Cows and Flipping

No I didn't go flip a cow but one of the beginner rowers yesterday flipped her single and I happened to be in a single near her so she tried about a dozen times to get back in as the current carried us about 2km downriver. With my limited german, I tried to encourage her but yea as soon as she got a good balance the current would drag the boat and she'd lose her footing. She was one exhausted person after practice.

We finally pulled ashore where some cows were grazing to wait for the 'rescue' :P One of the other rowers had gone back to find the coach who had rowed upstream with some little kids. Apparently the concept of wet launching isn't very familiar with a lot of the rowers here so when I hopped out into the shallow water, they were very confused as to whether I fell out or got out willingly. I just figured that since we'll be waiting for half an hour or so, I would just get out so that I didn't have to constantly adjust my course and I could keep her company rather than sit in the middle of the river. Eh. So the girl ended up getting driven back and the coach held onto the single as the four little kids rowed the coxswained quad back upstream. It was an interesting sight.

So ironically, I had always wanted to see the Weser downstream of the boathouse and now I have--we generally don't row downstream becasue that means you have to work against the current to get back home so usually we do the hard work at the beginning then let the current half-carry us back.

I hope everyone gets a chance to row on a river with a current someday! It sure makes life interesting. The current was strong enough to pull off one of the girl's socks. lol. I'm just glad that she didn't freak out over the course of the hour and a half that it took to get everything sorted out.