Whidbey Island Race Week Bicycle Ride...?

This week was the annual Whidbey Island Race Week(WIRW) at Oak Harbor. This is a gathering of over 100 sailboats and crews that spend five days of intense racing in the waters of Penn Cove and Saratoga Passage and five (or more) days of intense partying. Also known as "adult summer camp", it is one of the few "race weeks" in the country that is actually a week long.

But I did not race in the WIRW. I elected to sit this one out this year. I did come up with an idea to ride the bicycle to Oak Harbor to kibitz with people I knew and possibly get good pictures of boats racing close by the Coupeville Dock. Unfortunately I did not think up the plan until late in the week when the weather was starting to turn nasty.

A few weeks ago I thought I could drive a car or ride the motorcycle to Oak Harbor. But while on a local ride Thursday, I thought: "Why not drive the truck to Port Townsend, park in the Park and Ride, board the ferry to Coupeville and ride the bicycle to Oak Harbor. After all, it is only 14.5 miles from the Coupeville ferry dock to Oak Harbor. It sounded like a good plan.

But Thursday night, the weather started changing. Thunderstorms rolled in from the south. The forecast for Friday was for 50% chance of rain in the morning. Sure enough, by the time I got to Port Townsend it was raining and it only got more intense as I rode to Oak Harbor.

On the ferry, I put on my shoe covers and rain jacket. The ride to Oak Harbor seemed difficult. The rain was coming down hard and I saw some lightning while underway, When I got to the maina, it started raining harder. I talked to friends at the marina, took some photos and after about two hours I started getting cold so I started riding back to catch the ferry.

It seemed like the rain was abating, but it increased once I was back on the road. I rode through the town of Coupeville and walked out onto the dock. The return ride seemed easier. I must have been warmed up better. When I finally got to the ferry, the rain stopped.

It was a fun ride even with the rain. The total  distance was 32 miles, all of it in the rain. I was cold when I stopped and was soaked through. I tend to plan events without regards to the weather and then work around whatever the conditions are. I have good clothing for inclement weather, but I still get wet. I was also optimistic that it would not rain that hard.

EDIT:
Here is a link to more info on WIRW: Whidbey Island Race Week

 Thunderbirds were sailing their World Championship. There were 16 boats and one team from Australia.

 The transient moorage was filled with boats.

 A tradition at WIRW is when Gremlins rename boats on Thursday night. This used to be "Delirium".

More boats at the transient moorage.