Do I really want to keep rowing dead into this wind", I head Stephanie's voice from behind asking, "Do you want to turn back? It's kind of rough out here." She and Jon were already pointed back to shore, and I didn't argue as I made my own 180 turn towards home. I have never moved so fast in a rowing shell! It was more like body surfing or boogie boarding than rowing, as I tried to time my strokes to catch the waves. And when I caught a big one, I went down the face of the wave so fast that when I bottomed out the next wave would often quickly fill my cockpit. It was great fun! "Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world!" (Beach Boys).

Back at the dock, the long slings hanging off the boat yard crane were flapping away, like sheets on a clothesline. Jon suggested that we have to carry the boats up the gangway on our right shoulders (windward) because left shoulder (a lee) risked having the boats blow away.

My drive back to Melrose was picture-perfect. The sky had the clarity that comes with late-summer mornings; the skyline of Boston seemed so close I could reach out and touch it. A huge freighter lay just past Egg Rock, waiting for clearance to head into Boston harbor.

While the row was cut short by the conditions (Jon said 50 minutes and 2.3 miles, I believe), the company, as always, was superb, and the row was as exciting as it gets (short of risking one's safety).

Rock and row!

Chas