A fabulous 2nd at Hammersmith Head

Eddie’s W1 made it off Cam and on to the Tideway for Hammersmith head! The day started slightly-less-than-smoothly with a panic at 6.30, with a ‘leave without me’ text after a certain member of the crew read the meet time wrong. But no member of the crew is left behind, so they were collected en route!!

We all made it to the UL boathouse, rigged and had a good old chat. With a mission of ‘follow 99s and do everything they do’, we boated. Almost immediately, Kate’s collar came off her blade, but we averted our second disaster of the day very smoothly. In what an anthropologist might call ‘deep hanging out’, W1 were stuck in a boat together for 3+ joyous hours. The row down was good, but marshalling was LONG. Long enough to develop a rivalry with crew 324, who seemed intent on being right up in our space. More on this later.
Eventually, we turned and started the race. We had a LOVELY row together, and overtook almost 3 crews (including being right up on 324 - revenge is sweet). The rhythm was solid, the legs were strong - we had a consistently good row - and it was over before we knew it! Now Rory is known for unconventional coxing, but this was a new height. Choices were made, and we came out the racing line to undertake crews…Villains of the Tideway? It’s been said.
The row home was long, very long, but we were in great spirits. Pausing most of the way so as not to overtake 99s, who we were still intent on following for support. When we got in, we found out we came SECOND in our category (by 6 seconds) which is a huge result!!! Derigged and went home - feeling excited for big things at WeHoRR!