My first rowing in a pair

…and my first swim in the Cam. Cambridge University is currently on holiday, so most people have gone home. This makes rowing in VIIIs next to impossible, so we have had to go out in IVs and even pairs instead. Today was my first attempt at a pair, and I learned a few things about them very quickly. First, they are much less stable than larger boats, being more narrow and having fewer oars. Second, there is no cox, so the rower in the bow has to steer. These two factors turned out to have rather disastrous consequences. I was rowing stroke side (aka not the person steering). Things were tippy, and every few strokes we had to stop to keep from hitting something. Then things seemed to be going alright until I glanced over my shoulder and saw the biggest barge on the Cam right in front of us. I desperately tried to avoid the collision, but it was too late. We hit it, and then I felt the boat slowly tipping over. And there was absolutely nothing I could do. Splash – we capsized. And the water was very, very cold. The nice man on the barge helped us figure out how to untangle our boat from a mess of ropes on the side of his barge, and then we swam our boat across the river, got out, grabbed the bikes from our bank party, and hauled ass back to the boathouse to avoid hypothermia. I hope they got the boat back safely. Next time I think we’ll try to arrange a IV. Now to go get warm and wash off all this nasty grime from the Cam.