Author: Malcolm

Sunday had always threatened to be rainy, but would it be heavy / light & would it impede our plans to row down the Tay?  

When Sunday dawned & Sally, Roisin, Andres, Neil & I met in the yard at 7am – it was wet. It rained most of the way to Perth, & it seemed intent on setting in for a thoroughly miserable day.

We launched from the slipway of the Perth Sea Cadets, Anstruther were already there when we arrived, & North Berwick followed soon after. B ut Port Seton, the hosts, were later than expected. We set off at 9.30, 4 skiffs & a rescue boat. The rain was unremitting, but spirits were high as we embarked on our adventure. The flow of the river & the tide helped us, but soon a breeze blew in from the estuary. The rowing was good & we rotated as usual to keep warm & share the load.

After  6/7 miles we arrived in Newburgh where we took a planned break. Being first out of the boat I was quickly ankle deep in slimy mud, yuck! We were welcomed by 3/4 folk who are about to start building a skiff, & got the use of a large shed for having our snack & coffee. Whilst there, it became apparent, that the other teams were intent on jacking in the rest of the row: the wind would be too strong, the tide would be against us by the time we got to Wormit, it was dangerous etc etc. I’m happy to say that none of Rowporty’s intrepid explorers had any such qualms, & we quickly decided to proceed with / without them. Andrew in the rescue boat would have come with us, but was needed for driving. So we set off on the last leg alone.

By this time the rain had stopped, & although the day remained overcast it stayed dry for the rest of the row. We slowly dried out, & enjoyed lots of banter; although it was hazy, we could see the Tay rail bridge from quite early on, but tantalisingly, it seemed to take us forever to get there. Although the wind was against us, we’ve rowed in much tougher conditions at some of the regattas. But it was a long row, so we were glad to arrive at Wormit, between the 2 Tay bridges, after a 2^1/2 hour row from Newburgh. Andrew, of the rescue boat, had phoned to check on our progress, & was there to meet & help us out of the water.

 Despite the early rain, we had a cracking day out, & arrived back in Portobello at 5.30 having stopped en route for a well earned drink in Cupar.

 Thanks to Brenda of the Perth Sea Cadets for turning out to welcome us, Andrew & Andres for reccying the route, Andrew for rescue boat cover & Newburgh folk for giving us shelter in a shed.

 

 

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Ali Grant writes:

Just to report that not only is it possible to row up the Tweed, but it is stunningly beautiful to do so. We began the day with an early kick off from Porty at 7.30am, but were at Tweedmouth in little over an hour.

When we got there, there seemed to be skiffs coming from all directions.

We launched at the mouth of the Tweed in the company of at least 11 other skiffs – including three new ones to the fleet – from Grace of Gosford, Puffin of St Abbs and less than 24hrs after being painted, Dunbar’s second boat, Black Agnes.

The sun shone and we went under 3 magnificent bridges, passed under the A1 and then headed into the countryside for a leisurely 5 mile journey to take in the scenery.

The journey was pain free until the last mile when the wind made an appearance and wasn’t in our favour, so a bit of a slog. This paled into insignificance when we arrived at our destination at Paxton House, to be met by a welcoming committee and a number of picnic hampers.

A trek up a hill and we were at the house itself and made straight for the team room where we refueled with cakes, Yorkshire puds and mega sandwiches. A great trip and one we should definitely do again…..soon!

Thanks to Fergus and Osbert for driving and to fellow crew members Barbara, Patsy and the very capable, Chris from Eyemouth who came to our rescue (because someone who shall remain nameless didn’t arrive in time! Luckily Barbara got a lift with one of the safety boats and joined us after the A1 (ed.)).

We await news of the crew that rowed the boat down the river, with the current flowing and the wind blowing in their favour. Chancers!

Osbert writes:

I got to row up the Tweed and to cox Icebreaker down the river, and in the absence of a report from the chancers, here’s my mine:

We had plenty of time after lunch before the scheduled start down the river at three, so we got the boat on the water.

I decided the new crew shouldn’t miss out on the experience of rowing up current into a strong wind, so we headed up river for a while.

After an invigorating warm up we arrived at this amazing suspension bridge, before rowing gently downstream to find the rest of the fleet had left early and were only just visible in the distance.

