Great Race 2011 revisited

Thrilling at the start...the water was fresh and turquoise at Devereux. But it got dark and turbulent as we rounded the first bend.
I was surprised that many of my RnR mates dropped out after the first mile since I'm sure they all have rowed in worse conditions. But hats off to them for reading and heeding their own risk meters.
Challenge to row in the waves... 3 footers with lots of random chop.
A following sea on the rebound gave us good surfing. If you caught a wave just right, you could just lay back and ride. Felt like 8kts.
I never saw Emily and Thomas in the double. They must have been flying.
Terri, Chris, Jean, Howard and Kimberly all seemed to take things in stride. Terri was in my sight the whole distance about 100 yards back. Steady and nicely balanced all the way.
Eileen had no worries. Fountain of positive spirit. Born to row.
Jigger blew past all of us in his Zephyr by the time we got to Castle Rock.
We were rowing gingerly near Marblehead Rock through some annoying chop and a fair headwind. All of a sudden Paul’s Aero went belly up and Paul was in the water. No breaking waves, but a bad catch of the oar in the stew. I took the opportunity to stop and have a light snack while waiting for him to recover. One cup fusili in boiling water, two tbsp pesto, …sterno would not light so I had to eat it Al Dente. No shortage of water in the cockpit for washing dishes. One sorry chap in a kayak crossed the finish line ¾ submerged, his boat was so full of water. Where was I…..oh yeah…
Back in his seat and shaking off the mishap, Paul gave a thumb's up, hollered out a "Rock n Row, Baby" or maybe that was just the sound of a masterful recovery, and then he was back at it! He chose a tight path around Children's which I thought was risky due to the current. He could have been pushed right into the rocks. My strategy was to tack out until the waves could push me straight to the far end of the island but Paul called it right and ultimately had the advantage from there to the finish. All the while, Dave Greten was taking the long way around and even rowed behind the little islands on the inside of Children's… probably added a half mile to his route by that! Nevertheless he came close to beating me at the finish. Strong rower, Dave.
Jim was heroic. The oarlock on the Aero he was rowing came (or was) loose, so a couple minutes into the race, he turned around. I thought he was ill and didn't realize until the end of the race that he had grabbed Capn's Aero and started over. In terms of a staggered start time and sheer resolve, he smoked the lot of us!
So at the end of the season, we should all relinquish our medals......Paul's to Jim, mine to Paul, Dave's to me...although Dave should get a medal for the extra half mile! Maybe I should just forfeit mine because earlier in the Summer I promised to fix the Aero oarlock.
Scratch that...I'm not giving up my medal...Even though the race was rather incestuous, I register it as a personal triumph ...so let's just make a new medal for Jim!
All in all, mates, we did well. Those who decided to turn back did so wisely. It takes as much fortitude to do that as to continue on. Those of us who did continue, powered through the race very carefully and it was a total frolic!