The Great River Race Story

‘One dragon boat was swamped, another sunk (with their borough’s mayor on board!), but our trusty Salter Skiff fought the battering it received from the wind and waves and carried us safe and dry to the finish. The crew put on a wonderful spurt in the finishing stretch of Limehouse Reach and we managed to overtake the Norfolk Mussel Boat and the yellow A.S.C. We had been chasing the latter since the star. Finally we won our battle with the Faering (a Norwegian rowing boat of Viking design and left it behind bailing out water.

The day started calmly, when we collected our boat from The Lensbury Club, which had been so generous again in lending us our skiff and whose boatmen had been so generous with their time in preparing it for the race. We rowed down to the start area and then had a couple of hours to wait. A party of wonderful supporters gathered on the bank and helped us keep the nerves at bay until it was time to take to the water. From the start until Putney, we had great support from friends on the bridges and banks – some of whom managed to reappear several times. Early on, the one of us being ‘passenger’ was designated as the ‘official waver’ to respond to all the cheers we heard. Thanks to all of you.

As we rowed through Central London, this year I saw things which I had missed last time and saw famous land marks from different angles, or with unusual backdrops – I do not believe they are views of which one could ever tire. About Westminster, most of the field was coming past us – it is good being slow, because you get to see all the other boats! From there until past Tower Bridge, for about an hour of rowing, we were really fighting the wind and waves, which were tossing us out of the water and slewing us around. Two very large boats passed us. They were either trying the intimidation tactic or were poor at steering, because there was a lot of oar clashing but we held our course - they had to stop rowing!

At HMS Belfast, we passed a dragon boat, which had just sunk. The crew and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets were safely in the rescue boats and only the upturned hull was visible. The Great River Race is no paddle in the park. We then had the amazing experience of passing under Tower Bridge in a small boat and looking up into the magnificent structure looming above. "I feel the crew had earned its champagne at the finish".