I was proud of us this morning. On our final lap, Rudder and She-Hulk, Hardcore
and I were in two doubles, about to do our racing starts together (half, half,
three-quarters, full stroke, ten really fast strokes and glide, see who's ahead)
when Hardcore, rowing stroke in my boat said, "Hey that girl in the single just
flipped." She was just on the other side of the bridge, maybe 100 yards from us;
we got both boats turned and to her in about a minute.
She'd flipped
over not far from one of the lake access stairways. By the time we got there,
she'd gotten her boat to the side (only 3 meters or so) and was standing on the
bottom stair trying to right her boat. She got that done and got back in fairly
quickly (not easy, in a tippy boat with 9' oars on either side. when you can't
extend the oars out to keep you stable because your boat is by a wall). She had a
little trouble pulling away from the wall, but didn't take much time at that
either. We didn't have to do anything but offer advice, as it turned out. She was
lucky the water's warm now. Still, people die every year from falling out of
boats. We were in a time and place to do some good, if it had needed to be done
(and with medical personnel, yet -- Hardcore's a nurse and Rudder and I are
trained in First Aid, though I'd be scared to depend on us alone). That's more
than can be said for anyone in either of the two coaching launches on the lake at
the time.
If she'd needed us, we'd have been there. If I were her,
I'd be pretty happy to have someone there just in case (as I think she was).