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| Church boat Vikinger - Katherine is in 2 seat, starboard side |
Sun. Sept. 21 (Day 2) - Vohburg-Bad Abbach
Today we get in the boats, and on the water. We have 4 Finnish kirkkovene (churchboats), used to transport people - to church, among other places. Sometimes different families owned each set of oars, and all had to contribute to maintenance. In addition to 14 rowers (7 rows, 2 abreast), there is a cox who steers with a real rudder, and room for a kielschwein. We never did get a good explanation of this word which has something to do with pigs, but basically it means an extra person at the back of the boat.
One of our churchboats is 6 weeks old - the Dorsch - and one is very old and Finnish-built - the Bergknappe. The others are the Salier, named after one of the tribes which inhabited Bavaria, and the Vikinger, old and bright yellow. There are only a few in Germany and these come from all over; one is on loan from a club in Berlin. In addition, there are two touring quads, so named because the back is square, they are broader in the beam than racing quads, and have a tiller; easier to set and far more stable. The FISA organizers have wisely mixed us up - in theory, we each get a day in each boat. Over daily distances up to 40 k and up, you spend a lot of time with your seat partner, and have an ample chance to get acquainted.
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| Nothing but the best for these rowers! |
We launch upriver, at Vohberg, where we are heralded into the water by a brass band! - and row back down to the Abbey, where we have an enormous lunch, then row downriver to Bad Abbach - almost 41 k, a typical day. These boats are wide and roomy - we each have at least one dry bag, and water, with us, to carry rain gear, extra clothes, chocolate...
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| Leaving beautiful Weltenburg Abbey |
Rowing a church boat isn't sweep rowing as we know it: the rate is 16-20, we cannot feather the oars because they are wooden and very heavy, and do not need to because the boats are broad of beam and set is not an issue. It's really endurance rowing, especially in some boats. As I found out on that first day, the Salier is the worst - after about 3 hours I was seriously wondering if I had made a mistake coming on this trip. In contrast, the Bergknappe, that good old boat in which the oars are hooked into the oarlocks, some with plastic fittings and some with bits of string, and in which the foot stretchers are late add-ons and look jerry-rigged, is so well-designed and engineered that you can practically row with one finger, and the hours go by almost effortlessly.
Our boats' "captains" are the German organizers of this trip - Thomas, Detlef, Gisela, Werner and Jens, head of FISA tour rowing. How do you explain Jens? Picture a tiny, chuckling Norwegian gnome, who never gets in a boat without his Oktoberfest hat, has a big heart and a bigger voice. You have to, he explains, when you are the admiral. Thomas, a civil engineer who works on water issues, is a red-bearded Germanic sage, wears a straw hat and blazer on land and never gives you a short answer; ask him a question and you get a lecture. Gisela, a retired maths teacher who is also in charge of transportaion, runs the bus, and her ship, exactly the way she must have run her classroom;
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| Jens Kohlberg |
you do not speak when she is speaking and if you are late for the bus you will be left behind! Detlef, the youngest, loves his crew, lets us take turns coxing and constantly compliments us.
And Werner, dear Werner. He is our maestro, the organizer, planner and leader of this trip, and feels responsible for every person in every boat every step of the way. His tireless and long-suffering wife, Renate, cannot row with us because she broke ribs a few weeks ago when she fell off a ladder while she was washing windows (there's a moral here...). I spend the entire trip hoping he wouldn't have a heart attack before we finished.
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| Werner Rudolph |
We arrive back from Bad Abbach very tired and facing a typical rowing evening - off the water about 5, a guided tour of the Abbey Church - plain on the outside, high Baroque on the inside - at 6:30, drinks at 7:30, dinner at 8, bed - if we're lucky or skip dessert - 10 ish, and up at 6:30 the next morning for a 7:45 departure. I hope you understand now why this blog is a week behind, but at least now we are in motion. For each kilometer we travel we row about 75 strokes: 3000 today, almost 20,000 by the end of the week. Today, and for the rest of the week we are now, definitely, on the Donau, and in motion.
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