Author: Barbara Agnew

Club captain Marianne writes: Following the recent announcement of the easing for Covid restrictions in Scotland, there’s good news for the Club. The exciting news is that the Shed will reopen for socialising from today, so you can now grab a coffee in the Shed after rowing.  

The Shed doors still need to be open for ventilation, but this can be the ‘pedestrian’ door, rather than the boat doors.  There are no limits on numbers in Shed. 

Other measures as before:

1. We recommend you take a lateral flow test prior to coming down.
2. Please sign in using the app/book if your phone doesn’t read the QR code.  (The crew book is separate and it’s not enough to just write in this.) 
3. Masks can be worn in the Shed if you feel more comfortable.
4. Please use hand sanitiser.

As far as the boats and equipment are concerned, the boats, lifejackets and other equipment no longer need to be sanitised prior to rowing or between crews, though you can still do this if you feel more comfortable that way.  

Boats should still be washed down with soapy water after the final row of the day as usual.

The feedback is that you prefer the certainty of knowing you’ll get out rowing, so we’re going to continue with boat booking.  We have one boat in service at the moment, but Ferry Lass should be back very soon. 

Watch out for Mike’s usual email next week and get booked up for a row, bacon rolls, coffee/tea and chat!  Bacon roll Saturdays are back and Peter is poised with his pinny to supply us all with our favourite weekend treat! Home-baking and biscuits will be very welcome!

On Saturday we have a tide pretty much all day, so lots of rowing possibilities, provided the weather plays ball.  If it looks too windy, we’ll organise an activity so you still have an excuse to come down!

Thanks for the Return to Rowing Group for their continued advice, and to the Committee for their support.

The Loch Awe Coastal Rowing Club has announced its second Loch Awe Adventure regatta, to be held at Dalavich, Argyll, 22-24 April 2022 – the weekend after Easter.

If you would like to take part, please register your interest by contacting Tony, the club secretary, on asrbacon@gmail.com, or on the sign up sheet in the Shed. Please highlight any special abilities or wishes (eg RP/tower/cox/Sunday only….)

The main event will be held on Sunday 24 April, and is a long-distance race (24km) from Dalavich to the Taychreggan Hotel (North Port) and back. The race is in two legs, with an optional crew changeover at North Port.

Dalavich, the focus of the event, is a small village located about halfway down the western shore of Loch Awe. The adventure starts on the Friday, late afternoon, with the arrival of the first crews and skiffs, although it is anticipated that most will arrive on Saturday morning in time to row that afternoon. The main event will be held on the Sunday.

Camping is available by the community centre, which has toilets and coin-operated showers. There is also a wide range of self-catering accommodation, but this needs to be booked early.

On Friday, one of our crews was lucky enough to encounter a small pod of dolphins. They circled the Maid as it headed west of the Queensferry Crossing, and when we stopped they came in very close to check the boat out, swimming just beyond the oars and diving under the boat. The crew – cox Maria, club captain Marianne, Barbara, Anne F and Sharon – were thrilled. More excitement was to come as the story spread across social media, thanks to Scott.

Marianne posted photos of the sighting on the Forth Marine Mammals site, where they caused quite a stir. She writes: “They seem to be common dolphins, which like most animals with that epithet are not particularly common, and certainly not this far up the Forth. We’ve had lots of  praise for our spot!”

Scott made a post on the club’s new public Facebook page – along with posts on Twitter and Instagram – and the next day revealed that it had reached many thousands of people – 20, 490 at last report. Among those picking up on the story was the Edinburgh Live news site, which posted an article after contacting Scott and Marianne.

The power of social media!

Mike B writes: The tides are very favourable to us this week, with launching and retrieval possible throughout daylight hours every day.

Social rowing slots at 09:00, 10:00 and 11:00 on Saturday are now available for booking, as are the slots at 13:00, 14:00 and 15:00 on Sunday.

Youth rowing is in the calendar for 10:00 till 12:00 on Sunday.

As ever, if you would like a place in any of the social rowing slots, please contact me directly on mikebreewood@gmail.com.

Mark has an update on boat maintenance: Ferry Maid is now ready to take to the water.  Huge thanks to Douglas for structural improvements to the boat and to the tiller, and he along with Mike M have upgraded the stroke footrest.   Thanks too to Alan D for a mirror-like finish to the gunnels varnish, and to Barbara plus Duncan for heavy duty sanding and painting inside and outside the hull.  And to Alan S for some useful ideas for protective materials as well and to anyone I may have missed.  Thank you.

But.  We now need to take Ferry Lass out of circulation for a week or so to make some fairly modest improvements.  Similar to FM we plan to round off the edges of the keel inside which gets bashed a lot by wellied feet.  This plus some touching up and the skiff will be ready to go.

Hurrah for Ferry Maid and Ferry Lass and to lots (we hope) of rowing ahead this year.

Mike B writes: I regret that we shall have to cancel the rowing slots scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday the 1st of January due to expected high winds and lack of demand.

There are still rowing spaces in the 2pm slot on Sunday, and lots of spaces for the planned slots on Monday and Tuesday.

Have a good New Year when it comes!