Tag: Blackburn Challenge

The epic silver jubilee 25th running of the Blackburn Challenge is Saturday July 23.  This oar or paddle human powered race in dory, kayak, outrigger canoe or even SUP; Stand Up Paddle, can enter this race around the entire circumference of Cape Ann.

Over 300 boats are all in. Registration ends this Saturday at midnight, July 9. Do not regret missing this race. Gloucester High School start, up the Annisquam, then clockwise all the way around until you paddle under the greasy pole finish line back in Gloucester Harbor. Besides the ability to say that you paddled around the entire island you get a cool Patagonia shirt you can proudly wear showing you completed the race.

Your humble scribe kayaked it last year and was a bit surprised that most every entrant took the race “seriously.” No duffers in the lot. All I wanted to do was finish before the beer keg was drained and I made it. The pulled pork sandwiches were dee-lish. This year I am taking Rubber Duck and my protege, Ed Collard, The House Doctor, around the island. Ed has kayaked exactly three times  in his life, (past four weeks), but he is pumped and may very well tow me over the line.

There will only be one 25th running of the Blackburn Challenge. Sign up now, do it for a charity, but find a vessel and a paddle, slap a GMG sticker on the bow and meet us July 23.

Register here.   Countdown here (18 days left!) My detailed map of course with all the pitfalls here.

Rubber Duck Quick Tip: No dory or boat? Check out Cape Ann Stand Up Paddle right on Pavilion Beach. I bet you could rent for the race, paddle over the finish line right to their rental location. Paddleboards get a head start at Blackburn Challenge!

Saturday, July 23, 2011 is just 199 days away until the 25th running of the Blackburn Challenge. From Gloucester High School up the Annisquam River then all the way around Cape Ann until the turn at the Dogbar Breakwater signals just two more miles until the Greasy Pole finish line. Twenty miles and change total. If you finish under six hours you get nice cold IPA and a pork sandwich.

Last year I was in a 70 pound sea kayak. I made it for the beer. It was an amazing experience seeing the entire shoreline of Cape Ann in one shot. This year I have upgraded to a 28 pound kayak and now all I have to do is use the next 199 days to lose a little winter lard so I can fit in the thing and better my time.

Anyone else want to do it? All you have to do is find a craft one can paddle or row and a bit of stamina. You don’t need as much as Howard Blackburn had, just a morning’s paddle. You swam in Gloucester Harbor on the first day of the year. Here is your next challenge.

My Blackburn Challenge Timer.

Blackburn Challenge website.

Mark your calendars. Donna Lind of the Cape Ann Rowing Club has confirmed today that the Silver Jubilee, 25th running of the Blackburn Challenge will be on Saturday, July 23, 2010. (I had posted a tentative date of July 16, make sure and scratch that out.)

The Blackburn Challenge is a twenty plus mile open water race around Cape Ann using any seaworthy oar or paddle powered craft. There were 300 craft that made it around in this summer’s race and likely more will be entered on the magic 25th running.

There are only 316 days, and 15 hours to get ready. I have a countdown timer for motivation here.

I made a google map of the course with notes here.

Yesterday was a nice day to go for a paddle. Down the Annisquam with over 250 other boats was amazing. These people were serious. The high performance kayaks blow by then those six man outriggers, hut!, Hut! Felt great past Andrews point and wife and daughter can’t hail me because I am ahead of my schedule and off into Sandy Bay when they spot me.

Then I started hitting the wall. Sandy Bay seemed to take a bit of time and the finger and toe muscles started getting all twitchy. Gap Cove, Whale Cove, Folly Cove and out into the chop. By this time the west wind had kicked up and in a kayak it seemed like a washing machine with the echoes of waves crossing the predominate swell. Milk Island on my left would not go away. Paddle paddle paddle, look over and I can still see the damn gulls sitting on their eggs. Am I stuck on a lobster pot? Nope, I’ve blown a seal. Have you ever been to the Boston Marathon around Heartbreak Hill and watched someone crash and burn? They look like they are moving right along but then go all twitchy, bounce around trying to get rid of a muscle spasm and end up splayed out on someone’s front lawn? That would be me off Cape Hedge but there was no lawn to flail around on.

