Team rowing class in Portland Harbor

Greetings again from Maine!




I see it's been quite a while since my last post, and I hope the intervening time has found you all well and enjoying a great summer.


This summer brought an opportunity for me (Carla) to experience a new sport that I've loved for quite a few years now: rowing (sculling).

Rowing is one of the most beautiful and graceful sports I've ever seen, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that in addition to sculling on lakes and rivers, it's also possible to practice this activity in bays and other calm areas of the ocean.

My first experience with the sport was about 10 years ago at the Bitter End Yacht Club in the British Virgin Islands. The sports center there had an Alden rowing shell but no classes in how to use it. But fortunately one of the crew at the center had rowed in college, so they took me to the beach and gave me about a 5-minute "mini-class" in how to move the oars and navigate the boat, and I was on my own.
Single rowing skull in BEYC harbor

The biggest challenge was navigating around all the boats moored in the harbor, especially since I was facing backwards from the way I was going and I didn't have a coxswain to direct or steer me. Then later I was caught in a storm and blown under this huge catamaran! What a rush. I pulled in my oars just in time and slid through the hulls safely until I came out the other side. My first rowing adventure perhaps wasn't very pretty, but I loved it all the same and I've been hoping to find another opportunity.

Luckily a group in Portland is trying to start a community rowing club to introduce the sport to the greater Portland area http://www.rowportland.org/index.html), and I was able to snag a seat in one of the first classes. The class ran for eight sessions throughout the month of August, and sessions were scheduled around the tides (we need high tide) and of course our instructors schedule.

Rowing is not for the late risers, since the calmest water and least chance of thunderstorms is typically found early in the day. Almost all our two-hour sessions began at 6 or 6:30 am, so we watched the sunrise several times this month.

This was team rowing in an eight-person boat, and the proper term is actually "sweep rowing" because each person pulls only one oar. When each person has two oars this is called rowing and I believe the rowing shells typically hold fewer people.

The eight-person boats also hold a seat in the stern for the coxswain who helps keep us in sync and works the rudder to help steer the boat. They are also the only person on board who can see where we're going because they are the only person facing forward!

Many thanks to my wonderful husband for showing up early one morning to take these photos.

In addition to those shown here, more photos and even a few short videos can be found at my Shutterfly address at:

http://portlandcommunityrowingaug.shutterfly.com/

Enjoy!