Jeanne Neal got her first taste of rowing when someone dropped out of a novice class her husband was teaching with the Seattle-based Martha’s Moms Rowing Team.

“I jumped in the boat,” Neal recalled, and eventually made the competitive team.

Four years later, Neal and her husband Guy, both Port Angeles natives, are back on the Olympic Peninsula and part of the Sequim Bay Yacht Club. Now she calls Sequim bay her rowing “home course.”

“Sequim Bay is the best water I’ve ever rowed on,” Neal said. “It’s so protected.”

In October, Neal joined teammates from her former Seattle club at the Head of the Charles Regatta, a competition that organizers say is the world’s largest two-day rowing event, held in Cambridge, Mass.

The Martha’s Moms crew of Neal, Jan Chow, Sara Harmon, Gunilla Luthra and cox Brook McCulloch competed in the Women’s Grand Master Fours (60+) division, finishing the 5,000-meter race in 22 minutes 14.496 seconds — good for 14th place out of 20 teams — on Oct. 22.

Some teams and individuals qualify for Head of the Charles by time while others, like Neal’s four, got a spot to compete by a lottery system.

“Rowers from all over the world go there,” Neal said.

First held in Oct. 16, 1965, the Head of the Charles developed after a sculling instructor at Harvard University, advised the founders that a “head of the river” race similar in tradition to races held in England. Races are generally three miles long, and boats race against each other and the clock. According to race literature from the 2017 event, more than 11,000 athletes from around the world compete in 60 different race events.

First held on Oct. 16, 1965, the Head of the Charles was suspended in 2020 but returned in 2021.

Neal also competed for Martha’s Moms in the 2019 Head Of The Charles, placing eighth out of 17 teams in the Women’s Grand Master Eights (60+) division.

For more about the Head of the Charles Race, visit hocr.org.

Now Neal gets her rowing fix with the Sequim Bay yacht Club, where she’s co-captain of rowing club along with Carolyn DeSalvo. Neal said she gets out on the placid Sequim Bay about two days a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though a number of her fellow rowers — those who aren’t snow-birding it in warmer climes — decline to brave the sub-40-degree temps in the winter.

She and her husband Guy Lawrence, who teaches learn-to-row classes for the club, moved back to the Olympic Peninsula in August of 2021.

“I was kind of worried, it’s so different from Seattle, but it’s been great,” Neal said.

Learn more about Sequim Bay Yacht Club, including it’s annual Reach and Row for Hospice regatta and other competitions, classes, social events and more at sequimbayyacht.club.