Picture provided by SeattlePI.com. Since there’s not much going on on the visible front for OAR Northwest until October – there is a bunch going on in the background, most definitely – I thought I would give some insight into who I am and what I’m doing while waiting to row the Atlantic Ocean.
For the past week I’ve been located in the desert that is Antelope Valley, California, specifically Palmdale. I cannot understand how so many people can live in the desert! Where do they get all the water?!
My job is to work on the 787 as an Aerodynamic Performance Flight Test Engineer. Our job is to test out the airplane conducting all different sorts of required flights, including Takeoffs at Edward’s Air Force Base and Victorville, and this type of test seen in the video link below in Roswell, New Mexico.
Wet Runway Testing on Local Roswell News Station
Obviously I don’t want to violate some Boeing PRO (rule), so I’m only sharing what is general public knowledge.
But this is some pretty fun stuff. This is why you study and prepare and become the best you can be in order to contribute in an effective manner to the program. Um….oh yeah …(insert key corporate phrase) …Operational Excellence. Bingo! Otherwise you’re just a passenger along for the ride.
If you want to learn more about the airplane, check out this link:
Working 12 hours a day isn’t always the most conducive way to build up a general fitness base, but I have been able to work out about 1.5 hours a day at the local 24 Hour Fitness (shameless plug!) with a steady diet of running, erging, and lifting weights. But as far as training goes, we’re still ahead of the curve. I can’t wait until we’re 6 months out training hours a day.
Oh, and it’s about 100 degrees here (and in the 80s at night), so it’s a good way to get used to the heat.
The Pacific Northwest is definitely a great climate. I look forward to the fall weather.
Seven thirty am was far too early to arrive on the water to float about at that most quintessential of northwest summer events: Seafair, with its culmination of its events: the hydroplane races and the Blue Angles. It was cloudy, cool and threatened drizzle. Continue reading »
Ye olde time map of Grey's Harbor and its surrounding environs
Rick exclaimed after a dinner of fish and chips at the “One Eyed Crab” that he would pay up to $200 to stay in a hotel that night. He only had to pay eighty and to the four of us the two double beds seemed to be acres of mattress compared to the boat. Morning brought doughnuts from an excellent local bakery as well as a great deal of fog that we (mostly me) got lost in on our way to the “Hell Hole of the Pacific” the charming late 19th century name for the Aberdeen Hoquiam area.
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Off to sea, joelrogers.com
I will let Rick go into detail about seasickness, how to suffer and hopefully prevent it at a later blog. For the sake of narrative it picked up as we left Destruction Island. Nighttime on a small boat is a disorientating experience. Combined with the effects of the first few days of sea the mix, so to speak, can get a stomach churning very quickly. The wind was behind us from the northwest and our speed was a solid four knots. Unfortunately this was too quickly for our tide window to enter Westport. Like most west coast bars this is a dangerous bar, especially in a rowboat, and it’s important to enter with the flood tide. Continue reading »
Well. I am now 10 days into my journey of fatherhood. I have done a lot of fantastic things in my life, but becoming a dad is by far the coolest thing that has happened to me so far.
Coming out of the child birth experience, I now have a deeper respect for the female condition and the strength it takes to become a mother. My wife, Becca, was a trooper through 20 hours of labour and 4 hours of pushing. 1 minute contractions spaced 3-5 minutes apart and no sign of stopping, I was witnessing the interval workout from hell.
I would look into her eyes during the contractions that were not numbed by an epidural. Her vision was blurry and distant as she focused on her breath and rode the wave of pain. Interestingly, the pain of each contraction seemed to peak about 40 seconds into each interval. In between, when Becca rested for 2-5 minutes, I was amazed at how normal our interaction became. Obviously my wife was exhausted, but she was very relaxed, getting the most from her recovery.
One comment Becca made stuck with me. “If I try to avoid the pain and run away, the experience is unbearable. When I chose to embrace my body and run into the pain, the experience is… bearable. I kept on thinking ‘Bring it on!’ This gave me a strong feeling of control and the strength to continue.”
I hope I have strength like Becca’s on the Ocean. I know for now, I feel stronger just looking at our newborn son.
aK
A hearty congratulations to teammate Adam Kreek & his wife Becca on their brand new baby boy! Born Thursday 7/22/10 at 12:20 a.m., the new tyke comes in at a lean 4106g (about 9lb) & 52cm (20.5in) but already appears to have well-formed deltoids and lats, prime boat moving muscles. No official word yet from the munchkin’s mother as to whether the little one will be allowed to stowaway for the 2011 race.
Stay tuned…
Recently we heard from one of our new friends in La Push about the Coast Guard helicopter crash just between the mainland and James Island. This is very sad news. We would like to share our condolences.
It turns out that Darryl Penn, the man who graciously helped us out in La Push, and another tribe member were a key part in the rescue effort.
Below are two links to the story.
The picture is of Darryl, in his boat, with Joel Rodgers, along with OAR Northwest just off James Island.
The raised landmass of Destruction Island is shaped somewhat like a comma when viewed from above. Sholes extends in either direction for a great distance. It looks like a huge clawed hand was scraping this part of the Pacific coastline and missed this part. From a distance it looks like a green tabletop eighty feet above waves with a lighthouse somewhat reminiscent of chess piece sitting on top. The island is roughly 16 miles south from La Push and about three from shore. It took us about 5 hours. Curious to see what it looked like up close we cruised around the shoals to the leeward side of the island. Two fishing boats were anchoring here for the night taking advantage of the calm water, something that I think is done this time of year. We overheard them chatting on the VHF about their days catch and the never-ending to do list common on boats. The sun was obscured from behind the island giving a golden luster to the tidal pools and the driftwood on the beach including a very random canoe. Continue reading »
Okay, folks… we admit it… we love Facebook. Seriously, what an awesome way to throw photos & links up to the world, chat about our trips or adventure thoughts, and connect with an audience that wouldn’t have otherwise found this website. Plus, in our drive for sponsorship, the more fans we have, the more leverage we’ll have with prospective sponsors. The big first step is to get 1,000 fans – WE’RE SO CLOSE! Only 82 to go, and you can help:
Visit facebook.oarnorthwest.com or click the Facebook icon, 
, at the top-right of our site, and become a fan! While you’re here, you can also leave a comment for us, or peruse the site and watch videos or read past articles. Thanks for being the best ocean rowing fans in the world.
Left to right, Bev, Emily, Adam and Rick, Joelrogers.com
Darryl Penn is the head of the Quileute Marina here at La Push. His tiny office seems to serve as a place of gossip, social gathering, and information center as much as it does marina business. I assume he gets stressed but he’s not inclined to show it. I did see him thank a young girl traveling with her grandfather for not being one the multitude of teenage girls interested in Twilight, of which we saw several flocks of noted by their matching tee shirts. He tells me he has mixed feelings about it. More tourism good but how long can a movie obsession last? Maybe they will just keep making more. I did find out that according to their ancient creation story that they were transformed into wolves so it seems that Stephanie Meyer was lucky to have such a great local story to fold into a vampire drama. I have not seen or read it yet but I imagine that they don’t really go into other Quileute traditions such making canoes out of single trees big enough to haul three tons of supplies with water lines. Allegedly these were so well designed that they were inspiration for American clipper ships. The tribe, along with a many of the tribes along the Salish Sea still go on many weeklong canoe journeys every year.
We grab a greasy breakfast with Joel at the Rivers Edge, the one and only restaurant in town where we ate dinner the night before. I eat biscuits drowned in gravy. This is probably the last thing…
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