We were content to take it easy, even experimenting with sailing – our large flag was big enough to give us steerage way, but the bamboo cane is not strong enough to be a mast.

After a burst of activity to try, unsuccessfully, to catch the others, we reverted to ‘Sunday rowing’ as the sun was beating down despite the strong breeze.

With the current, wind and steady strokes we soon arrived at Berwick, giving the chancers their first view of the impressive railway bridge and the city walls.

The rest of the fleet were on the beach and slipway, and without having to hang around Icebreaker was soon out the water, onto the trailer and heading back up the A1.

What a great day! Not just the location and all the skiffs, but also the chance to row, chat, and have a laugh, all without the pressure of racing!

Peter Ashe writes:

Immediately before the prize-giving on Saturday evening, one of our hosts said that their approach to medal-making had been like a primary school sports day — make a lot so all can have prizes. And something similar seems to have happened when trying to write about the event: it’s proven very hard not to write a school sports day report.

(Image via Ewens of Ullapool who run passenger transport services in the Highlands of Scotland, hope they don’t mind us using their photo. Ewens – if you do, let me know!)

Anyway, first a little background and context: for anyone who hasn’t been to Ullapool, here is a photo  of the part of Loch Broom where we rowed. It’s a wonderful amphitheatre with hills sweeping down to the water all round you. Our course on Saturday was — looking at the picture again — from the start a little to the right of the yellow crane on the town’s foreshore, across the loch to a mark just in front of the white blob (a cottage) on the far headland. Then a starboard turn away along the lochside to a mark out of shot on the right. Once round that, the final leg was along the front of the row of houses on the shore line to a finish back by the start line.

The weather conditions on Saturday were always breezy, and even blusterous some of the time. But neither rain nor midges!

While warming up for the first event, one of our crew was heard to remark that this was the first time this year he could remember racing without a hangover. Well the first leg, into the teeth of the breeze and against the tide, was guaranteed to sweat any toxins out of the system. The second leg was relatively sheltered from the breeze and with the tide — fast but not swoopy. But the third leg was right across the tide flow, parallel with any chop that the breeze had kicked up — a guarantee of a hard finish.

Our winning row in the men’s 35+ wasn’t as easy as we’d perhaps hoped, in view of commitments later in the schedule. Credit to them, Achiltibue never let up. But two seconds was enough. Our Women’s 35+ faced a blustery first leg — the breeze had kicked up at that point, but we had a swift second leg and an admirable second turn and acceleration out of it (given they’d already been rowing hard for 20 minutes) to overtake Boatie Rows in about 20 strokes — it’s strange how swiftly positions can change. The Ullapool team won that one — justly gratifying for them with their new daily training routine.

What about lunch, you may ask? We (the support team anyway) made our own on the beach, after a lightning raid on the local Tescos, and people ate on the run.

After two more commanding performances in the Mixed 35+ and Men’s Open (the latter beating Achiltibue into second place…again), the Women’s Open team faced a tough challenge from the locals. After steering an intriguing course into third place on the first leg, they rowed a blinder along the shore, overtaking (it’s not easy to pass someone in a straight line) Boatie Blest about three-quarters of the way along the leg, to finish second. Finally, Achiltibue won — at last! — with our guys a bit tuckered out by their exertions in previous races (for one of our Mixed Open crew it was his third race of the day: next time you are out, try rowing for nearly an hour at full pressure!).

So with those results under our belt we adjourned firstly to the pub, then to a ceilidh in the evening. Wonderful inter-generational dancing, a raffle, and prize giving, including the new overall shield which we won by a handsome margin.

Here is Andres trying to look surprised Image thanks to and copyright of Ullapool Coastal Rowing Club

Full race results here.

Then on Sunday, the early morning clouds and midges cleared and most of us went to the barbecue further up the loch, by skiff, traditional sailing boat (think ‘We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea‘), or car. Meanwhile your correspondent’s team decided to potter off home early so as to be able to take several cups of coffee along the way. True to this spirit, we stopped for a break before even leaving Ullapool. It was really much too nice a place!

 

Here are the teams for the North Berwick regatta on 27th August. May change once we know the order of racing. (Reformatted 19/08/11) Continue reading “Teams for North Berwick regatta” →