Author: Barbara Agnew

In his ongoing series marking the 10th anniversary of QRC, Mike McD writes, on 12 April: Two further meeting of SCRP-Q committee were held in April and two meetings of the new Rowing Club committee.

There was much still to do before the launch and the Ceilidh on the Saturday evening with invitations, publicity, press coverage and the programme to be agreed. The trailer had arrived and had to be adjusted to suit.

A meeting had been arranged with City of Edinburgh Council and agreement reached on a 3-year rent-free lease on the shed, work on internal demolitions, new doors, structural reinforcement and new roof covering all arranged. (Thanks to Billy Scott, Ken Sinclair, Mel, Brian Fraser and Excel roofing.)

It was noted that the final cost of kit and materials to complete the boat came to £2,525.39. The boat’s name had been chosen by vote from a final list of 54 names, and lettering obtained as well as six lifejackets.

Arrangements were made to collect 30 chairs from the Rosebery Hall for the Ceilidh and the boat was fitted out with big signs for its tour around the town on Saturday to advertise the launch. Sound system and flags were organised for the harbour.

The Club had elected Siobhan Johnson as Captain and Mel as Vice-Captain. An official handover was arranged. The Town Crier, Lindsay Monroe, had agreed to lead the procession (Ranald driving the tow car), and the Ferry Queen, Holly Taylor, to do the honours with a bottle of VAT 69.

Fingers crossed for good weather on the day!

Dónal writes: After six months, Ferry Lass finally got back onto the water on Wednesday. The youth crew of Lois, Aaron, Will and Oisín, coxed by Louise, looked as though they hadn’t been away.

More photos on Flickr.

Beth writes: Firstly I want to use this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank each and every one of you who walked, cycled, shuffled, wheel-barrowed and galloped (among many other fabulous activities) collectively during March. We self-propelled a whopping 2775.46 miles (to be utterly precise!) and had just shy of 260 entries to the form… an effort not to be sniffed at.

Now on to our wonderful virtual March travels: a quick recap – South Queensferry to Kortegene, on to Venice, over to Lake Garda, Lake Constance and we left our story just outside the rather picturesque Goitzsche. We were merrily able to flit to Goitzsche and then head on our way to Müritz – which has space for two wee rowing boats (how perfect for Ferry Lass and Maid to catch their breath and I’m sure our rowers would be delighted to catch their breath too).

Not for long though, as we had pressing travels to see some Viking culture, and to be inspired by such (historically) keen rowers. Nykøbing Falster would be the start of our island hopping and possibly some Danish cuisine – happy rowing and refuelling with a little velbekomme thrown in! Next it seems we brought the weather back with us (with our Baltic vibes this week) as we turned to head West again to Fehmarn to feel the sand between our toes on a quick beach holiday whilst we dream of our very own South Queensferry beach… Our wistful dreams didn’t last long as we simply had to go and see the Wadden Sea  – an UNESCO World Heritage site and all. From the joy of birdwatching from the beautiful Borkum isle (on the Wadden Sea) we dashed over to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam offered many waterways for us to explore and enjoy but we couldn’t stay long as we had to keep up with a ferry between Rotterdam and Hull – we do love a little bit of wake-chasing! From Hull we hopped, skipped and jumped directly to our beloved Port Edgar but even in our virtual travels we found not a bacon roll in sight… So we decided to visit Dundas Castle and the Dalmeny Estate, followed by a return trip to share a socially-distanced wave with our North Queensferry buddies and the 5.66 miles left over allowed us to head home for a little nap, few sips of rhubarb wine, to plant those chitted potatoes and stretch up ready for the next instalment of our virtual adventures…

We are now aiming to venture a gargantuan distance this April by going to visit our beloved Baby Lass in Nalolo, Zambia… that’s near to 7,150 miles – together we CAN do this! Please add any miles travelled during April to the following link: Click here to collect those miles – please check the little (updated) note below before you do.

Just a slightly different bit of housekeeping (alongside the usual reminders): if you cover miles in a group please add together the miles travelled before you add this to the form, eg if I went for a 12 mile walk with someone who was keen to join in the challenge I would add 24 miles to the form (as we’d both self-propelled 12 miles). Please remember to just input any distance travelled in miles, without the units and without any other details, e.g. If I side-stepped 2 miles around my local green space I would only pop ‘2’ into the appropriate answer box… Possibly after I’d taught myself the grapevine ready for next time… If you want to make your own running total of miles and input this once a week, or even if you want to do a new entry for every mile you travel, you’re most welcome – whatever suits you best.

On a further note we are celebrating all things local, seasonal and forageable this week in our recipe to challenge. This is to say, if you have a recipe (or more than one recipe!) which contains some ingredients you could grow, forage for or buy from a local supplier we would love you to share it with us! Please use the link below, with your recipe in any form you wish or if digital isn’t your style I can also offer postal copies. I hope you’re as excited to celebrate all things local and foodie with us this week.

Click here to add your locally inspired recipes.

Marianne writes: Quiz master extraordinaire, our very own Tony Bacon, has kindly supplied details for our quiz!

Date and time: Friday 09 April @19:30
Where: Zoom, link to nearer the time.
Entry Fee: free!
Duration: about 1 hour (time is part of the jeopardy!)Format: Six rounds of questions, including:

1. “Watching the Detectives”
2. “Bridge over Troubled Waters”
3. “I Read the News Today”
4. “I’ve Got You Covered”
5. “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”
6. “Oil and Gas Fields of the North Sea”

Rules

• One team member to be delegated spokesperson; identified using the team name as the Zoom participant name.

• Team size is not limited, but four is probably about right.

• Teams should communicate between themselves using their own Zoom meeting, WhatsApp group or whatever.

• Please test your internal channels of communication before the quiz, also watch out for feedback loops.

• No using the Google!

• Answers will be given at the end of each round for teams to self-mark.

• The Quizmaster will then ask each team leader for their score and keep track of them to total up at the end. No jokers or other jiggery-pokery this time.

Participants will be muted by the Quizmaster during questioning. His power is absolute! (That was Tony tells me!)

The only prize up for grabs is the bragging rights for being victorious!

Please let me know your team name and captain via my email address at hollycherry1004(at)hotmail.co.uk .

Marianne writes: If you’re aged 12-17 you can be a real life on-the-water rower soon!   

The fabulous news is that from 05 April our youth rowers, aged 17 and under, can once again go out with an adult skipper at the helm.  The announcement came rather leftfield, but we’ve checked in with the SCRA and have been given the green light for youth rowing at QRC.

There are a few things to do first.  Dónal is speaking with skippers, John H will be checking the all-important lifejackets, inspections of the boats and equipment will take place, and the Covid subgroup will be checking cleaning supplies – yes, Covid boat hygiene rules are still very much in place and will remain an important part of us being able to get out on the water.

We’re also speaking to our youth rowers and parents of course, but don’t be surprised if you see a boat out on the water shortly.  Give our wonderful youth rowers a wave on the waves, but do remember that social gathering rules remain in place, so please don’t congregate around the Shed, EXCITING THOUGH.

It still looks like it’s mid-May before the rest of us will get out on the water, but it’s a fast-moving picture, so if there are any indications it will be earlier, we’ll let you know.  Lesley, our new-member co-ordinator, will be contacting newer members to encourage them to rejoin the club when the time comes, while I’m sure the rest of you will simply be enticed by the prospect of bacon rolls and cake at a future date, oh and maybe a bit of rowing….