A double whammy of good news

Yesterday was a double hit of great news.  

The top news:  We can row on the river.  

Ryan and I spent some time cleaning up the boathouse yesterday afternoon, and ran the launches for a bit to get the engines kicked over.  We took a quick tour of the river to make sure that the old landmarks were still around and found that while the river is still low - 8 feet in most areas - it is very calm, and slow which means that we can row.  While it's too low to go to the 1000 meter course, we can get below the bridges due the slower current which opens up the long course.  This means that instead of being stuck on land, we can get on the water very quickly.  

The second piece of good news:  We're getting a new boat.

After the madness at Conference Championships last year - re-rigging fours multiple times - we've spent the better part of the year looking for another Pocock 4 to give us some flexibility.  These things must be more precious than platinum because we found exactly 1 before last week.  But perseverance pays off, and we found another four that will fit our needs perfectly - the other Pocock 4 was too large for us.  It's a 2006 bowloader with winged riggers so it'll fit into our fleet.  This gives the women two fours, and the men two fours, significantly easing the load upon the riggers due to multiple rigging.  It also means that we can rig the boats and leave them as is, without having to change spread, and pitch in the mad rush to turn and burn a boat.  

So a river that can be rowed, and a new boat to take the strain off the fleet.  This is a great start to our spring season.  Just a few more house keeping things - cleaning the boats, checking rigging, etc. - and we'll be on the water.