06.03-04.2023
Jon, Jeramy and myself embarked on Seventy48 2023 and I'm not going to lie, it was WAY harder this year than last...and I deserve it because I said I wanted to do the race in a year where there were the fewest finishers. This year it turns out there were the most participants (131 teams), but only 70 finishers...I came in 48th.
The only thing that was nicer this year was it was clear out (sunny all day and moonlight at night). The sun gave me gnarly tan lines, especially since I didn't put on sunscreen. It was way harder this year due to a northernly wind the entire time and the tides weren't as helpful.
It started off decent with a moonlight paddle through Colvos passage and I didn't even stop on Blake Island, however paddling past Blake and up Bainbridge Island I got incredibly sea sick... Ended up chumming the waters and stopped in at Fay Park as the sun started to rise to have some hot cocoa and regroup my head. While resting, Jon and Jeramy paddled up to camp for a few hours.
I pressed on and paddling during the daylight really helped my sea sickness. The tough part was none of my food sounded good anymore and was worried about having enough energy for the rest of the race. Pretty smooth trip and stopped really quickly at Point No Point before making the final push.
Glassy waters heading towards Indian Island with only the flood tide to battle with (which at the time I thought was hard enough). This part of the trip felt like it took forever as all you can look at is Indian Island very slowly getting bigger and bigger. However once I got there, thats when things go crazy difficult.
A very strong headwind emerged that was super hard to paddle against (plus the flood tide). After winding my way through the Port Townsend Ship Canal finding eddies and avoiding wind as much as possible, the waters got really big in Port Townsend Bay. I tried to just power straight towards the finish, however ended up heading to shore and paddled along the shoreline into Glen Cover until I could surf the waves to the finish...and passed a lot of races on the shore who ended up giving up.
I was super pissed during that last stretch, however looking back I had the energy to finish the tough part of the race so could have pushed harder earlier in the race... good lesson going forward to next year. After the fact, another awesome experience and no regrets, also always good to push both mentally and physically.
Total Distance: 71.07 miles
Duration: 23:42:00
Average Speed: 3.1 mph
06.10.2023
Returned to Japan for a work trip and my Pakayak joined along.
My old stomping grounds, launched from Zushi Beach and paddled south to my old Hayama neighborhood... past the Tori gate down to Isshiki beach and back.
It was good to be back as I've missed paddling in Japan. The trip with the Pakayak wasn't without adventure as I lost a wheel on the bag lugging it from Zushi station all the way to the beach, made it back ok by taking the bus to the station on the way home. Still worth the effort!
Total Distance: 10.84 miles
Duration: 03:07.23
Average Speed: 3.5 mph
Max Speed: 4.9 mph
06.17.2023
Umi-no Park near SeaSide Paradise is probably the easiest launching spot for me staying in Yokosuka since there is a train station really close to the beach and relatively easy trip on the trains to get there.
Paddled around SeaSide Paradise and headed south towards Yokohama in Tokyo Bay. I forgot how rough Tokyo Bay can get in this area... There is nothing but bulkheads for the waves to bounce off of: lots of cargo ships heading to Tokyo plus trains of fishing vessels heading out, makes huge bath-tub waves!
Total Distance: 9.58 miles
Duration: 02:48.54
Average Speed: 3.4 mph
Max Speed: 4.3 mph
06.18.2023
Returned to the Umi-no Park, but this time stayed out of Tokyo Bay and inside the harbor after lapping SeaSide Paradise. After all the fishing boats went out into the bay, a canal opened up where I was able to paddle up to Kanazawa-Bunko Station.
Total Distance: 6.33 miles
Duration: 01:56.43
Average Speed: 3.3 mph
Max Speed: 8.1 mph
06.28.2023
Launched from Umi-no Park again and did a similar lap around SeaSide Paradise after work and ended up catching the tour boat out on the water. On my way back, I noticed someone practicing paddling in one of the canals that looked blocked off. Since he was there, I found a way through the buoys and paddled upstream on the Jijyugawa River past Kanto Gakuin University.
Total Distance: 5.03 miles
Duration: 01:25.05
Average Speed: 3.6 mph
Max Speed: 5.2 mph
