Moving forward

CAMBRIDGE -- The sea birds still fly and cry over her as she rows, and the waves still lap against the hull as the bow knifes through the water. Her body moves with power and grace as she pulls the oars, and on a crisp fall afternoon the seasonal change is palpable in the air over the river.

All of this Ariel Gilbert can hear and smell and feel around her, even if she can't see the world with her eyes anymore.

Just before 4 p.m. today, Gilbert, a 50-year-old sculler from Marin, Calif., intends to make history as the first blind rower to complete the Head of the Charles's winding course with its six tricky bridges.

Gilbert will be paired with Olympian Sarah Jones in the championship women's doubles. Jones, an eight-time national team member, finished first in the 2004 Olympic trials and competed in Athens in August.

At the Cambridge Boat Club Friday, Jones and Gilbert (along with seeing-eye German shepherd Hedda) met for the first time since coming to town for the regatta. Then, says Jones, who has rowed the Charles four times, it was time to make a plan for the windy, winding course.

For Gilbert, the race is another step in a rowing career that was interrupted for only six months after a vicious act of vandalism blinded her in March 1988. A pediatric nurse at Marin General Hospital, Gilbert had just finished her shift. She recalls that her eyes felt irritated, so she used some eye drops from a common over-the-counter brand. Right away, she knew there was trouble.

"As soon as I felt the pain, I knew that something was terribly wrong," she said. "I found out later that the drops had been adulterated with lye, and I became the one-in-10-million person who is victimized with tampering."

With bewildering suddenness, Gilbert was living in a dark world. An athlete who loved the outdoors, she became a shut-in, finding some solace only from music and audio books. Her nursing career, her rowing, even just taking simple walks -- all of it seemed gone forever.

"When I lost my sight, everything I imagined trying to be able to do, from just being able to walk through my house to cooking and finding my clothes -- you know, really basic living skills -- was an obstacle to me at that point," she said. "I was a toddler in a 34-year-old body."

While developing her other senses to the point where she could function more easily took several years, there was one thing she found she had left: rowing. She had not tried it for six months after losing her sight. Feeling that she might not be able to balance in the boat because she had lost the horizon line, she was reluctant to try again.

But then a friend persuaded her to join her in a double scull.

"She called and told me I didn't need to see to row, and that she would steer the boat," said Gilbert. "The skeptical owner of the boathouse nervously agreed to let me try.

"And I was nervous. I didn't know whether I could balance. But I remember taking the oars in my hands and taking the first couple of strokes and then I began taking those deep breaths, and I remember just having that feel of comfort go through me and I thought, `Ah, I'm home.' "

Gilbert had found the one activity she could engage in that would let her escape for a while from the ever-present awareness of her blindness.

Moreover, rowing sightlessly presented her with a project, an opportunity to improve and learn new techniques. As her rowing improved, so did the rest of her life, as she mastered ways to make things as normal as possible.

At the Orientation Center for the Blind in Albany, Calif., Gilbert learned independent mobility with a cane, reading and writing in Braille, cooking, and other skills for independent living.

"I attended Guide Dogs for the Blind, where I got my first guide dog, Webster, a golden Labrador retriever," she said, "and I went back to work at Marin General Hospital, first developing X-rays, then as a medical transcriber."

Her first walk with a guide dog showed her that she did not have to measure her steps, that she could walk as fast as sighted people. With her skills developing, and her rowing resumed, she was gaining her self-confidence back.

"Between having a guide dog and rowing, my life has taken on some normalcy," she said.

As her rowing has progressed from pure recreation to competition, Gilbert has become active in the Paralympic movement, which, she believes, will introduce adaptive rowing in the 2008 Olympics.

"I saw the benefit of an adaptive team [through the US national team] as a thing that could open doors to other people who were thinking that they might want to get into rowing," said Gilbert. "And the fears that people in boathouses may have of having somebody who has a disability rowing -- the equipment, the liability, and things -- well, maybe adaptive rowing can break down some barriers."

She has met and overcome a host of personal barriers, one coming in 1999 when she paired with veteran Perry Heffelfinger, who asked Gilbert if she wanted to try the 26-mile Catalina Crossing race. She had her doubts.

"Could I row for six hours continuously?" she said. "Was I strong enough? Could I endure the pain? Was I good enough to row with Perry? In 1998, we tested the waters together, and Perry hadn't spent much time in a double. It was awkward at first. In the beginning, we were like two teenagers learning how to dance."

But from those tentative days came a series of very respectable finishes, as Gilbert's pair racing only improved. And Jones, coming off her Olympic effort, makes the duo a most competitive boat in the Boston races.

"She's just a phenomenal person," said Jones. "Even with all my experience, I'm constantly amazed by her. She's just so fit and well-trained.

"In all my experience, I've never met anyone who has taught me more about the importance of being positive and putting your hardships aside. This is a real reward for me."