Due to our relatively late start from the boathouse, we had to forgo
our usual frontstops warmup and instead paddle down in fours. We
quickly caught up to the boat ahead which was paddling in sixes, and
our confidence was further boosted by great practice starts at the
railway bridge and at plough reach. Before we knew it, we were spun,
parked at our station, and the first cannon had gone off.
The next few minutes were a complete blur. Everybody checked their
gates and their footplates for the last time. Matt pushed us out while
Alex counted down. We quickly reached the end of our chain and I was
so focused on holding on to the bung that I didn’t realize we were
aiming for the opposite bank. A few quick taps by Emily (which almost
dislocated my shoulder) set us semi-straight and BOOM! we were off. We
were still in our start sequence when I heard the first whistle.
Having agreed as a crew to push for 10 at every whistle, I called for
a power 10 instead of finishing our sequence. This may or may not have
been a good idea, as we ended up doing power 10 after power 10 at rate
40! Luckily, we soon heard calls of “hold it up” from the bank.
We had bumped!
What a great start to lent bumps! Tomorrow, we are stationed under the
bridge. Bring on the cannons!
Nadia Tsao, cox W2