Row, Row, Row Your Boat … The Blackburn Challenge is Saturday, July 25th.
A Marathon for Rowers and Paddlers – the Blackburn Challenge is a ‘marathon’ for rowers is named after famed adventurer Howard Blackburn who demonstrated courage, endurance and perseverance against the odds. Originally from Nova Scotia, Howard Blackburn was fishing out of Gloucester for halibut from the schooner Grace L. Fears. A winter storm came up suddenly, stranding Blackburn and another fisherman in their dory. Blackburn lost his heavy fisherman’s mittens overboard. Knowing that his hands would freeze, he held them in a curved position that would allow him to slip his frozen hands back over the oars. Five days later-days virtually without food, water or sleep, Blackburn had rowed back to shore. His dorymate died en route. Blackburn lost all of his fingers, thumbs, and toe due to frostbite.
The Blackburn Challenge is a 20+ mile open water circumnavigation of Cape Ann. For…
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