We had two crews for WivGigs Super Sunday.
Well, that was the plan, anyway.
I made my way down to the Sailing Club hard, shortly before the arranged 8am meet up.
Oh, it looks a little sparse.
Varuna’s crew was ship shape and all set to launch. VERY organised.
Meanwhile, my crew in Audacity was struggling on the numbers front.
We need a minimum of four rowers and one cox, right? How about three rowers and a cox? Or even four rowers and no cox?
Gosh.
Life shit gets in the way for everyone. We were two down from the planned crew. We were also rather experienced, and so decided to press on with the launch.
Who needs a cox, anyway? Overrated.
We were pretty much rowing blind down towards the edges of Brightlingsea. Our cox was able to navigate us out into the estuary, and then he added his muscle power so the boat was pulling equally on both sides.
This is fun, isn’t it?
It actually was rather liberating. Having no one tugging away on the rudder could be physically felt. Audacity was rowing in a pure style with no external interference.
Just how the chuff do we steer this thing?
We developed a technique largely centred around communication, and then reacting.
“OI! There’s a buoy coming up on my bow side!”
Time for stroke to ease off a little as bow puts the blades down with some extra pace in the water.
Thankfully the estuary was calm and empty of other river traffic for so early on Sunday morning.
There was little time for the usual observations. If it ain’t a buoy or another boat, then it’s not worth focussing on.
I did think at one stage that I saw a seal by White House Beach. But it was a dog, natch.
We cocked up the turnaround at buoy 20. You try turning a HULK of a boat with no one steering it.
The incoming rain we could see over Brightlingsea got the better of us. Now was no time to be all at sea.
Back to base!
It was quite an effort heading towards Weird Wiv, even with the help of the incoming tide.
But we made it.
That was quite a Sunday morning adventure. For someone who is most deff not a team player, I thought I played a blinder.
