Books and Boats

With the icy grey waters of the Thames swirling beneath our boat, reflecting the foreboding skies, the scene was unquestionably a Turner-meets-Constable seascape

In other words, it was a perfect day for dragonboat racing on the Thames!

Although lightning and thunder was a mere breeze away- the 16 of us and our fellow intrepid, and strangely dressed, warriors bent on a day of competition and charity, balanced, posed at the ready, waiting for the drum beat.

31 teams gathered on the Thames in the cold early morning to represent a few dozen charities from Make a Wish and Diabetes Care to Breast Cancer Awareness and Doctors without borders.

Our Book Boat, supporting Reading Quest literacy non-profit, was filled with 18 students, representing a variety of nations and several of Oxford colleges, including the bulk of the Corpus Christi crew team. Our drummer was also the cox for the men’s crew team, with the loudest voice on the river.

Our story was one of international drama… as we told the announcer… our boat was filled with scholars devoted to study and literacy around the world. In a less dramatic explanation- the wife of the director of the Stanford program is interim director of Reading Quest… and enlisted Stanford and Oxford students to paddle. The day’s theme (so auspicious for our own charity) was “favorite children’s book characters” and led to utterly ridiculous costuming- there was a boat searching for Waldo, attired in red and white striped shirts, blue pants and thick-ringed glasses, a boat of Harry Potters, and our own team- a more motley crew- including a few Beatrix potter characters, JK Rowling representations, a bit of Dumas (for the more precocious young readers), Lewis Carroll, and some British characters mixed in.

In a great lesson to never judge a book by its cover, the odds on favorite was unquestionably the reigning champions Feel Good Fitness (really, they work out for a living!), other promising teams included the St. Clare’s Oxford squad, and the Abingdon School rowers. But it was our boat that held the 2^nd fastest time on the water for much of the morning! (In spite of the fact that until we paddled upstream to the start-line, we’d never paddled as a team)

But in the end, even God couldn’t upset the reigning champions as the Diocese of Oxford boat lost by mere inches to the powerhouse Fitness squad.

So my summers spent dragonboating on the west coast came full circle as I was lead stroke in the annual Abingdon Dragonboat festival on the River Thames. We survived the arctic temperatures, and ultimately held a top 10 time of the day.

And in spite of the forecaster’s vow of rain seemingly destined to dampen the mood, the sailors on the water and the spectators on the river banks were determined to celebrate.

Floating on the River Thames,

ej

Dragonboating on the Thames

in arctic weather