Surfski Knowledge Base

Rat Island, a river runs through it……..
Larry Goolsby
06/25/05 #381

On Saturday, Joost, Mike H., and I dropped our boats in the water at Fort Casey and paddled over to Port Townsend for the Rat Island Regatta. Other than a lot of current (biggest tide changes of the year), we had an uneventful and fast (40 min.) paddle over. However, just as we got to Fort Worden, the current was moving at it's highest speed and the only way to the beach was to quickly cut across this river. Mike and I tried to paddle upstream against the current but didn't make much progress. The race itself was relatively calm and ran parallel to the channel so you were in and out of the current. Rat Island was the turnaround point of the race and it is really obscure and hard to see until you are just about on top of it.

Very few skis showed up for this, most of the racers were in 1 man, 2 man, 3 man, 4 man, 6 man, 8 man, or 12 man rowing shells (12 small men with a really big cox). There were 2 OC-2s and 1 OC-1 along with a handful of conventional kayaks. Joost jumped on the tail end of one of the 2X rowers and that was the last we saw of him. Mike, Shane baker, and I arrived at Rat Island at about the same time with Mike sslightly ahead. Mike was in my S1-X, I was in my R and Shane was in his S1-X. I let Mike use the S1-X for the race since he paddled it over and I was more interested in the return trip to Whidbey than I was in the race. When we went around Rat Island, my speedometer was reading up to 10.6 and Mike was in a faster current and pulling away from me. However, Mike's boat suddenly spun sideways and in he went. His remount (his very first in an S1-X) was clumsy and he went in a second time. I was grinning from ear to ear because I was suddenly going to be leading this pack and nothing can tip the R over. Almost nothing anyway. I went to pass up Mike and my boat spun sideways and in I went. Shane Baker pulled up to the island and paddled within 3 feet of the shore to escape the current and suddenly I was in the back of the pack. Heading back to the finish was an exercise in futility as we tried to find the best avenues of current. I went way out into the channel and gained on Mike and Shane but lost my place when I slowed to a paltry 5.3 mph. The push into the finish was against a strong current and Mike was the second ski in (Joost first)with Shane 3rd and I was about 20 seconds behind Shane. We didn't wait for the awards because it was going to be awhile (Mike forfeited his first ribbon for his buddies) and started the trip back to Whidbey about an hour before slack tide.

This is the fun/scary part. The crossing started out relatively calm but we quickly noticed that we were moving as fast north as we were east towards Whidbey. Fort Casey was quickly becoming an uphill slog. Halfway across we started feeling the incoming swells and got some small rides that were OK but at about 2/3rds across we ran into the mother of all rip tides. This looked more like a large river with Class IV rapids composed of 6+ foot waves and we had to go through this. Joost went first and shot ahead so fast that he was 1/4 mile away in just a matter of a minute. I went second with Mike on my tail and I found that I didn't need to paddle all that much to catch rides, they caught you. Frequently a large wave would pick up my tail and I would be skimming across the water with my paddle in a brace. I was finally spit out onto a flat stretch (yes, spit out) and I turned to look for Mike. At first I couldn't see anything because most all of the waves were big breakers. Then one of the whitecaps didn't dissolve and it was the hull of the S1-X. I saw Mike try several times to remount, only to get knocked back over by another breaker before he was settled. He was in the biggest part of the rapids and Joost and I were prepared (not anxiously) to paddle back in and assist him. About his 5th or 6th try he got his butt planted and then tried to paddle against the current towards us. He was cranking but going nowhere. Finally he made it to the flat water and we made a beeline for Whidbey to try and get out of the current.

We then travelled south in the calmer conditions and made it back to Fort Casey 80 minutes after we started. My odometer showed that our total distance over and back and doing the race was just under 20 miles. This day signaled a lot of firsts for Mike. First time placing in a race, first time falling off the Huki, first re-entry into the Huki, first time in some really big riptide, and first time paddling more than 12 miles in a single day (I think it was the first time he crapped his pants too). Joost got a first place in HPK class and I didn't have any firsts except for crossing over to the penninsula. Gotta mark the calender and do this one again. This double crossing and race was another epic day in my book.