Celebrate Day 4
— Celebrate Dharma Voyage —
Day 4
Community Rowing Starts
BEN BOOTH
After our first program out on Penikese Island, the Voyager spent a stint of time in Bristol, RI at the Herreshoff Marine Museum. For those not up on their sailing history, the Herreshoffs are a famous yacht design and build family. Much of the glorious history of the America’s Cup sailing race and the US domination of the event for its first century is centered around the creative genius of the Herreshoff designs. So Voyager was in good company!
A little aside here: In one of the historic boathouses, the Voyager underwent a little experiment as we rigged her with sliding seats. This was an interesting phase in her life, and worked at the time. Later on, we brought her back to the traditional fixed seats that she has today so that she could play with the other Pilot Gigs!
While in Bristol, we had a team train for our first expedition row. This was to be the first of our trips from Gooseberry Neck to Penikese and Cuttyhunk islands. The eight-mile row across the open water at the mouth of Buzzards Bay is amazing, beautiful, and potentially quite challenging. This first team consisted of a mix of college students through young adults. They certainly hit the challenging end of the spectrum on this trip. Going across, we were met with fog. Coming back was a wild ride in the wind and notorious chop that rises off the Massachusetts South Coast. But this team proved that the trip was possible and set the stage for our youth expedition rowing adventures that would come later and trace this same course.
There is one story in particular that stands out from this first Dharma Voyage trip to the islands…
It was evening on Cuttyhunk. We were about to embark upon our journey back to Penikese, when I heard this sudden yell: “Guys! Look! The water lights up when I move my leg!”
Kevin, a late 30s guy from the Midwest, was staring at the water and was simply giddy with excitement. He was thrashing around in the water and nearly screaming with wonder. This was his first experience with a phosphorescent sea. Ah yes, it is an amazing planet we live on with much to discover right at our feet. This has been a recurring theme in our rowing program – the discovery of how much beauty is right here. It is the Dharma Voyage – the essential journey – which is really a looking at who we are and where we are, right now.
Voyager continued to put in the miles. We did a circumnavigation of Aquidneck Island with relay teams from high school age through adult, who rowed 42 miles in one day, starting and ending at the Herreshoff Museum. We had kids from New York City come up and row “in the country.” We did a yoga retreat and had the yogis learn how to row, and followed that up with a Tai Chi rowing experience.
Then we moved to Westport. I remember one day in my backyard musing over “how am I going to get Voyager to work in this town?” when moments later, Howie Gifford walks into my backyard and says “I heard you have a big wooden row boat. Do you want to show it in the Westport Fisherman’s Association Wooden Boat Show?” There’s some serious fate there!
With Voyager in the Westport Wooden Boat show and a little signup to row clipboard casually secured to her bow deck with a beach stone, there was an explosion. Dharma Voyage Community Rowing was born. The synchronicity of that event is amazing. Westport was ready for this. In short order, crews were formed. A fleet of beautiful wooden rowing boats populated a nook on the Westport River. Before we knew it, we had volunteers, a whole system of member management, a waiting list, an online signup platform, nearly a triple digit rower roster. This all grew organically, from the community. I never imagined that Voyager would expand into all these boats and people, but I think that is a lot of what a Dharma Voyage is about – it is an organic evolution as a community embarks upon its journey of discovery.