Just a series of events that happened at the most recent training sessions at the ramp during low tide…gosh that ramp causes us heaps of trouble sometimes

Tuesday January 13, 2004

Approx. 5:20 PM GMT +12:00

Auckland Rowing Club Boathouse

Macleans College Senior Girls Rowing Team + Macleans College Novice Girls Rowing Team

Paula Storey + "The Black Boat"

'Alright, everyone over to strokeside – careful now, the ramp's slippery,' called our coach, Kevin from the top of the ramp, away from the mud.

It was low tide – extremely low tide, and the ramp ended right where all of us girls were standing. Carefully the senior girls lowered the Paula Storey onto the water first, making sure they stayed as far as they could from the end of the ramp. I placed the drink bottles at my feet and watched as Sam and Kim got the oars from Michael – Sam's dad – and handed them to Mel and Roxy, Kim nearly slipping on the thick, smooth mud. I treaded over to Sam to hold the boat in as she precariously leant over the boat to undo the bowside gates, mentally crossing my fingers, hoping she wouldn't tip the boat or fall in.

I walked back to the stern of the boat and watched as the girls placed their oars in and closed the gates on strokeside. 'Hey, Rox, let's do our gates up in the boat, shall we, 'cause I can't reach mine from here,' said Sam. She and Rox were bowside today.

I got into my cox's seat. 'Alright, everyone in. Don't push off – do your gates up first,' I said, adjusting my lifejacket. I need to get one for myself – this one's just way too huge for me.

The four girls got in, careful not to tip the boat.

'Oi,' called Laura, from the black boat. 'Hurry it up, will you? It's starting to get heavy here.'

Kim stuck her tongue out at Laura, and I wasn't too sure if Laura caught the look or not, but we got out again and pushed the boat down a bit so as to give the other four more space. They placed the black boat down and proceeded to undo their gates, get the oars, etc etc.

We got in again. 'Okay, everyone in? Right, do up your gates, then,' I said to the girls.

Sam and Roxy leaned out to reach their gates. It all happened too fast to catch what happened exactly, but the boat absolutely tipped over and one by one, Sam, Roxy, Mel, Kim and I fell into the lukewarm water of the Tamaki River.

I tried to get my head above the water more, but the lifejacket, which went way past my head, started to weigh me down. I could hear Kevin and Michael calling me, but didn't bother responding as I had already got some water in my mouth and didn't want to swallow anymore. I reached for the zip and undid it as fast as I could, struggling a little to get the lifejacket off. My feet were groping for the bottom, and I didn't touch any – we were at the point where the ramp just dropped vertically. I took a breath and kept one hand on the lifejacket, swimming under the boat and using the stern to push me away from it. I pulled the lifejacket from under the boat and used my feet to get me closer to the ramp. Hauling myself up with some help from Michael, I stumbled up the ramp and tossed my lifejacket away from the mud. I watched as the four girls started to push the boat closer to the ramp, and heard the other four crack up loudly as they watched us.

Suddenly it felt really cold as my shirt clung to me and the wind blew a little harder. 'I'm wearing a white shirt,' I heard Sam wail.

'You think you got it bad?' Kim said from the bow end of the boat. 'My bra's snapped,' she said, making us five all laugh a bit louder at our predicament.

As I advanced to help Sam undo the oars so we could flip the boat back over, I heard yells from the other boat. It was our turn to crack up as we watched the black boat tip over just as we had, and the novice girls fell out one by one. Kevin walked over to them to help them with their boat as we continued laughing at the other girls.

'Hey, Shawna, here,' said Michael as he tossed me the retrieved bottles from the water. Catching them, I placed them where I had chucked the lifejacket. I felt a stinging sensation on my right foot. Looking down, I saw blood on my foot and saw I had cuts all over. Stepping to the water and swishing my foot to wash the mud and blood off, I realised that they weren't going to stop bleeding anytime soon.

All ten of us slowly righted the boat, refixed the oars in the gates – making sure they were done up before we got in, and pushed off the ramp. My foot was stinging really badly now and my mouth was starting to get dry from my swallowing the water.

'Put your lifejacket on, Shawna,' Mel said. 'It'll keep you warmer too.'

I picked up the lifejacket from my feet and put the soggy, heavy article on. I winced as part of it brushed one of my cuts, and watched as blood seeped out of the wound.

Kim's voice floated from the bow end of the boat. 'I cut my foot. Hope it doesn't get infected or anything.'

'Yeah, same here,' I said. 'Mine's stinging real bad now.'

'My armpit's chafing,' said Sam.

Mel laughed. 'Alright then, Sam…'

We rowed for a while in silence, me changing from stern pair rowing to bow pair rowing every 30 strokes. Suddenly, Sam started laughing hard, throwing the boat slightly off balance.

Roxy jerked the boat back into balance. 'Sam! Concentrate and stop laughing.'

'But…I cut my…armpit,' gasped Sam between bouts of laughter.

At that, we all laughed. 'It's true!' Sam exclaimed, raising her arm to show us her cut.

'How'd you cut it?' asked Mel, turning her head slightly.

Sam shrugged. 'Dunno.'

It was all uneventful rowing after that, and we turned back after we reached the bridge, rowing a couple of 500 metres before going in. After washing the boat and oars, I joined the circle of girls.

'Did you guys do up your gates before you got in the boat?' I heard Mel ask the novice girls.

'No,' said Laura and Emily together. 'We couldn't reach it so we decided to get in first. Did you guys do that too?' continued Emily.

Roxy nodded, grinning. 'That was so classic, eh? It makes it so much funnier that we all fell in, not just four of us.'

All of us laughed. 'Kelly lost her jumper,' said Emily, who had coxed the black boat. 'She made me dive for it and I cut my hand,' she said, holding her left hand up for us to see, displaying two nearly parallel cuts on her palm.

Sam winced. 'Ow. Did you find it, though?'

Emily shook her head. 'Nah.'

Just then, Kelly came up to us. 'I've got to get a tetanus shot,' she said, a pained expression on her face.

'Haven't you had one yet?' asked Kim.

'Why do you need one anyway?' I said.

Kelly lifted her right foot to show us a cut on her foot. It was long and looked really bad. 'Kevin says I need one. It hurts real bad and I didn't row.'

'Yeah, you better get a shot. Don't want to get TRI, you know,' Kim said seriously.

Laura looked blankly at no one in particular. 'What's TRI?'

'Tamaki River Infection,' I replied.

We laughed at that. 'I think all of us got cuts on our feet,' said Roxy, examining her feet.

We nodded. 'Yeah.'

Lauren and Cathy grinned. 'Not me,' Lauren said. 'I didn't get in the boat until after you guys fell in.'

'Or get wet,' Cathy added.

I shot them a dirty look. 'So? Oh, you looked good in that double with Matt, Cath,' I said.

Cathy looked proud. 'Thanks.'

Kevin strode up to us. 'Right, girls. Thanks for the belated Christmas present,' he said, and we all laughed. He looked down at Kelly's foot. 'You better get that shot as soon as possible. And tomorrow, bring a plastic bag to wrap around your foot to protect it. You'll need to get someone to carry you into the boat so you don't infect it or anything.'

We laughed harder. 'A plastic bag, eh?' said Emily. 'That'll be a sight to see.'

Well, it WAS a sight to see coz 'Kelly' had to hop around on the mud. She nearly slipped *lol* going down the ramp. Anyway, stay tuned for more funny episodes of 'Rowing Escapades!' Don't forget to review…