On Rowing

Burlington, Vermont

42 28.12 N 073 13.35 W

We're spending a few days here anchored in Burlington Harbor. We're in the middle of a 4-day high pressure with no wind. Good time for shore side activities.

Libby and I registered to vote today. Tomorrow, I'm going on a father-daughter kayak trip somewhere in Vermont.

Tonight, I was eating supper when I heard a voice outside. I looked, and saw a man in a dinghy. He said that he just rowed over to admire Tarwathie because her lines were so beautiful. Of course, I don't mind hearing that. Especially on Champlain, one meets many lifelong sailors who have never been near blue water. They tend to admire true cruising boats.

Speaking of rowing. On numerous occasions, I've hosted guests and given them an opportunity to row the dinghy themselves. Surprisingly, to both them and to me, many of them can't accomplish the task very well. It seems only common sense that rowing a boat is something so basic and so simple that nobody should need training or experience to do it. Wrong. I must confess that it is sometimes comical to watch someone to try to do it the first time.

The sign of an expert rower is that he/she maintains a nearly constant speed and a constant course toward the mark. World class rowers can can row a boat against a gale. That's really really hard and very strenuous. I've done it more than once but I'd rather not ever need to do it again.

Why not, you may ask, don't I write a blog about how to row a boat? That would be ridiculous. It would be boring to read, and anything learned would be forgotten before being applied. Reading an instruction book is not the way to learn to row; you learn by just doing it.