Overcoming Defiance

Until today, my training had been limited to laps of the Day Island lagoon and the Titlow basin – about a mile and quarter each lap with a variety of navigational obstacles making getting into a rhythm a little tricky. A handful of local harbor seals and friendly island neighbors cast inquisitive looks my way as I lap past, but, if they’re all thinking what I’m thinking, they’re right: I’m never going to get strengthened up enough for Port Townsend this way.

Over the past few training sessions, my Apple Watch has been encouraging me with wrist taps and gentle bings that I’m doing a decent amount of mileage here while learning the nuances of my boat and without getting into too much trouble. Today, I decided it was time to face trouble.

With the tide in my favor and the wind remarkably absent, I struck out from the cozy Day Island lagoon, ready to tackle Point Defiance. This is not an insignificant task. Point Defiance, once considered by early naval explorers to be a perfect military fort location because of its high cliffs and dominating presence, lies like a unyielding sentinel at the entrance to the Tacoma Narrows. The Narrows itself is pretty deep (over 200 feet) and narrow (about 1 mile across) through which the entire South Puget Sound tide sweeps like rapids four times a day, often at more than 7 knots per hour (~8 mph). Considering some gas-powered outboards can’t overcome such a current, the prospect of rowing the full 4 mile length of the Narrows to round Point Defiance involved the art of nailing timing for the slack tide. Failure to do so could mean disaster, whereby Get Kraken meets an actual Kraken (Giant Pacific Octopus) rumored to live in healthy numbers deep down in the sunken rubble of Galloping Gertie (the first Narrows Bridge nicknamed for its epic collapse in 1940).

I humbly and happily say, I nailed it!

After 3 hours and 15 minutes of rowing, I successfully rowed 12 miles from the Day Island lagoon, up the Narrows, around Point Defiance, and into the Thea Foss waterway to finish at Awesome’s moorage in downtown Tacoma. *insert Travolta-style happy dance* That said, it was not the tide, weather, and current pattern preparation that was the hardest for me to navigate. It was the push back and defiant “oh-better-nots” from well-meaning friends and family, who found it more comfortable to assume no upside to a calculated risk such as this. It is true – there was risk. And there will be risk in rowing all the way to Port Townsend. As one who finds great security in well-researched data, sometimes knowing oneself and trusting one’s abilities, limits, and instincts can provide the right moment to Overcome Defiance.