Well, here we are back in Richmond, exhausted but so very glad we took advantage of this opportunity close to home. If everything lines up, I think we both plan to go again next year and we hope some other VBC members will attend with us!

Today turned out to be super sunny day....and really humid. First day we had that was almost miserable. Luckily we rowed 8:30 -11 so weren't subject to the stifling middle of the day heat. We arrived at the boathouse to find we were using a new boat today! Surprise. The 4 seat foot stretcher broke yesterday as did the mid boat speaker but we thought the staff would just fix it for us. Guess they didn't have time. With some trepidation we headed out to the Severn River on our new boat -- the "Browne". Turned out it was a D-hull and boy did we like that boat! We set off with the other 8 made up of returning campers. The coaches had us row side by side up the river...and up the river...and up the river. We rowed 7 miles, and that's a nice little row...but then you have to row 7 miles back and geez, a 14 mile row is pretty far in the heat. We weren't out too long before it was clear our boat was going to be faster than the returnees boat. We did numerous pause drill as we moved up the river just to slow our pace enough to keep rowing with the other boat. Once we turned around and headed down river, we did two one minute pieces. We won both, but the other boat had a bad start on one piece and that's not the way we wanted to win. (FYI, we were cranked up to a 35 spm on one of our pieces. Exciting to go that fast, but borderline chaotic. I was struggling at stroke to hold the slide rate down; really being thrown forward. That's where a little more experience under my belt would be helpful.) A long pull brought us back near our creek where we lined up for our last race, 500 metres. Clean starts by both boats but we shot out in front right away. They almost caught us after approx 200 metres but we pulled out ahead and were leading by 4 seats with only about 50 metres to go -- clearly the race was ours, when....oh, you can just guess what's gonna happen next....7 seat caught a crab. We tried to continue on but she couldn't recover the oar so we stopped about five strokes short of the end. She felt so badly but as we all know, it happens sometimes.

The other boat was cool; we congratulated them, but they knew we were the best boat so they didn't gloat about their win. The attached shot is our boat with coach and cox. Our coach's last name is King so we named ourselves "King's Queens" and Karen & I found these little tiaras with flashing lights that we wore all morning and during our race. We made crowns for the guys too. Out boat was a great group and everyone got into the spririt and enjoyed our race accoutrements.

That's it for this outing. Sorry only one pic today. It was a crazy, hot, sweaty, fun, tiring day and we just didn't have time to take any more shots.

Hope you've enjoyed our comments and please think seriously about this camp if you consider yourself a high beginner/intermediate sweep rower. You won't regret it.

Lynne & Karen

I don’t think we’ve mentioned yet that there are a bunch of high school kids here doing “intro to the Academy” or some such session. And when I say a bunch, I mean like 1200. Apparently today was a special march day and beginning at 5:30 a.m., yes that’s 5:30 in the morning, they began marching from the courtyard outside our building off to who knows where. Now with approx 50 in each company, there were a lot. Each group left about 10 minutes after the other. They were all chanting their marching cadences, maybe interesting to hear, but not at 5:30 in the morning. I did catch “looks like muddy water, tastes like turpentine” and believe me I really didn’t want to hear the rest of that diddy. Rolling over and holding the pillow over my head brought me about another 30 minutes of sleep.

After two spectacular sunny days, we must have displeased the weather gods because we woke to overcast skies and a forecast of nasty, rainy, windy afternoon weather. We did get our morning row in, a bit extended since it seemed we would miss our afternoon row. Practiced some racing starts since, as we discovered today, there will be a race prior to “graduation” tomorrow. Our boat is rowing really well together. Karen is sitting in 3 seat which is her favorite, and I’m rowing stroke. We have high hopes for the race, our stiffest competition is the boat comprised of the returning campers. They are good! But I think we are better!!!

We had a great strength training session this morning in the varsity mens gym with the womens crew trainer. We got a short but strong workout in. We filled the afternoon session with additional performance enhancement info and then an open question and answer period with the coaches that was really informative.

We finished off our camp day with a wine and cheese party. One of the return campers (5 years of coming here!) owns a vineyard in Sonoma, CA and shipped 3 cases of wine for us to enjoy. Some campers ran to the store for some treats so we had a wonderful time unwinding with other campers and coaches.

