Reunion And Our First Races

We are now into our second week over here in England. We have been busy getting the boat together, setting it up, getting the blades through customs and getting the boat from Shiplake to Henley to Dorney Lake for the Marlow Regatta.

Our blades made it!

Let's start with the reunion, Henry, Brad and myself met up on Tuesday in Henley to swap stories of the training they've been doing. Then we headed to Shiplake College, where we had organised to stay. It's a private school which has an amazing set up. We met the Headmaster and we were shown to our "basic" accommodation. A room each and a small kitchen with milk on tap. We are also eating with the kids and the school's motto is "Eat To Win". Naturally we have taken this to heart and one or two times we have had to loosen the belt.


We started back into the training with an hour erg which brought up some horrible memories and some bad words toward Joe for not being there. The boat we have is the same as the Hudson that we were training back in New Zealand which is fantastic and very easy to set up. We had to test it out so we had a student fill in for Joe. The school is on the Thames and with all the rain lately the river is running very quickly. Think Wanganui minus the sheep.

The next day we started getting a bit restless so after dinner we took a road trip over to Stonehenge, unfortunately we decided to do this at about 7pm so when we got there we couldn't even bribe the security guard to let us in. Not wanting to waste an opportunity we went to the Avebury Circles which was a much more interactive experience. The whole evening it was pouring with rain and the ground was quite slippery and this is where Henry slipped in his chinos and got grass stains and managed to rip them.

Not quite there...

After all this excitement the next day was a nice sunny one so we rowed the boat down with just the three of us to Henley so that we could get it on the trailer bound for Dorney Lake. You can see the trip in the Pictures tab along with the rest of the tour so far. It was a cool experience sitting in the locks and gradually sinking down to the next level. We had to tape Joe's sculls to the boat.  We were also lucky that the river was flowing so quickly as it made the journey swifter and easier. Our landing at Henley was almost disastrous though, even though I had angled us perfectly, the river was running so quickly that the blades were caught and we almost flipped. That would have been embarrassing.

Coming up to the first lock

Lock opening up

Finally that evening Joe arrived much to our delight, but we couldn't row because we had derigged the boat. Our first row was the heat of the Marlow Regatta. Being the location for the Olympics, the set up was much changed from the normal area and so the athletes were placed in a nearby field and we had to boat in the warm up area. This wasn't too bad, just like Mercer back home, except Mercer didn't have prickles everywhere. Jandles, rowers footwear for any occasion were rather inconvenient this time. We only just had the boat rigged before we had to get on and we also found out that we needed a number to go on the bowman. After a run around we got our act sorted and went on the water for the first time.

Back together!

A beautiful summers day

The weather wasn't that great with a massive side wind. There were quite a few crews drifting across lanes. We took off out of the blocks and we quickly got a lead and then dropped into cruise mode for the heat. We came back to Shiplake so that Joe could study before heading back for the final. The racing had been delayed so we had a bit of twiddling our thumbs before we got into the blocks. the side wind was so bad we had three people touching on stroke to keep us straight. We had tougher opposition in the final and we didn't get a massive lead. Instead after a bad stroke we found ourselves chasing a crew from Imperial RC and we couldn't push past them. We finished half a length down but a fair way ahead of the rest of the field. Once the race was over, Joe had spent 24 hours in the UK and we had done our second row together. We were disappointed to find out that we would have won tankards and a plaque though.

Today we have a 1000m sprint at Dorney Lake which hopefully is more successful. We are glad that Joe is now with us and we can get on with getting the boat moving fast again. Even with all the time apart, once we got in the boat the old feeling was almost back. Some tough speed sessions should sort that out. We are getting very excited with Reading Town Regatta next Saturday and then Henley after that. It's game on!