Oooh missus it's freezing!

Hey groovers, just time for a quick update on our second training session - another lake-orientated-affair on Windermere. The whole team attended except Mike, who chickened out to attend his brother's wedding (a poor excuse, we thought) and Kevin who was in an exotic and far flung realm.

When we arrived at the lake, the whole business of getting the boats and ourselves ready was notably slicker than it had been the last time. I'd like to put this down to increasing team competence, but the real reason is likely to be that it was so cold.

Nigel Dykes from the University of Cumbria kindly joined us on the water and took us through some rescue moves. This mostly involved Tom jumping gamely into the water over and over again while Nigel used him as a model to demonstrate the different ways of entering your boat if you become parted from it in deep water. We then had a good old paddle, with Tom looking decidedly chilly before stopping for lunch. Stupidly, Ian and I decided to try some rolling practise before lunch and we therefore ate our soreen loaf in a near-hypothermic state!

After lunch and a beer-belly-reducing (I hope!) paddle back up the lake, we all agreed that we should try some of our new rescue moves. This started well, with us forming pairs consisting of a rescuer and a rescuee. Alas, the water was defying the laws of physics, being still liquid and yet about -15 degrees, so the whole thing got a bit out of hand. The details are too embarrassing to tell, but suffice it to say that Wendy needs to find a more ergonomic boat re-entry position and I need to learn not to squeal like a small girl when being plunged into Baltic waters :-)

Next practise session is on Satuday 5th April and this one is on the sea! About 20 miles worth too... Gosh, better stock up on pies...