What Am I Rowing Towards? (Color vs B&W Comparison)

Before I begin explaining this image I want to thank everybody for offering such wonderful feedback.  Your comments are a tremendous help!

To be honest I was on the fence about this image.  I have spent almost a month on this image due to my love of b&w (thanks to the darkroom course which made me appreciate it even more) and color.  At the same time I did not want to PP this image to death so I kept it as is and did some minimal sharpening.

When I converted it to b&w I wanted the image to have a classic B&W film look.  I also wanted it to be a bit more dramatic and outside of the box instead of something cookie cutter.  However my intention was not to make it depressing.

In the end I decided to post to give the viewers the best of both.

Again thank you to everyone for taking the time to comment on these two images.