2013 M2 May Bumps – Day 2

On day 2, the fighting spirit was still burning strong, and everyone was up for a return bump on Girton. We had a very strong start, and were moving well, holding the chasing Tit Hall crew on station. However, things started to go wrong a little way before First Post Corner. Laura could see a lot of boats up ahead, but figured they’d been involved in bumps and were just taking a little too long to clear. It quickly became apparent that it was something bigger, and we had to “hold it up”, fast. As Cam FM described it, there was “˜carnage on the river”, with a blockage that meant racing had to stop. Everyone from boat 6 downwards had to rerow, from 5 stations above where they started. This was mentally and physically challenging for everyone, as the 15-minute before we could start again meant that everyone’s muscles cooled down a lot, and people had too much time to think. Our second start was nowhere near as good as our first, sadly, and we were caught fairly rapidly. Later, we found out what had caused the rerow: one of FaT had caught a crab, allowing St Catz to catch them. The location of this bump made it very hard for them to clear quickly, which resulted in the backlog of boats, and in turn, the rerow.