In traveling to summer regattas this year, GDRA members had to deal with weather that was less than ideal. That is how it goes sometimes; rowing is an outdoor sport, after all. Despite contending with weather issues, we all had chances to race and won some medals.

At Dogwood Masters in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the day began with an early-morning storm. Rain was pouring down while we got ready to launch singles. It soon diminished to light showers, however, and the races proceeded without delay. Before long, the rain had stopped and we had a clear sky and calm water.

The Stars & Stripes regatta in Oklahoma City had high winds that blew away the lane marker buoys overnight, so we had to race without lanes. When racing began after a delay to move the course, the wind was still strong and occasionally gusty. It gave us more of a test of our rowing skills than we had expected, but we acquitted ourselves well and felt pretty good afterward.

When we parked the GDRA trailer at Ford Lake in Michigan two days before Rowfest, we arrived to find pleasant temperatures and a pretty blue sky.

Unfortunately, the good weather did not last. Wednesday was so brutally hot that practice rows were stopped early in the afternoon for safety reasons. Then, hazardous smoke from wildfires blew into the area and forced the cancellation of all events on Thursday and Friday. Strong southwest winds blew the smoke out of the area in time for racing to begin as scheduled on Saturday, but then it got so windy that the late afternoon races had to be postponed to Sunday. We finally had one good day of racing on Sunday, with the missed Saturday races tacked on at the end of the day, which made for a long night but gave us all a chance to race before the summer season ended.