Women rowers Dale McKinnon and Robin Clark visited Anacortes last month to quietly honor fellow rower Betty Lowman Carey and her husband Neil Carey. Lowman Carey rowed solo from Guemes Island to Ketchikan in 1937, McKinnon rowed solo from Ketchikan to Bellingham in 2005) and Clark rowed with Sue Dandridge from Ketchikan to Anacortes in 2007.

Lowman Carey and Dale McKinnon are the only two solo-rowers of the Inside Passage — men or women — and Clark and Dandridge are the second women’s double to have rowed the dangerous route. 

Ms. Lowman’s exploits were legendary when I was growing up in Anacortes in the fifties and sixties.  Word was she also used to swim the Guemes channel, over and back.  An amazing woman for sure!