Bhansen97_at_aol.com wrote: > > Nick's tale of near-collision with a fast-moving rowing shell "struck home" > with me. Just a few days ago I was paddling back toward a put-in on the inlet > to Cayuga lake here in central NY, as the Cornell crew was practicing. Only > one shell was near me, and I moved far toward the right side of the channel > to give them plenty of room. They were really "booking"! Woudn't ya know it, > when they were about 20 yards from me they suddenly (!) veered to their left, > aiming right at me. Like Nick, I powered out of their way, and collision was > just barely avoided. I'm not sure how they managed to change direction as > abruptly as they did - and I'm not sure they were even aware of how close we > came to colliding. Testosterone is such a wonderful thing. It certainly is. And it doesn't have to be males. When I was paddling a multiday trip on the Hudson, my partner and I in our double at about 6 am (we started at 3 am each day to take advantage of the ebb current) came up into an area where several university rowing crews were working out in Poughkeepsie. We had already put in about 14 miles. One of the women crew's spotted us and waited for us to come abreast before blazing off and leaving us in their wake. Any competition is fair competition even if two old men in a double Klepper. I chuckled to myself knowing that we would have another 20-25 miles yet to go on the river that day and had started hours before that day. Back to males. Testosterone driven crews are totally oblivious. One of the scariest things I ever saw (from the deck of sightseeing boat) was a two man outrigger crew crossing the middle of NY harbor on Labor Day weekend at a full clip oblivious of the crisscrossing ferries, sightseeing boats, pleasure craft, sail boats, etc. Just a bee line across about 2 or 3 miles of some of the busiest waters around. They never turned their heads and were totally focused on their target ahead, The Statue of Liberty. What balls!!! ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Mar 11 2000 - 09:03:44 PST
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