Catalina Channel Crossing 2009

The Catalina Channel Crossing.
A 9 man change race. (See here to view a water change.)
Saturday - 27 mile race for women from Newport Beach to Catalina.
Sunday - 31 mile race for men from Catalina to Newport Beach.

The big push Jessica and I and all of the SFOCC team have been paddling for. Over weeks, over months. Over calloused hands and tight back muscles. In the cold, chill, fog of the night and the quiet calm of the early morning. The 4x a week practices often in the same damp, smelly clothes. The ad nauseum excuse of "Sorry, I can't. I have to paddle."



As the collective strain of so much paddling, work, apartment hunting, trip planning and general life mayhem conspired against me leading up to it, the day of reckoning finally came. And of course, no less than 24 hours later, I wanted to be back out there paddling across the channel again. It was an incredible 48 hours - jam-packed, frenzied, then over far too quickly.



In as quick a summation as I can muster because I'm still totally high from the experience:

LEAVING SF:
Jessica and I left SFO around 4:30 on Friday afternoon. Highlight: Texting each other w/Virgin's texting system and ordering Karma champagne. Seemed like a good way to start. Boo ya, Karma!

ARRIVING NEWPORT BEACH:
Christy, our captain and steerswoman, and Tammy picked us up at John Wayne airport and we zipped over to the launch area in Newport Beach to help rig the boats and meet the rest of the team for a debrief on the water changes (i.e., who would be jumping out of the boat when and getting back in where). Non-highlight: Rubbing up against the greasy underside of a large truck and totaling my swank new bday gift from Jess - a Whitest Haole zip-up (Rick, I LOVED it!) Alas, here for good time not for long time. Sigh. We finished with a crew dinner at The Yard House, handed out custom-designed tanks as gifts from Jess and me for 2 Live Crew, made a quick stop at the supermarket and then headed back to our hotel for the night.



RACE DAY:
6am and we all met at the launch site. As per paddling life, it was hurry up, stand around not sure what to do, walk back and forth, chat, hug, sit, wait and then finally it was time to launch the boats in the water and paddle the 4 miles out through the Newport Harbor to the start. Our 2 crews shoved off with an energetic S-F-O-C-C shout out and with building energy and excitement paddled out past italian-like villas and enormous boats on our way to the edge of the jetty. Highlight: Shouting out to other clubs, dropping Boo-yas, hearing someone yell "Go 2 Live Crew" as we passed. It was a calm, relaxed warm-up for the day ahead.


I wish I had a picture of the start - I'm searching. 40+ boats all lined up fairly tight; sort of holding water, sort of paddling ahead very slowly. We saw boats from our fellow northern California clubs and wished them well. We saw our other SFOCC women's boat. We saw a crew of young girls in bikinis and another in matching pink visors. A steerswoman in the boat next to ours kept yelling for people to stop paddling because we still had 10 minutes or 5 minutes until start time but the boats would drift and then others would start paddling. Slowly, steadily, everyone started paddling to stay in line with the boat next to them until it seemed as though we were almost paddling at 65% though the race had yet to officially begin. It went on for maybe 15 minutes.


Then someone shouted out "yellow flag" and we saw a yellow flag being waved from a boat off to the right. "What is that?" "Is that paddles up?" "Are we starting now?" Confusion. We were still paddling to stay in line with the other boats though there was no indication we'd begun. We watched the flags. Yellow went down and then green came up and everyone yelled GO! GO! GO! Highlight: That moment when the race starts and the energy shoots out of those first 4 changes and the hut/ho's as you extend max effort to drive yourself out of the gate and get ahead of the line. It's full of power and excitement and nervous energy rippling from every muscle.

