At 7pm on Friday October 15th the crew will leave from Tacoma, Washington for Victoria, British Columbia where we hope that if you are in the area, you will stop by and see our boat. Then come to a cocktail party presentation and learn about our upcoming row, and our charity Right to Play (click on the image to the left for details of the event).
We’re hoping the 112 nautical miles (129 statute miles, 208 km) will take 30 hours, needing to roughly maintain 3.7 knots. This kind of speed would get us across the 2500 nm Ocean in just under 28 days – 4 days faster than the current record. Now a lot of other factors have to be taken into consideration: 2500 nautical miles is the distance between the Canary Islands and Antigua as the crow flies. Ocean rowing, subject to both current and wind, to a high degree ends up being anything but a straight line. There are also the differences between ocean currents and the tricky tides of the Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca, as well as the likelihood of swells and waves in these inland waters. That being said, the Strait of Juan de Fuca is very capable of putting up ocean-size waves. All summed up the challenges of 112 nm between Tacoma and Victoria could be much easier or much harder than an equivalent day in the middle of the sea. It’s just up to the weather and other conditions on the day itself. If we make our goal of 30 hours we will be that much closer to gauging our actual speed. Ultimately you race like you practice, so we have to practice hard.
So if you are in Victoria and free on Sunday come on down. Hope to see you then.