Big fizzer . . . !

Weather:  Fine but threatening . . . winds light and variable

Temp:  About 15

River Condition:  Calm

River Level:  Rising from 0.460m at 10:00am - but we didn't find out how high

Boats:  Mitchell

Rowers:  Judy O, Neil

The Geese would have done better . . .

Come on you guys!!

Judy O and I fronted up to the shed with eager anticipation – and when we realised we were the only two rowers we ‘quickly’ signed out the Mitchell and got it on the trestles ready for rigging.  This is where the first (but minor) problem became apparent – the nut on the bow side stroke rigger was missing.  It took some minutes to locate a replacement, but the problem was resolved.

Once under way we discovered the next (and again minor problem) was the fact that I rigged my stroke side oar on the wrong side of the gate.  This is of coure a trick for young players - and old players as well it would seem! 

And then we discovered the next (more serious) problem – I could not steer the boat!  Now some less kind people would say that would not make any difference to the way that I steer, but we decided to head back to the deck and sort it out.  Unfortunately the cable needed to be tensioned and the required tools were not at hand . . . so we gave up the idea of rowing and cleaned up the boat and went home instead.

We also noted another problem when we got back to the ramp . . . the Mitchell is somewhat unbalanced.  No, this is not a reflection about our rowing mate Ron, but the boat quite dramatically flops to bow side when it is sitting in the water.  This was also evident when it was on the tresles. 

Note to self . . . carry more tools!