e-mail letter to Emily

Emily, Nice to hear from you! I do, of course, remember you. I am glad you are interested in the Monterey Bay Crossing. Yes, please do prepare yourself well in advance. It is not to be taken lightly, although most of the experience directly depends on the conditions on the day of the event. Lots of folks wear gloves. I think that gloves are effective. Roz Savage swears by kangaroo skin gloves. Another useful trick is paper first aid tape. But that usually rubs off after about an hour. One can take a roll in the boat and re-apply it, for example. Paper tape is slippery enough to avoid gumming up the grips. It's not very strong, though, as a consequence and so it tears and breaks down after a while. I suggest you try a concept 2 erg at a gym. It is annoyingly boring. Work up to a couple hours without a break. That is extremely challenging, even at light pressure. If you can do 2 hours on an erg without a break (light pressure), then you can do the 4.5 to 5.5 hours you'll take to make the crossing. On the crossing you can stop and rest as many times as you want -- rehydrating and refueling. Another suggestion is to row from Santa Cruz to Moss Landing or Moss Landing to Monterey. Both of these routes keep a sculler closer to shore. I don't recommend you do them alone or solo, even though I have. Mostly, however, what i think it takes is a lot of practice. I think I would discourage any Monterey Bay sculler to shy away from the Monterey Bay Crossing until and unless they are comfortably rowing half the distance (i.e. at least 12-13 miles) in a morning workout on a regular basis. Last suggestion: row in a double with an experienced partner the first time. There are lots of other personal guidelines for anyone when preparing for the Monterey Bay Crossing. You don't need to know them for training. But you'll be much better prepared if you chat with those who have done the crossing many times. A few of my favorites: * chafing clothing. Make sure you know your clothing will be okay and not rub you even when wet and even after 4+ hours * blisters. probably gonna happen. generally heal within a couple days. * potty breaks. probably need to know and practice how to pee in the boat. one may not need to in a 5 hour event but chances are good * hydrate. hydrate. hydrate. fuel, too, at least once. these can be combined. * practice long rows with the same habit as the row. Same hydration. Same fuel. Same clothing. Same boat. Same rigging. so you can count on it. * make your heading with a GPS and make your heading with a magnetic compass and make sure you can get across the bay to Monterey with just the compass in case your batteries die and it's foggy. * practice getting up and rowing before the crack of dawn. more than once. For you, in particular, i suggest you come to Santa Cruz and rent one of our shells and go out with a partner. An Aero is stable, if slow. Go out and head straight toward Monterey. Go at least 3 miles if not farther. This will help verify your GPS and compass headings and show you what the back view looks like for the first portion. Sundays a group of ladies rows together. if you join them several times you'll become comfortable and competent. They usually go for 1 hour or longer. highly recommended. I am happy to connect you with those who generally go on Friday or Saturday or Sunday. I am sure any of them will welcome you and help you get oriented and launched and returned in an Aero. Let me know. In fact, if you want to do the crossing in an Aero then there's nothing stopping you, i think. Our club has plenty of them available as rentals. Much more stable than the Peinert Dolphin although slower, too.