Ellen Degeneres in “Finding Nemo” kept playing in my head, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming”. Turn the corner at the end of the breakwater I felt like I spent a day getting down Gloucester Harbor. The frozen pea plant refused to get bigger. From Good Harbor to Gloucester Harbor I passed three boats which I think each one bailed once I blew their doors off. DNFs. I did finish, the lovely ladies on the committee boat cheered me on and I could still paddle on to Pavillion Beach. Getting out of the boat was another story but by the time I got to the beer keg there was plenty left and a yummy pork sandwich to boot.

363 days until Blackburn 2011. Both my boat and the occupant are going to upgrade by losing a few pounds. And I might get out there more than once and kayak some distance. I made it in a tad less than 5 and 1/2 hours. I can beat that.

I thought I would wake up this morning and not be able to move. But I actually feel great except for the very tops of my thighs that got royally sunburned. One place I forgot to spray sunblock. Went down to Andrews Point and took a few casts at sunrise but nothing happening. Sandy Bay looked different though as I could connect it up to the shoreline of Cape Ann from Annisquam all the way around to Gloucester Harbor.

I haven’t entered a contest wherin someone said ready, set, go, since sophomore year in high school. I participated in sports as a sedentary left handed pitcher. But in 4 Days, 16 hours, I’m signed up to be on a starting line in the Annisquam River for the Blackburn Challenge.

I might come to my senses soon. I think I have enough ballast from the Lattof Farm monkey bread for a steady paddle. Meanwhile I went for my last training paddle on Saturday morning. Hoop Pole Cove, around Andrews Point, bearing 163 to the Straightsmouth Gap, past Gap Cove, and Whale Cove. Off Loblolly Cove the bearing of 219 to Eastern Point pointed into a solid wall of fog. Self preservation kicked in and I turned tail into Loblolly. Mobileme back home is telling my wife I have paddled onto dry land and I get text message, “Want a ride?” Yup. 4.8 miles in 1 hour ten minutes. Could I keep that up for over four hours? My arms still worked on Sunday so who knows? Crossing Sandy Bay there were 3 foot swells quartering me, the wind was in my face and the current seemed to make the lobster buoys look like they might motor past me so there might be hope.

Sunday I was washing my polypropylene kayak with a power washer. Instead of smooth and dark green the bottom now looked like light green fur. It’s over fifteen years old and I’ve been banging it on rocks a bit. So I whip out a heat gun, (a heavy duty hair dryer) and try to blow dry a spot. The fuzz disappears and the surface is shiny! Cool. I then blow dry the whole bottom. Hopefully I didn’t overdue it. When I open the shop up next I might be looking at a cow needing milking draped over two saw horses. I dreamt about paddling a cow and the beer runs out before I make it under the greasy pole. What a nightmare.

But my only fear is that I get in someone’s way. 200 boats wanting to get down the Annisquam river all at once is a sight I have never seen. Jimmy T not winning the men’s dory singles because parts of my boat are stuck to his skeg is not how I want to make it to Pavillion Beach.

I added “The four temptations of Paul” to my google map of the course. (Click on the purple martian things. Hint: first one is at The Market Restaurant.) If you don’t see me on the course you can meet me for breakfast.

I need to post at least one photo. Here is my daughter in said kayak spring of 2006 in Cold Spring Harbor. Our mascot Phil McCrackin looking on:

69 are signed up. Many more will sign up before the July 3rd midnight deadline.

32 Days? How did that happen? I have to seriously stop doing anymore restaurant reviews, drop the fried clams, and get in my kayak.
Click Here to check out the race, enter the race, see the list of registered racers so you can print it out and cheer or laugh as they go under the greasy pole finish line.

If you don’t see me at the greasy pole stop by the Red Skiff in Rockport. I may have taken a detour. (Click map.)