As the sun shines on the righteous, so it was that on Sunday 24th March the RRC Vesta Head of the River Mixed 8 crew of Alice, Ellen, George, Steve, Jonathan, Lenny, Alison, Sheron and cox Sally were blessed with sunshine, a fast stream and a tailwind.
Our marshalling was on point and despite some nerves we were pretty calm – bar the odd shriek from Alice – “inside voice Alice” was the unsympathetic call from me.
We set off at pace through Chiswick Bridge and sat at 32 for the first kilometre to Barnes Bridge, cruising the outside of the bend. The crew couldn’t see it, but I could, we were taking chunks out of the boat ahead of us, and as we settled down after the bridge to 28/29 and a split of 1:29 we took every inspiration from catching, rowing through and past the home team of Fulham Reach almost outside their door!
Sitting tall for Hammersmith Bridge we held the perfect line under the second lampost to loud cries of “Go Ross” thanks to Jonathan’s very loud support crew!
Over halfway now, and the crew continued with a smooth rhythm and the words of coach Clive echoing from Sally through the cox box. Strong finishes, quick catches, knocking off the landmarks one by one. As we came past Craven Cottage and could see the black buoy and lines of boats, the crew stepped up to 32 and pushed the split down to 1.25 over the finish line.
Our live time 20m33s our handicap adjusted time 20m13s. Second of the five Vet C Mixed Crews.
That evening we ate steak, we drank wine and some of us… check photos below for the guilty… went on for cocktails until 2am ????
