Breast Quest Dragon Boat Team

This is a photo of how lovely and clean 'baby' was before the Regatta.  The head is on and the crew members at the back, are putting on the tail.  Both the head and tail, have wooden 'pegs' that go into slots built into the structure of the hull.  The Regatta this year was on the 15th of Oct.   Usually, it is on the Sunday, ( the day) before Thanksgiving,  but this year it was moved to the next weekend.  We paddle before the race, while the 'pumpkin boats' are being put into the water on the Falmouth side of the lake.  The weather was lovely, even though a bit windy.   We moor the boat before the race starts. That was the last paddle of the season.   We are having a bowling fundraiser on Nov 4th, in Windsor.

This is a  photo of us putting the boat in the water for our paddle before the start of the Pumpkin  Regatta.  That was on the 15th of Oct.  Here is a good photo of John N. our alternate coxswain, and Ruth W., our captain.

On Monday Sept 25, we cleaned 'baby' and had a pizza party afterwards.   We hauled her out of her 'lair' on her trailer and cleaned her bottom.   Sue R. 's grandson Luke, crawled underneath her and scrubbed the part that was still on the trailer.   I scrubbed the rest of her hull, while other members of the team scrubbed her inside.  When we where finished, she looked beautifully clean.  But unfortunately, we did not take any photos of her.  But there were comments about how clean she was,  when we took her out for the last time at the Pumpkin Regatta.

Thursday the 14th, we did paddle.  It was a lovely evening.  I think that we had 12 paddlers, as an e-mail had gone out that it might be the last paddle.   In the boat, we asked if there was interest in paddling on Monday the 11th, and there was.  We thought that we would clean the boat and have a pizza party to celebrate the end of the season.   We could not get the upper room at the canoe club so we have put it off until Monday the 18th.   Thursday the 21st,  is the kick off concert for Deep Roots with Lennie Gallant, so we were going to lose at least 3 paddlers.  Therefore, that paddle was cancelled.   We are running out of daylight,  but it is sad to see the season end.

Last week we did not paddle.  Monday was Labour Day and the weather did not cooperate on Thursday.   Last night we had 12 paddlers.  The wind wasn't strong when we set out but it changed.  May be with the tide.  We tried paddling in the lea of the shore, in the lake and also up river.  The water was warm but the wind made it a hard paddle.  We did see a fox climbing up the bank of the river to the top.   He ignored us, but it was an interesting sight. The daylight is fading fast at that time of evening.  Not sure how many more paddles we will be able to have.

Here is Sue R., John N. and Jim P.   It is a lovely evening on the river.  But the days are getting shorter and the sun is setting sooner every paddle.  

 These photos are of our 'flower ceremony"on Monday the 21st of August.  There were 17 paddlers for this, on the Avon River.  The ceremony is one that we do in memory of our friends who have gone from us.  It is very moving.