HOTY 2015

We were boat 165
Thursday
Did the internet check in thing and in the process changed my return flight from Tuesday to Monday.  In the process I had to use the chat thing because it seems Qantas group all flights under the one booking number and once I had a boarding pass for one flight it locks out changes on other flights.  The end result of this was some concern regarding my boarding pass for the outbound flight.  I decided therefore to get to the airport a bit early just in case.
Adrian gave me a lift to Yeronga station.  Local train to Park Rd and then change to the airtrain to the airport.  
The printed boarding pass worked for my baggage check in and so all was good. While doing the baggage thing a familia voice called out and there was Steve Cleasby and his wife C??? checking in their bags.

The three of proceeded through security and onto purchase coffee etc.  Rob Pullar joined us in the departure lounge.
4:40 boarding and what do you know, my boarding pass was now invalid.  The customer service desk managed to work out the issue and provide a new one.  Seems the system had moved me to a new seat.
5:00 Fly out.
In Mel
Baggage collection took ages.  Then we lined up to catch a taxi but turned out we were in the queue for the bus.  Moved to the correct queue.

Rob and I were staying at the Stamford.  Steve was somewhere nearby. 
Neil and I were twin sharing a room but Neil did not arrive till Friday.

Friday
Bit of a leisurely start.  Walked to one of Melcournes laneway cafes for brakfast.  Bought a Myki card from 7-11.
Most of us then met up and took a tram to Hawthor 


Saturday - The day of the big race

With Johnny Commino in the coxes seat the pre-start wait was very non stressful.  There was no current or tide to speak of.  His skills as a great cox showed as he got us focused with various exercises - Hands away, roll-ups and so on.  

Then we were off.  John kept up the words of encouragement and Jeff our stoke set a good stable rate.  With everyone focused, the boat sat up and that was to me a huge relief.  That meant we  

Sunday

Audacity - Record and Playback way too fast

Megan was trying to record using her EQ laptop and Audacity.
The files recorded played back way too fast.

The solution (After research and random computer button pushing)
Untick everything in the Transport menu

No idea why check boxes associated with what look like signal routing would affect recording speed.  Bug?

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=65027

 "Software Playthrough" should not cause a "Chipmunk" effect, though I can see why it might.
If the computer has difficulty keeping up with full duplex sound then it is likely to cause bits of audio to be missing from the recording (drop-outs). If the drop outs are occurring very frequently then the resulting recording will play too fast because there is only a fraction of the data that there should be. As most consumer grade sound cards are intended for little more than playing computer alerts it is not terribly surprising that the sound card drivers are often not optimised for full duplex high quality audio.

 Maybe too many windows open and too much EQ security overhead?

BA Falcon UTE Spark Plug and Coild Pack Replacement 1

The ute has been running rough for ages.  Planning to replace the spark plugs and the coil packs.  Sometime ago the mechanic told me that one of the coil packs was on the way out.

http://autofix.com.au/blog/ba-bf-falcon-6-cylinder-spark-plug-replacement

SPARK PLUGS
It would appear that we need to buy Platinum or Iridium plugs.
The gap is supposed to be 1.4mm
Supercheap auto offer plugs  $60 for 6
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/NGK-Laser-Iridium-Spark-Plug-FR5EI-13.aspx?pid=206673#Recommendations

Ebay offer "genuine" ford ones for $40 and NDK for about $60 so supercheap are competitive and less hassle.

Touch footie

Chris came and played touch footie.

Sunday Gardening

Rowing - Pain in the .... leg

We have a new boat for the HOTY and coincidentally my leg become incredibly painful.

The first time we rowed it, the shoes were so small that I could barely fit my feet in.  Part way through the row, I took my inside (left) leg out of the shoe and used the Velcro strap that is part of the shoe to hold it down.  The pain / numbness / pins and needles continued and was worse.  Upon reflection, I wondered whether I ended up with my pelvis being pushed on an angle because my feet positions would have been different by the thickness of the shoe material.

Then changed the shoes for ones that fit.

Today's row still painful.  I'm in 5 seat.  While bow 4 warmed up and I was sitting enjoying the scenery I observed that my left leg (inside leg) was developing pins and needles just sitting there.

Current theory is that the seat is too narrow and the sides too high.  They are pushing up on the outside of my pelvis and my spine has no support in the middle.  But I'm not a doc or physio so I don't know.

On the other hand I have not experienced this when rowing any of the other boats and of late I have tended to row at least one other boat each week.  Tuesday I row in the Lochinvar and that is also a Sykes brand boat.

RESEARCH
BTW Seat tops from Croaker $125 and Sykes $77 - $154  
http://www.crokeroars.com/#!seats/c1mdn

Carbon seat tops are the latest computer generated product to be released by Croker Oars. These ergonomic seat tops are functional, elegant and gender specific.

For the first time, carbon seats are available to suit female rowers. Women generally have wider pelvic bones than men.

Men’s and women’s seats are differentiated by the distance between the seat holes or depressions. The men’s seats have hole centres of 120mm or 130mm and the women’s seats have hole centres of 160mm. This will suit most rowers. 

Small Boat Seats are 300mm wide (mens and womens), to fit most single sculls, this width may be an issue with older boats with shoulders. 

Big Boat Seats are 330mm wide (mens and womens), to fit doubles, pairs, quads, fours and eights. Some large single sculls may also accept a big boat seat. Contact Croker Oars if you are unsure for further information.

And look someone else with the issue
https://www.reddit.com/r/Rowing/comments/17tmuq/pins_and_needles_in_leg_when_rowing/

Scull Trials at Wyaralong

Sherwood Community Festival

Head Of The Brisbane

I was really looking forward to this race. I was a sub in our #1 crew. In recent times I'd rowed with them enough to get over the 'don't make mistakes' mindset and into a row hard and make it count mindset. So started with a banana and plenty of water about an hour before. Had sunscreen on and did some warm up and stretching but clearly not enough. 

The Head of the Brisbane starts and finishes at the Toowong Rowing Club near the uni. Up stream was hard agaist the tide and wind. At the U turn I was stuffed. Luckilly I was rowing stroke side and we had a nice rest as bow side powered us round. As we completed the turn, Angus our cox called for an effort and for me it felt like a new race. With renewed energy I pushed my legs down.
We had pretty good rythm and the Vikings off our stern to keep us honest. The occasional reminder from Greg Carroll behind me for length and calls from Angus Blackwood for leg drive made this a good race for me.

And we came first!

 This is one exciting picture.  I'm up near the front obscured by the splash.  My footwell was full of water that took a while to dissipate throgh the boat.

It reduced our speed considerably.  Luckily our nemesis the Vikings were just behind us (Left of pic) and suffered the same fate with a similar speed reduction.

This is Ned's crew.
Makes me tense just looking at it.

And finally a bit of video of us and the viking
https://youtu.be/R5nZ8AJztBI