Bumps began for W2 on an unusually sunny February afternoon – some say it was warmer here than in Morocco, but I wouldn’t go that far. There was excitement, nerves and apprehension in the air as the majority of the crew faced their first ever bumps campaign. The more experienced members of the crew shared their wisdom with the less experienced as we prepared ourselves for the afternoon of pain that was to come.
As we marshalled we took the time to fill up on Haribo and jelly babies, a well-known recipe for success. The journey to the start line was focused until our practice start drove us straight towards the bank. We recovered and another start settled us and brought back our confidence in that we knew what we were doing.
When the start cannon finally went, we did what we had trained to do. We worked our way through the start sequence and finally settled to the sound of a whistle. Darwin had gained half a length on us. But we were gaining on Wolfson so that didn’t faze us and we pushed harder. Moments later some confusion went through the boat as we passed Wolfson and FaT. They had bumped out in what must have been no more than 30 seconds. A restart or a jump 10 as Robert calls it brought the focus back as we had a new target. Many of us in the boat were not aware of this new target as we were so focussed on our own boat. But this new target was Queens W2. We went through our start sequence again what felt like the hundredth power 10, which closed the gap further between us and we pulled away from Darwin. We were going for the over bump. The boat started to become unsettled as we came into their dirty water but we got the focus back and fell in line again with stroke. The sound of the Whistle and the excitement from the bank kept us powering on. Darwin were chasing us but they had failed to gain further were falling back with every stroke. One more restart and we were within one length of the over bump. We could feel the dirty water from their boat and the excitement from the bank.
Then we crossed the finish line and it was over.
We pulled into the bank and the whole boat began to realise how close we had been. We almost did what many cannot even dream of and we would have done it had the race been longer. Another minute and we would have had them.
We may not have bumped today but we know now what we can do. Tomorrow is another day…and FaT W2 better watch out!!
Taine Ranaghan, bow