Argentina 2000

The wash in the river was the only downside to the rowing. There were many, many powerboats on the river, all appeared to be travelling at their maximum speed and paid no regard to the rowboats except to go round them. The wash, re-inforced by the backwash from the hard banks produced water conditions worse than I had seen before. In fact if it were not for the evidence of the boats on the water I would have thought it impossible for a small skiff to survive. Because of the wash most rowing was done in wooden boats, there were few racing fine boats to be seen. We were told that they normally appeared after dark when the motorised traffic had ceased.

River Bus at speed
Sunday morning was the regatta. Ricardo, the RCA president had provided us all with boats and English speaking partners, whilst at the same time protecting RCA's own chances of retaining the trophy that they had won last year. There were ninety-one boats starting the race. The river looked like a Victorian print of the Thames at a Henley regatta. Fortunately the day was dull which discouraged many of the pleasure boats and hence reduced the wash, which meant that conditions even in the river were good.
The start of the Regatta	Christine and Maria
The regatta was divided into different age groups; (the final group was 65-70 with the oldest competitors being in their mid-seventies). We started on a round course of 17 kilometres, the cox and rower changing at intervals. The Argentineans, being practised at this could make a change and lose only one stroke. We were not practised and took much longer, but at least only one crew overturned (Simon Liefer and Partner) and the only other casualty was a swamping (Brett and Diego).

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