Water, 5/20, 5/21

[Thom]

It was a fantastic afternoon on the lake today! And that only happens when the boat's full so — Thank you, Alan! Thank you, Annie! Thank you, Dawn! And thank you, Mike! (alphabetical order, in which I come last)

I felt that we really put a lot more trust in Annie today and gave her only general instructions. She definitely took the ball and ran with it! Dead-center between the buoys each time, called out approaching traffic, called out a wake -- excellent coxing!

And all of it efficiently done. An hour's workout in an hour on the water. Nicely done!

[alanbrandenburg]

I thought the boat run more smoothly last night. This in spite of the port siders missing water and taking one memorable crab. Dawn is so nice and steady in the second seat. She rarely misses a stroke and really smooths us out. She is the Tim Foster of the boat.

As a nonmotorized boat we have the right-a-way over powered boats (I used to teach Coast Guard Auxiliary courses), but unfortunately this does us a fat lot of good since none of the yahoos on the lake have taken a course. The other boats will come close but should see us, due to our huge size. The wakes are really only tough is they catch us parallel. If we row into them, we shouldn't be too affected.

We should also get our cox a whistle to warn boats that are veering from us.

[magnuson]

Agreed on the whistle. Bullhorn might be nice, too! I wonder if we could check out a bullhorn from the Rec?

[dawnbrady]

Yay, I finally have a nickname! (Damn, I have already forgotten which one was Tim Foster. Perhaps I need to pay more attention to Miracle at Oxford.) Seriously, though, I am amazed by how well our crew is doing. When I began rowing, we had a coach in the launch boat barking at us, and it still took much longer to get where we already are. I'm glad to hear that, perhaps, I am not doing terribly. It is very frustrating that my muscle memory seems to have faded into oblivion, but I do feel like I am relearning. Yesterday was pretty awesome, even when my thumb blisters made oar handling painful.

I would like to propose that we do a full dock launch:

Starting at shoulder level, with everyone split opposite their riggers.....:

Up over head (with each hand supporting one gunnel)
Grab an inside hand hold (with other hand on 'inside' gunnel)
Down to waist (roll the boat down)
Onto the water (don't recall the right command here)

Any vehement objections?

This morning, the minister's mom was near the ergs... and she chatted up a young man, "Are you married?"
Young Man: "I'm just getting divorced."

That was just for your entertainment. Sorry this is so long.