Pleasures of Rowing
Rowing is a fine, simple, and economical way to get afloat and enjoy the water. You are often able to use areas not well suited to sailing or even power craft. Long forgotten as a sport by most, rowing once again seems to stir the interest of many people. However, the majority still seem to think of it as “work,” to be avoided if possible. Rowing certainly can be work if you have the wrong boat, oars, and other equipment, which is quite possible because rowing paraphernalia has degenerated since other interests have caused rowing to be more or less abandoned for some time.
Just why rowing now seems more attractive to some people, once they are exposed to good boats and all that goes with them, is hard to say. Possibly, to some at least, it’s new and different; the totally mechanical age is fine in some ways, but you can get fed up with it. When rowing, you are very much the master of your craft. It is true that there is a modest skill to be learned, but it is one that is not beyond anyone of reasonable physical condition and aptitude. Anyone who can get in a boat can learn to row. The thing is to have a suitable boat properly fitted out, and capable for your stamina, or lack of it, the waters you will mostly use, and the size of your pocketbook.
In a rowing craft you find that you are closer to the water than you ever were before, no matter how much boating you have done in other craft. You are much more aware of sea and weather conditions, and see more of your surroundings than you ever did before. You get into places, holes, and creeks you never really knew existed. You get a first-hand look at the inner workings of, say, a big ferry slip - when the ferry is well away, of course - and the underside of an occasional big dock. At a certain state of the tide, you find it quite possible to navigate that rock-choked crick that no one goes near, and you discover there is a mile or more of winding, unspoiled stream that few know about. There is a big culvert some way along; keeping in mind the tide, you find you can push through. Another vista opens up a large, floppy, happy dog, who likes strangers, along with an interesting fellow taking his ease by a small cottage no one realizes is there; a beat-up skiff is moored to the bank, as is some sort of fyke net. You admire the fellow’s spread and he your boat - good pulling boats are always admirable. You make a friend and pick up some local lore. You have found a spot unreachable by the hordes and their manufactured, powered craft.
The tide is on the turn; it’s time to go. That rocky entrance will be impassable in an hour or so. It’s fun riding the ebb down - there are slight overfalls and you find that by backing down or pulling gently upstream at times, you have fine control of the boat, and shoot out between the rocks in fine style. You don’t tell just everyone about this fine adventure. Old Ike up there enjoys an occasional gam, but doesn’t want a mob; that’s why he’s there.
There are also days that are “right” for an open-water cruise. Such a cruise is often quite ambitious but easy once you are slightly toughened to it. And then there are exploratory trips to tidal ponds, and among rocks and ledges. More than once I have had a very good couple of hours going up drainage ditches with the making tide across a marsh. It was so narrow that I stood and poled; so narrow I sometimes couldn’t turn the boat, so I came out stern first. On these cruises I never failed to see some interesting thing I’ve never come across before.
One thing that I’ve discovered on these inland cruises is the need for a likely spot to beach now and then. You should get ashore to stretch for a few minutes, especially if you are alone, for you are confined to one position in the boat. This stretching is especially important as age advances. Keep as comfortable as possible - rowing is supposed to be fun.
This is only part of what it’s all about. In a rowing boat you will have an eye open for all sorts of mild adventures, all of which are interesting and give you a new outlook on areas that once seemed commonplace or even dull.