Surfski Knowledge Base

Rat Island, a river runs through it……..
Larry Goolsby
06/25/05 #381

On Saturday, Joost, Mike H., and I dropped our boats in the water at
Fort Casey and paddled over to Port Townsend for the Rat Island
Regatta. Other than a lot of current (biggest tide changes of the
year), we had an uneventful and fast (40 min.) paddle over. However,
just as we got to Fort Worden, the current was moving at it's
highest speed and the only way to the beach was to quickly cut
across this river. Mike and I tried to paddle upstream against the
current but didn't make much progress. The race itself was
relatively calm and ran parallel to the channel so you were in and
out of the current. Rat Island was the turnaround point of the race
and it is really obscure and hard to see until you are just about on
top of it. Very few skis showed up for this, most of the racers were
in 1 man, 2 man, 3 man, 4 man, 6 man, 8 man, or 12 man rowing shells
(12 small men with a really big cox). There were 2 OC-2s and 1 OC-1
along with a handful of conventional kayaks. Joost jumped on the
tail end of one of the 2X rowers and that was the last we saw of
him. Mike, Shane baker, and I arrived at Rat Island at about the
same time with Mike sslightly ahead. Mike was in my S1-X, I was in
my R and Shane was in his S1-X. I let Mike use the S1-X for the race
since he paddled it over and I was more interested in the return
trip to Whidbey than I was in the race. When we went around Rat
Island, my speedometer was reading up to 10.6 and Mike was in a
faster current and pulling away from me. However, Mike's boat
suddenly spun sideways and in he went. His remount (his very first
in an S1-X) was clumsy and he went in a second time. I was grinning
from ear to ear because I was suddenly going to be leading this pack
and nothing can tip the R over. Almost nothing anyway. I went to
pass up Mike and my boat spun sideways and in I went. Shane Baker
pulled up to the island and paddled within 3 feet of the shore to
escape the current and suddenly I was in the back of the pack.
Heading back to the finish was an exercise in futility as we tried
to find the best avenues of current. I went way out into the channel
and gained on Mike and Shane but lost my place when I slowed to a
paltry 5.3 mph. The push into the finish was against a strong
current and Mike was the second ski in (Joost first)with Shane 3rd
and I was about 20 seconds behind Shane. We didn't wait for the
awards because it was going to be awhile (Mike forfeited his first
ribbon for his buddies)and started the trip back to Whidbey about an
hour before slack tide. This is the fun/scary part. The crossing
started out relatively calm but we quickly noticed that we were
moving as fast north as we were east towards Whidbey. Fort Casey was
quickly becoming an uphill slog. Halfway across we started feeling
the incoming swells and got some small rides that were OK but at
about 2/3rds across we ran into the mother of all rip tides. This
looked more like a large river with Class IV rapids composed of 6+
foot waves and we had to go through this. Joost went first and shot
ahead so fast that he was 1/4 mile away in just a matter of a
minute. I went second with Mike on my tail and I found that I didn't
need to paddle all that much to catch rides, they caught you.
Frequently a large wave would pick up my tail and I would be
skimming across the water with my paddle in a brace. I was finally
spit out onto a flat stretch (yes, spit out) and I turned to look
for Mike. At first I couldn't see anything because most all of the
waves were big breakers. Then one of the whitecaps didn't dissolve
and it was the hull of the S1-X. I saw Mike try several times to
remount, only to get knocked back over by another breaker before he
was settled. He was in the biggest part of the rapids and Joost and
I were prepared (not anxiously) to paddle back in and assist him.
About his 5th or 6th try he got his butt planted and then tried to
paddle against the current towards us. He was cranking but going
nowhere. Finally he made it to the flat water and we made a beeline
for Whidbey to try and get out of the current. We then travelled
south in the calmer conditions and made it back to Fort Casey 80
minutes after we started. My odometer showed that our total distance
over and back and doing the race was just under 20 miles. This day
signaled a lot of firsts for Mike. First time placing in a race,
first time falling off the Huki, first re-entry into the Huki, first
time in some really big riptide, and first time paddling more than
12 miles in a single day (I think it was the first time he crapped
his pants too). Joost got a first place in HPK class and I didn't
have any firsts except for crossing over to the penninsula. Gotta
mark the calender and do this one again. This double crossing and
race was another epic day in my book.