Sunset over the Willamette, from the sculling course. As forecast, we did our final row of Fall 2008 Thursday, taking three doubles out onto a fast-moving, much higher, and debris-heavy river. It was a nice goodbye to a good group, and we then put the boats up and shut the bay.
Only to open it again the next afternoon and get on with sanding, washing, and painting six sets of blades Friday, Saturday, and again yesterday. 20 cans of spraypaint later and THAT chore is done. Painting oars is a once a year PITA that must be done. We changed our blade design this year, eliminating the black blade with orange chevron in favor of an all-orange blade. This is both new and old; Lewis & Clark prior to 2002-2003 used an all-orange blade. We'll add a decal yet to be determined for a very cool professional look come spring. In the meantime, we can see the blades much better now.
As I mentioned I'm glad that's over with. By yesterday I had a strong headache from paint fumes. Public service announcement: don't sniff paint.
