He lost his bottle - Mapledurham Circuit

After much adjustment with the tape measure out in the boat bay we set the Condor up for Lee in the front. The first few hundred meters we were very unstable indeed then after the fisheries island upstream Matt slapped the water and said that he was losing his bottle! Thankfully it was just his drinking bottle and we carried on upstream following an two rowing fours just ahead of us.

We finally got into a steady rhythm and pulled on against the current, there were large waves in places where the wind was whipping up the wake from the rowers coaching boats. We had a good turn at the island below Mapledurham, by good we mean a nice tight arc and kept away from the far bank keeping the K2 mid stream and we banged away back to the club.

Once we had finished the piece and stopped the clock at the club we carried on downstream and practised a few portages, running the boat along the tow path, the only hazard being the ice on the tow paths and the piles of dog doos left by the melting snow.

The temperature was well up from last week anyway and we are going to have a good think about boat positions for the DW over the coming weeks, with Matt just under 12 stone and Lee some 2 1/2 stone heavier.

All set now for a longer downstream run in the morning.