Race Bio Posted by the Race To Alaska Committee
(human or wind powered vessels)
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"Before Team Serendipity entered the race, when we imagined who we want to be in mur 60s our short list included the words “alive”, “retired” and “tolerably good at bridge”. Then Team Serendipity applied for the R2AK and our list is now lies in the bottom of the recycling bin, a crumpled up ball of college-ruled shame. Team Serendipity is comprised of two 60+ year old organic farmers who are revisiting their lifetime of watery achievement and entering the R2AK to promote healthy, muscle powered sports for those over 60. We are a jaded bunch, but the R2AK crew is notably impressed. Not only are they 60 plus and farming, they are going to row- like the whole 750 miles, wind or no. All of it. This isn’t some naive venture from people hoping to reclaim lost opportunities from their youth, these folks have been there, done that, sheared the sheep, spun the yarn, woven and then sold the t-shirt." ( R2AK Race Bio)
Why We Are We Doing This? (A Question We keep Asking Ourselves)
Ok, so we’re a couple of so called old duffers out for a rowing adventure. Well ,perhaps we are, but we don’t feel old– don’t have a desire to play golf or cards, we just want to row to Ketchikan and then on to Juneau ( another mere 300 miles) to visit my son. The trouble is when we signed up for this race, we thought it would be great to travel with a group, have coast guard support and be a part of a group of other old water dogs traveling in any kind of a floating contraption to Alaska. We scraped up the money to buy the boat ( Biscuit Girl has made the trip once) traded a years worth of produce for part of the price, figured since we are old Northwestern sailors we would have a lot of the equipment. We have both sailed the route a number of times and know the good bad and ugly of the Inside Passage. In fact, with the cumulative misadventures in that area it surprises both of us that we want to go. However, when you have grown up on the water and traveled the inside passage, there is an allure that keeps drawing you back for more, thus, we signed up anyway. Now we come to find out a great number of the contestants are young professional, very well funded Adventure Racing Teams. I just keep reminding them of the story of the “Tortoise and the Hare”.
Our Celebration and Goals
We have a lot to celebrate on this journey. Kim is celebrating 10 years of being clean and sober. Chris is just celebrating her love of life, the salt water and good enough health to even think about such a journey– not to mention adult children and grandchildren who think it sounds like a grand adventure and say they would love to tag along. We also hope to be a model for young and old alike to follow, to embrace healthy living habits, and slow down enough to enjoy the natural beauty of the world around us. It is our hope that upon our return we can host rowing, cycling, hiking and sailing events off our farm that is situated sandwiched between Olympic National Park and Hood Canal in the hamlet of Quilcene, Washington.
This trip has proven to be far more expensive than a couple of organic farmers had in mind, we have invested over $7000 into it so far. We are committed to making the journey and are being encouraged by many who know us and our love for adventure. We are hoping that some of you would like to partner with us for the journey, maybe even to the point of coming to the farm for a rowing, cycling, hiking sailing adventure of your own.. We will outfit the trip or you can just experience a farm stay. Either way we will feed you the best organic farm fresh food ever. Serendipity Farm is not just close to the mountains and the water, it is 46 acres, of produce, horses and ponies, goats, chickens, dogs, small children wetlands and just good old fashioned farm fun. We have offered some perks that we hope you will partake in and we hope to have some of you as guests when we return from our row.
Where Will The Money You Contribute Go?
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To purchase the balance of safety gear needed to make the journey
- To Help pay the young help we must hire to fill in while we are gone. We are of retirement age, but farmers do not seem to be able to retire- so we have to squeeze some adventure into our lives.
- To Help pay shipping the boat home from Alaska
- Any extra money will go into helping mentor the young farmers on our farm fund bee keeping and other projects of interest to them.
Thank you for contributing to our celebration adventure. We look forward to seeing all of you on the farm.
Photos of some of our Perks
Clover Day Sailor - Voo Doo