"Hot town, summer in the M-head"

[Apologies to the Lovin' Spoonful] - We had a chance at three teams of 3 today, it would have been oh-so-Pythagorean, a perfect Square. But three prime numbers ain't so bad: 5, 2, and 2 (more about the twos later). Five of us (Paul, Thomas, Steph, Seth and me) headed towards the Beverly Shore, our long triangle leg at 3.7 miles. The wind and waves were mostly favorable, and we were clocking upwards of 5.5 mph much of the way. For me, this was the "hot town, summer" leg, as my shirt and hat were on and I was sweating bullets. Paul called for our second leg: straight for Children's Island, which he kept calling "Cat Island," possibly to confuse Stephanie so much that he might beat her there. At Children's, we rested for a while in that sheltered cove on the NW side. I happened to be resting near a lobster pot, and the pot's owner, in a large, working boat, thought it a good moment to pull his pot. Did he come within 10 yards of me to make a point? To show his impatience? His dislike of people foolish enough to go out on the water in these flimsy craft just for fun? Fortunately, I did move out of his way in time.

We were certainly rockin' and rowin' when we got to windward (ocean) side of Children's, although we weren't getting swamped. It was great fun. Seth made the cut that is passable at high tide, between the main part of Children's and the rock that birds love to roost on just to the south east. I'll bet he had some nice wave action in there!

The row back was the easiest leg, the wind at our stern and the waves just big enough to help us along without making it too bouncy. An 8 mile row, not bad for week two of the season.

One of the two remaining pairs, Stan and Sheila, started down towards Salem Harbor, although maybe they stayed close to Brown's to row with Frank and Loretta, the second pair, who had the opportunity to enjoy some flat water on the inside of Brown's, as the tide was high.