Thursday morning on the river [rowing]

[rebeccmeister]

Our rowing practices always start by sweeping the goose poop off the dock.



Sunrises often change so quickly I don't have a chance to capture the changes.



Further upriver:


Waiting to regroup near the Red Triangle, as we know it. When I showed this photo to R, and how she's giving the camera some major side-eye, she just laughed.



Trees along the river still haven't fully leafed out yet.


We made it just north of the Menands bridge.


The water looks calm here, but there were lots of fishing boats out, waking us as they raced to the next spot to look for fish.


As is true most mornings, I am grateful I was able to get out and row.

Comments

[cmcmck]

That second one is stunning!

[pensnest]

The photos are beautiful, and I am envious of your magnificent river! I used to row on the Cam, where one definitely cannot do widths.

[rebeccmeister]

This river is a pretty special place! However, it wasn't nearly as tranquil this morning as it was yesterday, heh.

Did you ever race in the Bumps? I've only ever heard stories!

[pensnest]

I did! And it was terrifying! I think the Bumps are designed to make you as tense as possible. You row down to the start, park the boat... a five minute cannon sounds, and your coach and his dep start their timers. At the 30" cannon, one of them pushes you into the middle of the river by means of a long pole, and the other checks whether the cannon timing is off and by how much. You sit in the middle until the starter canon sounds (coach will try to count down, but there is a mystery factor) and then you go like the clappers, all the while with a boat behind you doing its best to catch up. My four got so excited on one occasion that the cox forgot her words and had to yell STOP!! because we had 'bumped' without realising, and needed to get out of the way for the next boat to row through.

Never won an oar, but definitely went up a couple of places, which was satisfying.

It is the *best* rowing to watch, though! Ideally from the riverside pub garden, but a blanket and a picnic on the bank will do nicely.