Rowin' on the Charles!

Last week I decided to take Jack up on his generous offer and borrowed the Alden Star to row in the Ernestine Bayer Race On The Charles. I decided that I needed to do a trial run over the course since I had never rowed on a river or in a race and wanted to get a feel for what it was like. My partner in crime, Sarah, offered to help me out. As luck would have it she was able to borrow a boat from Jean. Thank you Jean. So this past Saturday we loaded up the boats onto the roof of our cars in preparation for an early start the next day, Sunday. The race starts at 7am so I wanted to see what it would be like at that time of day. I downloaded all kinds of maps off the Head of the Charles website, along with directions to the drop off and pick up sights. I arrive at Sarah's at 5:45am and proceed to follow the directions,we finally manage to make it to the starting sight, only to find the park which is the starting point is closed and there is no place to put our boats into the river. Sarah ventures over to one of the rowing clubs and asks questions and find that we can put in at the finish.
So once more we get into our cars and manage to find the park at the finish. We walked the shore line to find a spot to enter since there are no public docks(I guess they use portable floating ones the day of the race), unload the boats and with the help of my sister(who showed up) we make it into the river. We left an orange cone(that happened to be on the sidewalk) on the bank so we would know where to get out. It was very exciting to see different types of sculls, lots of college boats with their coaches trailing behind. So off we go ...learned the rules of the road from a fellow rowing down river...it was amazing to me how the river twists and turns and how fast those bridges come up! But we made it to the start and picked up some great tips listening to the team coaches.On the way back I went ahead of Sarah and timed myself and tried to plan a strategy for race day!! I am so glad we went.
What a fabulous day. I have always dreamed of rowing on the Charles.