Thursday, April 16, 2015

A Piece of History ~ leaving flesh on the oar

The alarm went off at 4:45am which meant it was time to row with the Dolphin Club. Dragging the body out of the bed and jumping into rowing attire, then shooting out the door to drive into SF. The boat was prepped, and then as a team ~ all six of us rowers and the coach Charlie headed over to the South End Rowing Club (SERC) to have a pre-regatta meeting and sign up. Turns out the route was the same as last year ~ starting at Aquatic Park just outside the opening and rowing along the piers of the SF waterfront down to the Bay Bridge, rounding the "B" tower in a counter-clockwise direction and then coming back through the middle of the bay to ride the strong ebb.

In this annual regatta last Sunday (the 12th of April) we had the standard match race against SERC's Hurley barge and we beat them by over ten minutes. Once in a practice, Andrea Fabian stared down at her hands following the long row and she remarked "there is flesh on my oar (from her hands)" ~ true enough. We all leave a lot of flesh on those oars and then sometimes I ponder how much flesh has been left since 1888 when the boat was built. More history of the vessel can be found here.


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