Morning row
Well of course. I had to row back this morning. I was hoping for our
usual so'wester, but as usual, the winds gods were flukey. The wind
was still from the north east which would be trying to blow Twisted
Seagull off course all the way, especially away from shore.
I walked the 10 minutes to the harbour from my house, stopping to by
a nice stainless steel thermos and have it filled with coffee at the
Tim Horton's near where I was moored. (No, I didn't allow for tidal
range, and Kingston's giant fresh water tides had TS hanging three
feet off the water by her far too tight mooring lines, yeah right!)
Then I hopped in TS, lined her up with the channel and gave ONE pull
on the oars, letting her glide I adjusted my custom cushion (life
vest) and filled my new ss coffee mug. Sipping the fresh hot (notice
I didn't say delicious) coffee I watched the wake as TS glided an
easy 30 yards on the calm water of the inner harbour. Nice glide.
That's why TS rows so nice I guess.
So I rowed along the shoe the entire way, seldom more than an oars
length from the rock, docks and pepple beaches.
Exiting the harbour I pointed the pointy end east and glided past the
tall gray walls of Kingston Pen, the guards were watching me, but
chose not to return my friendly wave. I guess they're not paid to be
friendly. As I passed the prison I discovered a small little rich
man's bay, protected by a breakwater. It was idyllic, deep shade from
overhanging trees, a famil or two of ducks, a little secluded beach.
Ricght here in d/t Kingston.
This was really cool. I was up close and personal with the rich
people's homes on the waterfront. Nice multi million dollar shacks
with custom breakwaters and private little harbours I hadn't
previously know existed.
Scared a few duck families, had a big Husky dog run up to the end of
a millionaires dock and just sit and stare at me as I rowed by. He
seemed to be almost daring me to touch HIS dock or HIS beach. I just
made a few "kissy" "kissy" noise to further confuse him as to just
what this was going by and continued on my way.
As I was rowing along the park in front of Queens U and the hospital
I was passing walkers with a cheery "good morning!" delivered free
from the anonomys rower. Joggers were a tad faster, but all waved and
I got a few huffy "His!". Through all this I rowed easily, pauseing
every now and then to pour more coffee and take a sip as I rested on
the oats for a few seconds.
Passing the KYC I was into the full force of the gale (well the
walkers didn't even notice it, the 5 knot gentle breeze, that is!),
but TS sure did, she wanted to turn about and head for New York state
in it! For about half a mile I was pulling only on the starboard oar
to keep on the couse I wanted. Then I rounded the breakwater to the
Kingston Confederation Basin and finally had the breeze dead on my
bow. On this course it was simply cooling, not trying to blow me
sideways.
Another 15 minutes and I had TS tied up on her little $100 a year
dockage in the Kingston Marine, threw the oars in Rusty, my pick up
and was only 10 minutes late for work. Last night same distance row
took 45 minutes or so, this moring bucking the breeze it to 80
minutes. Gotta' plan for that.
Surprisingly, none of my muscle groups are sore or complaining at
all. My but is though, gotta' get a softer cushion. And my hands are
getting toughened up and whining for a drop of hand cream.
Gotta' get another coffee and get to work on TIMS, we don't have a
single car booked today, so it's BOAT BUILDING DAY! Horray!
Bruce Hector
http://www.brucesboats.com
usual so'wester, but as usual, the winds gods were flukey. The wind
was still from the north east which would be trying to blow Twisted
Seagull off course all the way, especially away from shore.
I walked the 10 minutes to the harbour from my house, stopping to by
a nice stainless steel thermos and have it filled with coffee at the
Tim Horton's near where I was moored. (No, I didn't allow for tidal
range, and Kingston's giant fresh water tides had TS hanging three
feet off the water by her far too tight mooring lines, yeah right!)
Then I hopped in TS, lined her up with the channel and gave ONE pull
on the oars, letting her glide I adjusted my custom cushion (life
vest) and filled my new ss coffee mug. Sipping the fresh hot (notice
I didn't say delicious) coffee I watched the wake as TS glided an
easy 30 yards on the calm water of the inner harbour. Nice glide.
That's why TS rows so nice I guess.
So I rowed along the shoe the entire way, seldom more than an oars
length from the rock, docks and pepple beaches.
Exiting the harbour I pointed the pointy end east and glided past the
tall gray walls of Kingston Pen, the guards were watching me, but
chose not to return my friendly wave. I guess they're not paid to be
friendly. As I passed the prison I discovered a small little rich
man's bay, protected by a breakwater. It was idyllic, deep shade from
overhanging trees, a famil or two of ducks, a little secluded beach.
Ricght here in d/t Kingston.
This was really cool. I was up close and personal with the rich
people's homes on the waterfront. Nice multi million dollar shacks
with custom breakwaters and private little harbours I hadn't
previously know existed.
Scared a few duck families, had a big Husky dog run up to the end of
a millionaires dock and just sit and stare at me as I rowed by. He
seemed to be almost daring me to touch HIS dock or HIS beach. I just
made a few "kissy" "kissy" noise to further confuse him as to just
what this was going by and continued on my way.
As I was rowing along the park in front of Queens U and the hospital
I was passing walkers with a cheery "good morning!" delivered free
from the anonomys rower. Joggers were a tad faster, but all waved and
I got a few huffy "His!". Through all this I rowed easily, pauseing
every now and then to pour more coffee and take a sip as I rested on
the oats for a few seconds.
Passing the KYC I was into the full force of the gale (well the
walkers didn't even notice it, the 5 knot gentle breeze, that is!),
but TS sure did, she wanted to turn about and head for New York state
in it! For about half a mile I was pulling only on the starboard oar
to keep on the couse I wanted. Then I rounded the breakwater to the
Kingston Confederation Basin and finally had the breeze dead on my
bow. On this course it was simply cooling, not trying to blow me
sideways.
Another 15 minutes and I had TS tied up on her little $100 a year
dockage in the Kingston Marine, threw the oars in Rusty, my pick up
and was only 10 minutes late for work. Last night same distance row
took 45 minutes or so, this moring bucking the breeze it to 80
minutes. Gotta' plan for that.
Surprisingly, none of my muscle groups are sore or complaining at
all. My but is though, gotta' get a softer cushion. And my hands are
getting toughened up and whining for a drop of hand cream.
Gotta' get another coffee and get to work on TIMS, we don't have a
single car booked today, so it's BOAT BUILDING DAY! Horray!
Bruce Hector
http://www.brucesboats.com