97 hit the water in this year's Great River Race

By L.E. Crowley, Town Correspondent

NORWELL -- By hook or by crook, kayakers Sally Gaudaitis and Carolyn Sones were going to be a force on the river last Saturday during the North and South River Watershed Association’s 19th annual Great River Race.

Gaudaitis, 63, of Needham, wearing a red and white bandana, hooked a string of pirate skull and cross bone flags along the pair’s kayak and flashed an arm to show the numerous pirate tattoos the two had painted on their arms.

“Of course, they're real,” Gaudaitis said of the tattoos. “What kind of pirates would we be if they weren’t,” she added, as she avoided wiping the temporary images with sunblock she lathered all over her face and arms.

Gaudaitis had high hopes for a respectable showing — eyeing a first-place finish in the race, if they had to do it pirate-style.

“We’ll do it with intimidation,” Gaudaitis joked, giving her best pirate impression as she and Sones readied their two-person kayak for the start of the 7-mile race at 1 p.m.

The two women were among the 97 registered racers for Saturday’s event that included non-motorized canoes, two- and four-person kayaks, row boats and dories, sculls, and paddle boards, which were allowed for the first time this year.

Gaudaitis was in her first race, while Sones, a 64-year-old social worker from Humarock, had entered the event more than five years ago when organizers allowed sailboats.

“We just don’t want to come in last,” Sones said. “If we’re getting toward the end and we’re last, we’ll speed up.”

In the worst case, the pair expected to be in the running for the best decorated boat — an honor that in years past had gone to Hanson resident Skip Holland for his row of painted, spinning, plastic turkeys affixed to his kayak.

Another first for the race this year was a swim of the 7-mile course by Sara Grady, a 30-year-old ecologist who works for the watershed association and tests the river's water quality. Grady headed out long before racers began lining up for the start.

“It took me three hours and eight minutes,” Grady said at McGreal’s Tavern in Norwell, where racers refreshed with hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, and drinks after the race.

A lifelong avid swimmer, Grady said she took on the challenge to show how much the river’s water quality has improved during the watershed’s 15-year program to keep pollutants out of the river and also to highlight how it could get better. Her swim alone raised more than $1,700 for the association and its work.

Grady went out hours before boaters to ensure she didn’t accidentally get hurt by racers who might not see her in the water. During her swim, she said her husband, Joe Franchese, stayed with her in a safety boat to make sure she didn’t run into any problems and to remind her to take stops to hydrate and refuel.

“I stopped about every 30 minutes for Gatorade and dried apricots,” Grady said. “I did the crawl most of the way and didn’t run into any trouble.”

Samantha Woods, executive director of the association, announced Grady had completed her swim as boaters began to push their vessels into the river for the race’s beginning at Norwell’s Bridge Street. Racers gave the news a hearty cheer.

Racers said the course is a beautiful, mostly smooth route from Norwell to the Washington Street Bridge in Hanover, with a few trouble spots and pitfalls along the way.

Near the first bridge on the route, just a couple hundred feet from the start, strong, swirling currents spun around several kayakers, who had to be helped away from the bridge’s footings. Boaters bumped into each other as they rowed and paddled furiously.

Norwell resident Suzanne Lituri, one of the top finishers in the women’s division, said some boaters were also pushed into the weeds and marshes along the outside of a sharp corner about 400 yards into the race.

“A whole bunch of us got stuck, and the other boaters were racing past us on the inside,” Lituri said. “Would anyone help? No. Yes, there’s competition.”

Lituri said she was quite confident during the race that she was behind only one other woman, Deb McCarthy of Pembroke -- who came in first for the second time -- and could have made better time had she been paying attention at the beginning.

“It turns out I had my paddle backwards. I was really making speed after I flipped it,” she said, laughing at herself for such a silly mistake.

Lituri, who has been a winner in the women’s division of the Paddle for Charity held in Hingham and Hull -- and boyfriend Billy Green kayak the river often.

Green, 33, a Norwell resident, said he paddled from Scituate’s Driftway to the Norwell starting line just to get warmed up.

“It’s fun,” Green said. “We love it.”

McCarthy’s husband, Charlie, spent the last moments of the race taking pictures from Old Washington Street Bridge in Hanover as his wife crossed the finish line first in the women’s division.

“She’s really into it,” he said, noting her outings are year-round, even in the cold of winter.

At McGreal’s Tavern, where the watershed association held the awards ceremony, Jaime Oliver of Scituate celebrated with a cocktail and shared a salute with friend and race supporter Heidi Hickman, also of Scituate.

“It’s a fantastic event,” Hickman said. “It’s a nice way for people to meet each other, get some exercise, and share stories.”

Race Results