And so it went, we settled into our pace with Amy steering. 20 or so minutes in we did our first water change with 1, 2, 4 jumping out of the boat. No problems at all. Girls got in, girls got out, and we were back on our stroke rate in no time. Race plan was to focus ahead of us, not behind, make our race with the boats closest and work our way to pass each one just ahead. We caught Oceanside and Dana, but Dana pulled back ahead. We fought off a charging Kilohana (?). Over the next 5 hours we jumped in and out of the boat, fueling up as needed on the chase boat with Phil overseeing our changes. We had stellar combos that propelled the boat and some combos that struggled. But we kept strong and positive and focused. There were no egos, there was no drama. The first 1/3 was propelled by excitement, the middle 1/3 by a quiet sense of determination, and the final 1/3 by the thought that it was, alarmingly, almost over. Highlight: Everything. Seeing Catalina Island appear through the fog. Cheering on other boats. Cheering on each other. Water changes. Feeling the power of a strong crew combination.

We crossed the finish buoy on the edge of Catalina Island amidst a cluster of moored boats and other outriggers, a full party already building on the beach where we would eventually take out. The other SFOCC crew was already finished and waiting to greet us. The boys had arrived too. It was all hugs and high-fives and story telling as we made our way back to the docks to meet the chase boats and unload our gear. Nothing felt tired at that point - just pure adrenaline coursing through my body.

POST RACE:
Beers, stories, paddlers all about Avalon - broad shouldered women tanned and laughing. Broad backed men in board shorts rolling in. Lots of hugs. A cute rental house up the hill from the main strip with a view of the ocean and a breeze blowing through the curtains - very Maine-like. Cocktails, more stories, meeting up with the rest of the SFOCC team and the men who'd filtered in for their race back to Newport Beach the next day. Lots of laughter, lots of fun, lots of boo-ya'ing and pictures. A quick trip to Vons for a bottle of celebratory champagne and another stop to see "Mona" where I picked up 2 cute board short/bikini outfits. Ah, Mona. Girls gone wild? Hardly. We were in bed by 9:30. Highlight: All of it. Seeing the crew in their tanks. Meeting up with almost all of the Catalina SFOCC folks. All the various paddlers around town. The ice cream at the end of the evening. A warmish summer night!!

SUNDAY:
Up early to take pictures of the boats stacked up against each other and to enjoy the town without the deluge of tourists. Avalon is really cool at that hour. Paddling crews started to convene around the docks and we found our and wished them well as they headed out.

The girls would be taking a sailboat back with Patrick's dad. Or so we anticipated. Armed with a six pack of champagne and OJ for mimosas, we were cocktailed up and lounging across the boat shouting out "hurrahs" to the men's crews as the race began. 20 minutes later our boat was smoking and 5 minutes later the lifeguard was beside us. We ended up having to get towed by vessel assist (the AAA of the seas) to Newport Beach and missed seeing most of the mens race until we caught our 2nd boat at the tail end.

It was a bummer not to be able to ride right alongside the race and cheer our team on but in the end, we got across AOK and did get to see our one boat for awhile. As it was, Jessica and I had to make a mad scramble off the boat to find a cab to get to the airport to get home. We barely made it.

So all in all, I think I paddled a total of maybe 3.5 hours - less than a 4 hour practice but at a harder rate. My hands started to get a little chafed and getting myself into the boat got a little harder with time but other than that, no problems. No seasickness, no clothing issues, no sunburn. We all fared pretty well in my boat. Amy said we had a killer start - that we were right out there with the big girls. That was encouraging. Of course, we trailed off with time but Phil was upbeat in our chase boat so we had to be doing enough right to make him happy. There were 5 of us from SFOCC and 4 extras picked up from various clubs. With that diversity, I think it was excellent that we gelled well and were able to pick up each others' strokes with relative ease. Not having paddled together as a crew was an unknown variable. The strength and experience most of the other girls brought outweighed that.

Still reading? Phew. I'm tired just writing all that. Words barely do the weekend justice.


Okay, so I take it easy for a spell, one more race around Angel Island this weekend, paddle for fun and activity and social connections and then wham! Right back in for 2010!

Results:
Women - SFOCC 1 5th spec/8th overall (4:35:21) / SFOCC 2 8th spec/35th overall (5:03:13) (total of 60 boats)
Men - SFOCC 1 7th spec/7th overall (4:11:10) / SFOCC 2 17th spec/39th overall (4:54:24) (total of 58 boats)