No posts for over a week...the weather must have improved. In fact, it has suddenly gone wonderful, with cloudless blue skies and glorious sun. So I've been out rowing quite a bit.
On Wednesday it was a leisurely paddle round the harbour in the afternoon in a Teifi skiff. There were four of us, which is a bugger as it means there is one too many for a two-man+cox Teifi but one short of a four-man+cox galley. So we took both Teifis, one rowing in the bow with the other coxing.
Teifis are horrendous to row two-up but coxless. They weathercock hard, trying to lie abaft the wind, so the rowers have to communicate extremely well if they are to keep on the right course without fighting each other. The best method is for the bow to call a landmark on the shore for both rowers to lock on to. But for a leisurely paddle the easiest thing to do is for one to row and the other to take the rudder. It makes conversation easier too.
On Thursday I spent most of the day in the back of an adventure gig trying to tell a much of insurance agents how to row. Most of them got the idea well, except for a young bloke who had rowed twice with a gig club and knew it all. His timing was all over and he dug his blade in so deep it was a danger to bottom-feeding fish. And he wouldn't be told.
Saturday morning was spent with members of Langstone Cutters Gig Club who hadn't gone to the World Championships in the Scilly Isles. They were a novice crew but were great - paid attention and implemented the advice. They will be great rowers very soon.
Sunday - more tooling round the harbour.
But Monday, a bank holiday here in England, was the highlight. We took Gladys and Mabel out first thing into the fog, which gradually lifted into a lovely sunny day (the picture shows Mark Taylor coxing Gladys, with Mabel looming in the background). Then we went on shore for a fried breakfast with all the evil stuff that non-rowers aren't allowed - black pudding, fried Spam, sausages, bacon, duck eggs, and fried bread. Yum.
