Day 8

Monday 27th June

Morning Australia,

Apologies for the 48 hour delay since last post, hasn't been much to tell.  Yesterday, Sunday, was our rest day.  The weather finally turned warm and sunny, we touched 30degrees in the afternoon, much to the thrill of the locals.  Shane spent Saturday night and Sunday with friends in London and I dropped Rad into Henley in the late morning so he could consult doctors about his thumb growth...  It was really just an excuse for him to roam the regatta scoping out our potential opposition.  He returned with information, and after belting his thumb with a rock a couple of times, a smaller lump too.

Sam, Hatsy and myself took to the hills around the farm, walking across fields, through forests, up hill and down dale until we happened, accidentally of course, on a pub.  Then another one.  After a very satisfying lunch, and the discovery that Gammon is in fact pig (who knew?), we set off for the trek home.  Late as usual, we discovered Conrad wandering the Waitrose carpark and then remarkably, stumbled across Sam's friend Jemma at the railway station where we were hoping to find Shane.  With no sign of our stroke, we headed back to the farm where Hatsy as usual, was planning a feast.

Offered the use of our hosts Weber BBQ and their beautiful front garden, complete with gazebo, stone walls, rose garden and vegie patch, Hatsy, "assisted" by Rad loaded up the Weber with a leg of lamb, spuds, pumpkin and the rest.  Our hosts, Simon and Lindy, joined us for dinner with a bottle of wine as the sun descended ever so slowly over the orchard at the end of the garden.  All this much improved Sam's chances with the lovely Jemma, despite the conversational standard to which she was subjected by the remainder of the company.

Shane eventually returned, just after dusk, covered in mud and grass, clambering over the south wall with the remains of a pheasant clamped between his teeth, muttering, "I've already eaten..."  Not really, he arrived in a taxi, but he had already eaten.

This morning dawned hot and sunny again and it was off to the course for a paddle.  The river is becoming more congested with pleasure craft as the regatta approaches and we got our first real taste of the 'Henley slop', that we will have to deal with when racing.  At the start, several of the boat holders were on duty to assist with practice starts.  I was very keen to make use of this, as I've been having a few issues with holding a line out of the blocks - fortunately the boat holders make this much easier and we managed a 30-40 stroke full pace start on each lane with no steering errors.  The remainder of the session was steady paddling, with a couple of 20 stroke pieces thrown in.  We are becoming comfortable with a race rhythm at around 35spm which seems to be most effective into the stiff head conditions which have been prevalent over the last few days.

The session was completed with good energy levels throughout the crew, we docked to a very sweaty Hatsy who'd just completed a 40min erg in what amounts to a canvas tent - sticky.  A quick trip to the supermarket then home for lunch and afternoon nap.  As I write, the guys are showering, ironing and generally making ready to head off to the International Crews Reception which is on tonight at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley.  Should be a bit of fun and another chance for Rad to do some research! 

As to the racing, Wednesday's timetable has been finalised, we are racing at 6:45pm GMT or 3:45am EST, so I doubt whether anyone will want to stay up for that one!  All we know about the London 'B' crew that are our opponents is that they will be quick, which is no more or less than we would expect.

Until tomorrow. 

Drew