The smallest of adventures

I took Barb for a row in Rosie. The tide was low at 10:45 so around 11:00 it was still easy to row out the gut, against the current, into the "hole", and around the corner to the right. I wanted to show Barb what it looked like behind Penzance. As we got out towards Buzzard's Bay the waves got bigger - no problem for the boat but Barb wanted to turn back and we did.
On the way back, a motor boat went bye in the hole and left a big enough wake to worry me. Earlier, the same boat had gone bye going fast and left little wake. But it was significantly worse when it went bye slowly. Anyway I watched the wave approach and did something stupid: I tried to race it around the corner of Penzance into the gut. The wave, above the gunnel in height, caught me almost broadside, just as I am passing a big rock. Barb starts voicing worried noises about the rock and the wave crested right next to us. We were thrown sideways but Rosie is no more willing to get her gunnel wet when tilted at 45 degrees than she is at 0 degrees and we were fine. Except the wave was throwing us against the large rock and, as the wave passed beneath me it lifted my left oar out of the water, taking the oarlock with it, out of its socket. So I am distracted by a missing oar on one side and coming down on a large barnacled rock on the other and I row with the one oar that I have on that side, and get us around the corner into the smoother inward flow of the gut. That one stroke of the oar included a bit of sculling, which I do automatically when I am using just one oar. Then I fixed the oarlock, then we were in calmer water.
I want to say that I am right proud of my fine boat. I say it didn't take a single drop of water. Barb thinks it did take a drop but I think that was spray off the cresting wave that came in next to her.