Only one day left. It’s been a great experience and I wouldn’t hesitate to come again. It was a perfect level for those with 2-3 years experience and possibly even for those with less. We are divided by experience level in boats so I can only speak for our level but I assume the novice (less than 1 year ) and the complete beginner boat is just as satisfied as we are.

Will try to blog one more time from home tomorrow night with race results. Hope you have enjoyed reading this. Thanks for sharing this time with us.

Lynne & Karen

(Tuesday entry posted Wednesday because we ran out of time and energy Tuesday night before we could get to wifi location!)

Tuesday was another beautiful day here in Annapolis. Due to the wind whipping up the water a bit, we stayed in the creeks instead of venturing out to the Severn River, but it worked out great as we spent the day doing drills to improve our techniques. There were one or two we weren’t lovin’…..but several that were really helpful or just downright fun!

We started the day with a group shot -- as you can see there are about 30+ of us plus coxswains and coaches. A really great group.

Leaving the boathouse in either direction requires passing under several bridges and on our first outing of the morning we hit a concrete piling on one of the bridges. Oops-sie! Even the experts make mistakes now and then. But no worries, boat and rowers were fine and we continued on. In spite of this little mishap, our cox Dave is excellent; he was a former coach at St. John’s College here in Annapolis. Our coach Jimmy --seen here giving his always valuable instructions from the launch --is women’s varsity crew coach at WVU.

We also had a session today on rigging. Attached is our photo showing how intently we are listening and learning!

So far I have only two complaints. The A/C in our dorm rooms just doesn’t work. We sleep with the windows open at night -- which is quite pleasant actually, since the humidity has been low and a nice breeze blowing. The dorm, Bancroft Hall is amazing. It is the largest dorm in the world, housing all 4000 midshipman in 1800 rooms and over 4 miles of corridors. We’ve only lost one rower so far but we figure she’ll find her way out in time for the last row of the session. The building façade in the photo is the main entrance to the dorm, but actually first opens into Memorial Hall. Memorial Hall “honors all graduates who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country while wearing the cloth of their nation.” It is a beautiful and fitting tribute to these special men and women.

My other complaint is the food. Not great. I expected a little more from the Academy. Six of us opted for restaurant seafood dinner out tonight and it was a good decision as the cafeteria dinner was fish sticks. Oh yum. Now I’m usually pretty happy if someone else is cooking and doing the dishes, but I haven’t been able to get behind the meals so far this week. Oh well, maybe tomorrow will be better.

The days are going by too fast! Honestly it seems like all we do is eat, walk and row -- multiple times each day and in the blink of an eye the day is over and we fall into bed exhausted. It is so much fun and we are so glad to be here although we miss you guys and hope your week is going well!

Lynne & Karen

First day of rowing camp is behind us. What a great day! Weather is wonderful, coaches are awesome, we are learning so much.

The Naval Academy is amazing; we will try to post pics later as Karen took a tour Sunday afternoon and snapped some great shots. We are living the dorm life -- hall bathrooms, cafeteria food -- but it's fun because there are a bunch of us. Our group hails from California, Maine, Minnesota, Alabama, Ohio, Pennsyvania, Maryland, Virgina. We have enough for 3 eights and a four. Each boat has their own cox and coach so you get lots of individual attention. Our cox Dave is sitting here at a wine/coffee shop on Monday evening as we sip our beverages and type on the netbook on our lovely outdoor cafe table (city wide wireless in Annapolis --- but not at the Academy).

We will attach some shots, but since I'm new to blogging won't try to line them up perfectly with text.

The famous Hubbard Boathouse is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation. Dissapointing -- especially since we don't get to try "the tank". All the boats are in a huge tent right behind the boathouse and it is only steps to the dock to put in. The boathouse under renovation is attached. Also a shot of the massive dining hall.

Other shots show Karen as I as part of bow 4 with two women from CA , head coach Mike in the erg room -- there are at least 3 erg rooms, yikes!!!

That's it for tonight. This blog things is a learning experience for me so sorry for the amaturish product. Gonna sit back and enjoy this wonderful night and my refreshing glass of wine. Hope all of you are having as much fun as we are!!! Lynne & Karen

3 days till Annapolis! Getting really excited...and nervous. Hope my hands and body are tough enough for 4 days of rowing. Here's a pic of me and "rowing-Karen" (not to be confused with "yoga-Karen") who is going to Annapolis with me for camp. We had an adventuresome couple of rowing sessions last weekend...just a prelude for next week I am sure!!