Rowing class day 6: day 2 on the water

(Had to get a quick entry done as we're having class again tonight ...)

Weather Saturday was good, overcast with only a tiny wind. I was seat #1 in a boat of eight (we put in four of them). Aina was out so the instructor from the other class was subbing for her. Tom had recruited some more experienced women to "cox," so we got a lot of instruction from a total stranger. She was actually quite good; helped us work on turing the boat, which seemed to be a rythmn of "side A row (forward) while side B feathers the blades across the top of the water to their starting position; now side B back, side A feather ..." We made fairly good progress on the lake, although, truth be told, I think not once were we rowing all eight of us a the same time. I got a better "handle" on "setting" the boat, which is making it sit level. When it's not level, the oars will either dip too deeply in the water or just sort of splash along the top (depending on whether your side is leaning toward or away from the water); several times I found myself really having to dig just to get my oar to return to its original position.

Though I'd been eager for class to start and was impatient to wait so long to get to row, I did actually get worn out a bit before class was over. But it was not my arms that faded; instead, it was my legs, which became tired of having to push the squeaky, ill-oiled seat of the boat we were in backward. I'll try to avoid sitting in that one in the future.

I'm looking forward to class tonight. Here's hoping for calm waters! I won't row again until next Tuesday; apparently everyone is going out of town for a race.

By the way, I'd like to encourage any men on my flist to take this class (next one starts July 3) - it's 3/4 women, oddly enough.

The day before summer begins, my last day of this year

I spent the hour of seven o'clock today sitting on a tiny boat in the middle of Lake Union, listening to some strange man playing bagpipes under the arcade at Gasworks Park while a series of sailboats blew toward me, then frantically changedchangedchanged sails so they could turn around a nearby bouy. (Technically I was on the support launch for the crew team, but as the moment when this was happening was the best part of the whole evening, we'll imagine that it was the focus of the evening instead of merely being incidental.)