Great River Race (SEPTEMBER 2012)

Lewis Cox

(A.P.L of Kestrels)

On the 25^th of September the forth Streatham Sea Scouts set off on a race across London known as the Great River Race, it defiantly lives up to its name. The Scouts include: Myself, Ben, Ewan, Harry, Josh J, Johnny, Eleanor, Jake R and Mowgli as the cox. 

The Explorers (Freddie, Nathan, Mitch, Liam, Xander with Sub and Trick coxing) also took part in another one of our gigs (Thames Scout).

Friday 14th September

We arrived at the scout hall the day before and drove to the boat house, where we were briefed on the tide and safety in the boat. We went to bed early to get ready for the race (the excitement of the race kept us up a bit longer though).

Saturday 15th September

An early start, woken up with a daunting day ahead of us. This was my first GRR so I was excited to see just how the event ran. We were faced with a tire that after many hard years of tugging boats, popped into a useless layer of rubber. So with even harder determination to get this boat in the water we pulled our hardest and got the boat in and we were afloat by 07:00 hours. We had a tow by the Whaley across most of London and saw some amazing sites but in only a couple of hours we would be rowing our hardest the other way.

We arrived at the starting line. We got out the boat and looked around. They were offering free face paints so we all ended up with 4^th Streatham logo and iLTG on our faces (a lot of games were lost that day). After this the tide was rising quickly so we got back in the boat just as the last centimetres of shore were left.

The Race...

With might and determination we powered our way across the starting line and gave it all we could. It was an astonishing sight- more than 300 boats all in a small section on the Thames. Because of the fact that we were an under 14 crew up against fully grown men, women and Vikings. So we had a good head start and got to Tower Bridge before the sudden mass of boats starting flowing across the Thames for the hundreds of people on bridges to gaze down on us in awe. It was hard work. The water was all over the place and water was making our boat tip and turn. No wonder that 5 boats sunk before the race had even really begun. However in our gig we were safe.

We were making good time we were only a few minutes behind our set target. Though we were being taken over by boats left right and centre everyone had high spirits after the fist couple hours. I was surprised to see so many people in boats, one time I had to shout out to another boat as they were about to ram into our stern carelessly.

People started to get tired when we reached Putney. We were alone at this time, there were no other boats near us. We kept a steady row for a while more. We reached Richmond and we were attacked by vicious PIRATES! (Two men in a canoe and some water guns). We’d been slowly approaching this Viking boat for a while when we decided to put in some strength and overtake them. So not last but very close to last.

The tide changed on us, literally. So we had to row really hard to make any way. When we got to the last hundred metres and rowed with what little strength we had left and crossed the line. There was a massive crowd of people on the bank and it was really amazing to cross the line. It was defiantly better than I imagined. We completed the Great River Race in 5hrs 30mins and 45secs. Meaning we came third in the under 14’s class!!

The Disco

So after we got the boats docked up on the side. We went to the big marquee and had fun at the Disco. Lots of crews were in fancy dress. We danced for a couple hours, before everyone was so tired and we all went to sleep in our tents. 

Sunday 16th September

We rowed back and got the boats away at the boat house. We then headed home for a well deserved rest after a long weekend.

Thanks to the leaders for making this happen!

The Video...

Below is a video that we took of our epic journey during the race.