Cork ... the loneliness of the long distance rower

[Rachel]

On the last weekend in May Bembridge, Sallyport and 12 Cutters made the long trip to Cork to row in the Ocean to City event.




The early start time of this year's race made it impossible to get the boats there from the Friday lunchtime ferry so Barry, Tim and Steve left Langstone on Thursday evening and travelled through the night arriving in Cork some 14 hours later to make sure the boats were at the start and the trailer at the finish for us. The rest of us arrived late on the Friday and of course went straight to bed to be ready for the race....well that was the plan anyway.



The pre-race preparations were a great chance to meet other crews and admire each others boats which was just as well really as with a start time 45 minutes after most of them we weren't destined to see many of them again until the finish! The course is 17 miles and a lot of it is on very open water so the waves were sometimes challenging and finding the gates proved tricky. There were a number of times when we tried to go between two 'marker' yachts only to find them both moving. I would say it took a different sort of determination to that required for the GRR to row almost alone for 3 hours! However we were definitely the fastest Galley with carbon oars and the fastest Galley with wooden oars and we both finished before the worst of the weather arrived so we were pretty pleased with that. We celebrated in true Cutters
style and somehow found the energy to dance the night away.



On the Sunday we visited Cobh in the morning and spent the afternoon 'rowing' Currachs which in a strong wind involved some pretty spectacular zig-zags. We all went out for June's birthday and then reluctantly left at 4am on the Monday to avoid travelling home in the impending force 10 gale.



What we learned ...that Les is completely at home in an Irish pub, that Barry can be very silly (when led
astray by Tim and Steve) but also very sensible about ferries and force 10 gales, that June can knit anywhere, that Jenny is stronger than Kevin or he would never have ended up on that dance-floor, and that Alan and Sue are destined never to park in the same services.
We are all eternally grateful to Steve,Tim and Barry for towing the boats at stupid times of the day and night and to Alan and Sue for driving the rest of us. The whole event was superbly organised and we were made very welcome by everyone we met. We had a mad,exhausting and brilliant trip ... hope someone takes up the Cork challenge next year!

Rachel

[Marion]

And a VERY HUGE THANK YOU to our amazing organiser Rachel who kept us all in line - well nearly! Without her massive efforts this trip woundn't have been the great experience that it turned out to be. Well done Mrs!