(May 2) Outing #1

All week, I'm not getting any work done in the evening because I'm checking out rowing information - getting psyched for the first outing on our own. With the high price of gas, I'm working from home on Friday's now. I decide to stop early so we can possibly get three trips over the weekend. We discuss what we are going to do on the water: relax and communicate are at the top of the list, safety is there too. We also decide that one would stabilize while the other rowed.



Come Friday, Kathleen is a bit nervous. Not about the rowing but the lifting, moving, and transportation of the boat. She's worried I'm going to move too fast and, with her knee problems, she won't be able to react. My motto becomes "tell me what to do." First time flipping, moving the shell, and putting it on the dolly results in several choice words but we do fine. I head off pulling from the front with the shell strapped at the midway point onto the dolly. Kathleen keeps on eye on the back end to make sure I don't drag it on humps in the road. She pushes when we're going up the hills. We are the spectacle of the neighborhood. Roughly 0.75 miles later, we are at the boat ramp repeating the process as we get the boat into the water. Which direction do those darn oarlocks go??

Kathleen gets in the boat first and I'm next. We stay dry. Woo-hoo! We get started. Staying balanced in the thing is a bear. Moving it where we want to go is too. Much to our chagrin, we are going back into the cove and constantly bumping into docks. One of our neighbors in a fishing boat is very sympathetic. He says it's actually quite windy and choppy out. When we get stuck, I end up "pushing" us in reverse to get us out of a corner.

We must have made some kind of forward progress but, honestly, I'm having a hard time remembering it. I figure out how to keep my oars on the water and stabilize the boat. Kathleen, in the bow seat, does pretty well getting into the motion. I, in the stroke seat, feel completely discombobulated. I was able to do something during the mini-lesson, but today ... nada. I can barely get left over right during the drive. (That's left hand over right when sliding back and pulling the oars to go forward. The oars are long enough to bump the handles together if you don't do this.) I can't figure out what's wrong but everything about the stroke feels uncomfortable.

[No pictures on the water. No one to take them. Won't take good camera on the boat yet.]

We go out to the entrance of the cove. Turn around somehow and head back in. It's bumper cars with docks again. Everything is exhausting. I'm messing up so badly, I'm pretty short with Kathleen. We don't end up staying out for more than an hour. We have difficulties but do the "push" to get back to the dock and exit the shell less gracefully than entering. However, we're still dry above the thighs.

After the walk/haul home, Kathleen says she would close her eyes to focus. We chit-chat with the next door neighbors. Kathleen turns in. I try to watch a DVD. Fiftenn minutes into it, I'm snoring so loudly Kathleen wonders what's wrong. She wakes me, I admit defeat, I come to bed.