“Too Windy”

It was officially "too windy" to row today but we didn't figure that out until we were actually on the water.

The first clue should have been our 'interesting' getting away between the two docks (Coach acting as coxswain: "Hold on port, row on starboard HARD, NOW!!" which is loosely translatable as "Holy Sh*t and get moving you lot!!") The second might have been that there were no, not one, count'em: ZERO birds (mallards, geese, coots) on the water. And the third clue? Oh, that would be the black line across the lake and the fuzzy white stuff behind it and the speed with which it was bearing down upon us.

The two legs were not too bad and the new Learn to Row student was totally into it. Then it got somewhat exciting: sort of like surfing only without the standing up part. And no wet suits which was the kicker: when the waves were getting hung up in the riggers, breaking into the boat and soaking everyone but the bow and the only person with dry anything (remember the water temperature is still in single digits up here) was me (because my feet are so short that wearing my wellies in the clogs helps my drive), coach decided we were done.

The Learn to Row student figured that was part of a normal row and couldn't understand why we were going in.

Sure hope she's not going to be bored when the water is like silk.

Warmed up

and still breathing

Back at it…

It has been noted that there has been a dearth of posts about my rowing addiction passion. There is a very good reason for this: no rowing. It has been a long and row-less winter made more difficult by the facts that: (a.) it wasn't my fault and (b.) from late September to today, there were only 34 days that the lake was unrowable. The "not my fault" has to do with previous executive decisions leading to ending of tenancy and consequent moving of all equipment into storage. The placidity of the lake for the winter has to do with Mother Nature listening in while I was going on in August about how much I was looking forward to rowing when the cowardly water-skiers put their machines of infamy boats away and left the lake to sensible people and the wildlife who deserved it.

Today, however, there is Rowing!! After a winter of hard-work and a lot of pieces connecting up, boats and blades are out of storage and rowing was done this morning. Yah! and also HOO!!

There are, of course, a few things that need to be remembered. Things such as

1. no matter how much I want to, I cannot, by the force of my own will, make the water temperature in the lake in April rise above 3 degrees Celsius
   
2. no matter what a good idea it was to give that bag of Wellies to the shoe drive two weeks ago, I should have listened to the still, small voice asking "are you really sure about that pair from New Zealand leaving the premises??"
   
3. launching from the beach means feet will be in the lake
   
4. while it is not possible to get hypothermia from four 6 second immersions of legs to knees, said 3 deg C certainly gives one an incentive to work on one's boat balance so one doesn't have the full immersion experience.
   

I found a pair of overlooked Wellies when I got home. With grace, they won't leak.

Roll on Tuesday morning!

 

Still breathing