goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/blackburn-challenge-on-saturday/
"The Blackburn Challenge, held on July 18 this year, is the premier human-powered open-water event on the East Coast."
The race honors rowing legend Howard Blackburn and is open to all “Swedish steam” (muscle-powered) vessels. The event both celebrates and helps to keep alive the story of Howard Blackburn’s desperate mid-winter 1883 rowing of a small fishing dory from the Burgeo Bank fishing grounds to refuge on the south coast of Newfoundland. Blackburn and his dorymate Thomas Welch had become separated from the Gloucester fishing schooner Grace L. Fears during a sudden squall and found themselves nearly sixty miles from the nearest land. Over the course of the ensuing five-day ordeal, Welch would give up and succumb to a merciful death, whereas Blackburn would allow his bare hands to freeze to the shape of the oars, and row until he reached land. He lost all the fingers on each of his hands to frostbite. He kept a bar for a while in Gloucester, then went back to sea!
Yankeehookele passed under the greasy pole yesterday (I saw several others who post here there, too..Fuzerider, Frosso, etc.). The first ten miles of the course were shrouded in fog offering less than a mile's visibility. One lobster boat not keeping a good lookout could ruin your day.
