Day 3 Greetings from South Carolina! Thanks to a series of late flights and some car trouble, it took us a little while to get everyone here, but we all made it! It’s been brilliantly sunny and about 80 degrees every day so far, except for a quick 30 minute blast of a thunderstorm on Sunday afternoon. The heat has definitely been a shock to the system, even after our warm Maine winter, but most of us are trying to soak in as much vitamin D as we can while we’re here.
The food at camp is significantly better this year, which has been an exciting plot twist for us. That being said, we definitely appreciated the delicious catered barbecue that was put together by the lovely Nancy Riley tonight! Pulled pork, barbecue chicken, rice and beans, baked mac and cheese, cobbler, and sweet tea… one can’t complain!
Practice has been going well, too. We’ve had lots of side switches for the rowers and lots of time in different boats for coxswains. We may be a little rusty, but it’s so good to be back at it again. Looking forward to a fast spring.
Will keep you posted re: alligator sightings.
Day 8 The first races of the season were completed on Thursday and Friday of last week. The first varsity women, first novice women, and first novice men all won their pieces, and we had some close finishes across the board in the other events.
A group of novice men spotted some serious alligators the other day at practice. No one was eaten. See Doug’s Instagram @sustainableathlete for pix.
Yesterday was our annual trip into Charleston. Camp Bob’s limp potatoes, fried chicken, and iceberg lettuce were replaced by she-crab soup, fried green tomatoes, and many, many pigs worth of barbecue.
We had to part ways with Hide, one of our newest rowers, at the Charleston airport, but also got to welcome back two of our seniors, Martin and Julia. They’ll be thrown into the mix for our last week here. Approximately 200 other schools just showed up at Camp Bob this morning, too, so we’ll see how that goes!
Not to jinx anything, but we’ve been incredibly lucky with weather so far. The thunderstorms we anticipated in Charleston yesterday turned out to be a couple of grey clouds at worst, and today, the coldest day yet, is still around 50 degrees.
Day 11 Thank you so much to all of the amazing people out there who have sent us care packages! Crazy how fast this second week is going by.
Still 75 degrees and sunny most of the time, except for some chilly mornings. We hear you got some snow up in Maine…
More races lined up for tomorrow. Let’s go black!
Day 13 The final day has come!
The whole fleet made it out onto the water this morning for the famous Potato Creek Scramble, an epic 500 m mixed line-up dash. Coxswain Elena “Baby G” Gleed won the gunwale race by a landslide.
By now, all of our boats are packed up and ready for the trip home. Coachie, Edie, Doug, and two little carpools of roadtrippers have already departed. Drive safe, kids! The rest of us will hop on a bus to the Charleston airport at 3 am tomorrow.