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SEVENTY48

Tacoma to Port Townsend. 70 miles, 48 hours, no motor, no sail.

target 2027Late Maydream, not a plan
Thea Foss Waterway, Tacoma
The Thea Foss Waterway in Tacoma, where it starts on a Friday at 7 PM · Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0

The idea

The little sibling of the Race to Alaska, run by the same people out of Port Townsend. You leave Tacoma on a Friday evening under your own power and you have until Sunday evening to arrive on the beach at the Northwest Maritime Center. Surfskis do it in ten hours. Rowing boats do it overnight, with a nap on a beach somewhere near Kingston.

This is the first one because it needs the least: a boat I can row, a weekend, and a willingness to be cold at 3 AM off Point No Point. It is also the one that puts me on the same beach as the R2AK crowd, which is the point.

“The distance always feel impossible until you do it, then it feels like something anyone could do.”drownedchipmunk.com, solo kayak race report

The route

Tacoma · Thea FossOwen BeachColvos PassageBlake IslandFay BainbridgePoint No PointFoulweather BluffPT Ship CanalPort TownsendN20 nm
SEVENTY48 — route sketch — schematic, drawn from waypoints, not a chart. Don't navigate by it.
distance
70 statute miles
when
Late May / early June (2026 ran May 29)
boat
Rowing or pedal boat, TBD

A sketch of the schedule

Roughly how it goes, from the people who have done it. Numbers to be corrected by weather.

whenwhat
Fri 19:00Start, Thea Foss Waterway. Round the Owen Beach mark inside Point Defiance.
Fri nightDalco and Colvos Passage in the dark, west of Vashon. Flood helps.
Sat dawnBlake Island, Bainbridge. Eat something real.
Sat afternoonKingston to Point No Point. Beach nap if the body says so.
Sat nightFoulweather Bluff, then the Port Townsend Ship Canal (mandatory).
Sun by 19:00Beach finish between the NWMC dock and Pope Marine Park.

Pictures to remember it by

Port Townsend from across the water
Port Townsend, the finish · Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0
Commencement Bay, Tacoma
Commencement Bay, the start · Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0

When, honestly

2027

Apply in the Nov 15 – Apr 15 window, register by May 1, row it that spring. Finishing is the whole goal. A beach nap is allowed.

Resources

Other people's accounts and the official pages. Read these before believing anything above.