"Good Morning Everybody," rang out over the tannoy system at 8 this mornning. It wasn't recieved in the same spirit that it was meant. The day started off in a way that would shape the day as a whole. Although we had planned to get up relatively early, the pubs last night had put pay to that idea. Yet up we were, and to avoid £90 we decided to move on. On moving the boat around, the second of our problems arose, My Wrist.
When we got to the Regatta course yesterday I was keen to take this part of the row under my wing. The course is a mile and half long and if you've never been to a regatta you'd expect a professional 8 to do the course in 6 to 7 minutes. A single sculler may take 8 to 11 minutes depending on the incoming wind, so i was keen to see how we get on. 25 minutes later and we'd barely completed half of the course and were struggling. In one last concented effort I had felt a twinge in my wrist. I hadn't given it much thought at the time, but I awoke this morning to feel it really bad and stiff. Would it be the end of the row? Only time will tell. Can I just confirm that the drinking session last night had no part to play in this.
Our next problem was finding a new place to moor. We didn't want to go to far, as this was supposed to be our rest days and had plans to meet up with friends and family that afternoon. We were informed that mooring was available just the other side of Henley Bridge. However, when we got there we found the space was crammed. We were informed that mooring was available after Marsh Lock, but signs were clearely up saying that mooring was forbidden. So we moved on another mile and found a perfect spot on a little island just near Wargrave. After time to set up the boat and get organised, me and Dave set off for the local station and a trip back to Henley. 45 minutes later and a safari around the island we found that the bridge to the main land had been demolished. We had no way off but with the boat, so back we went and on up the river we went.
A further mile that was prob the slowest we'd rowed since we began, my wrist got us to our a little hide away spot just outside of Shiplake. The only problem, it was miles back to the station and we had no idea which way to go. An hour later we arrived at the sation to find we had just missed the train with a further 45 min wait. We left Henley just after 8am, and we finally arrived back in Henley 6 hours later and both me and Dave, shattered.
I won't dwel on the afternoon as it wasn't quite exciting. We did have lunch in The Catherine Wheel, one of the few pubs we had missed the previous night. A further treat was the visit to The Rowing Museum in Henley. Well we had to visit, didn't we!!! Keith particularly enjoyed The Wind In The Willows exhibition.
Anyway, thats enough for today, lets just hope tomorrow is more successful if not as eventful.
Gary
Ps,
One last bit of news, we found we made one further newspaper: The Uxbridge Gazette! Result!
http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-london-news/local-uxbridge-news/2010/07/05/bid-to-restore-rudyard-kipling-s-boat-113046-26788325/
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