Tour du Leman 2014: How we went Dutch... and won!

The start: I just love a good melée.
© Maxcomm Communication

One of the questions I find I'm most often asked after completing a major expedition row is "Would you do it again?" Which, on closer analysis, is faintly irritating. I mean: if the answer's "No", does that mean my achievement this time is somehow reduced? However, in the case of this 160km race round Lake Geneva, the answer keeps being "Yes", and so it was that in early July I turned my attention for the sixth time to the challenge of finding suitable crewmates.

Have you got the long-distance rowing bug?

Take this quick 10-question test to find out whether you're a normal rower who merely likes reading about expedition rowing, a potential addict, or a full-on raving long-distance rowing loony.

Be warned, though, once you know the signs, you'll find yourself starting to exhibit them. And once you've got the bug, there's no known cure, you simply have to indulge...

10 top tips for coxing an expedition row

The successful completion of an expedition row boils down to the rowers taking a lot of strokes. A LOT of strokes. But good coxing can play a really valuable part in helping them with that. Follow these tips to keep your crew fast, informed, and happy.

They're in order of importance. The first three are purely technical. After that coxing creativity comes into play, but don't be alarmed if you're not an experienced cox: there are several helpful tools you can use to squeeze the most out of your crew. Not literally, obviously.

The Sulkava Rowing Race: 15 have fun in Finland

A 60km rowing race, in a historic style of wooden boat, through beautiful countryside, in the height of summer. On reflection, our hastily-thought-up team name, "What's Not to Like?", said it all.

And to make it totally irresistible, the boats are coxed 14s (and no, the 1 is NOT a typo – I don't mean coxed 4), with bowside and strokeside sitting NEXT to each other. I mean, really, what's not to like?!

Although actually, there WAS something that was definitely not to like about some of the boats...

Going Just Some of the Wey: A Mini-Expedition Row

Expedition rows can come in all shapes and sizes. And fond as I am of more epic challenges, there are only so many of those you can plan and fit into a year. 

But that still leaves the odd spare Saturday when a short, slightly out-of-the-ordinary row can be fitted in. And so it was that a small party of just six of us, including two who had only been rowing a single-figure numbers of times, set off on a 14 mile round trip up the Wey Navigation Canal in Surrey.

Oh, and did I mention it basically involved going to the pub?

Posture Pixies and their relatives

For most of us, long distance rowing is demanding on the back. The good news, though, is that help IS available, and I don't just mean taking a couple of 12-hour Neurofen before you start (though I am a strong believer in doing that). There is no need to struggle to sit up, keep your back flat and engage your abdominals on your own.

The Posture Pixie is there to help.

The "Rules" of Expedition Rowing

Expedition rowing is not like "normal" rowing. Sure, you sit in a the same kind of boat, and do the same kind of stuff with the blades. That's not what I mean. Expedition rowing requires strict adherence to three key rules. Ignore them and not only will you suffer, but your crew mates will suffer too, and there's every chance that you won't make it to the end of your chosen expedition.

However, I'm not sure which order they belong in. Maybe they're equally important? 

Meander 2014: How the Thames grows up from baby to teenager in four days

Although I'm happy to be accused of stretching an analogy too far, the 124 mile journey of the River Thames from its rural source to the point it becomes tidal, is rather like the development of a child, from wriggling infant to grown young man, ready to head off to sea to seek adventure far from its home shores. 

Along the way it leaves its toys lying around, gets into technology and even acquires some brand-name accessories. Oh, and don't get me started on the state of its bedroom....

Elfsteden (11 Towns) Rowing Marathon: Give us a HUG!

Which would you rather do on the last weekend before Christmas? Go shopping, or go rowing with a bunch of people you hardly know, in a foreign country, over the longest night of the year?

Obviously, it was a no-brainer, and so it was that I spent a freezing weekend having a tremendous time, rowing past the occasional windmill.

And as so often, but still unexpectedly happens with events like this, it was a cultural eye-opener too.

Tour du Leman 2013: Like how you DREAM sculling to be

The problem with my fifth experience of the 160km Tour du Léman a l'Aviron, round Lake Geneva, was that everything was so perfect, there's a serious risk that all future participations can only be a disappointment: the weather was idyllic; our safety boat driver kept us entertained in ways no safety boat had ever tried before; and we even found a solution to one of our major food issues.

Mind you, we did struggle a bit with a wonky rudder, and a trapped nerve in my neck meant that I found out my left arm didn't work properly during the race when the rate went above 24, but it would be boring if it were simple...

Rowing the Nile (well, some of it)

© Nile Rowing Expedition,
Martin Paasman.

At 6,853km long, the River Nile is the World's longest river. Which obviously makes it a tantalising location for expedition rowing. 

However, in the same way that the answer to the question "How do you eat an elephant?" is "One bit at a time", a wise approach to rowing the Nile is to start with the 720km chunk from Luxor to Cairo. 

And that's exactly what my friend Martin, a Dutch long-distance rowing fanatic of the first order, spent 10 unforgettable days doing (do the maths – that's a lot of rowing day after desert-hot day).

Tour du Leman 2012: The year with the nutter in the single

The 40th edition of the 160km Tour du Léman à l'Aviron was memorable for two reasons. First, although it is usually a race for touring coxed quads (which allows each competitor to alternate rowing and coxing), a German gent was given special permission to complete it in a touring single to celebrate his 25th participation in the event.

Second, the weather was dire. Really dire. So dire that I spent quite a lot of the race convinced I was going to get hypothemia until I did what I should have done hours earlier, and was happy as Larry after that. Although Larry wasn't taking part.

Skiffing with the Olympic Torch Relay

Rowing has provided me with many fantastic experiences, and one of the best was taking part in the final stage of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. 

Despite the (very) early hour, the riverbanks were lined with people. The brand new Royal barge Gloriana, launched for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, only a few weeks earlier, and crewed on this occasion by former British Olympic rowing medallists, had had a special flame cauldron installed in her bows, ready to take the flame when Sir Matthew Pinsent arrived with the torch. 

But this wasn't a voyage that Gloriana would be making alone...

How to be a good ocean rowing supporter

Rule 1: It's not about you.
Your support and encouragement are incredibly valuable to your rower. However, as life at sea is incredibly tough, and sending messages 10 times more onerous, and 50 times less immediate than it is on land, craft your messages (content and frequency) based on what THEY would enjoy receiving not what YOU want to send.

Everything else derives from this rule!

Here are some detailed Dos and Donts for how and what to communicate whilst your rower is at sea. Be careful, though, because you may find that you develop OARS (Obsessive Atlantic Rowing Supporting) or the related condition SPOT (Serious Pacific Ocean Tracking) Syndrome!

Rowing the Atlantic: When you need to be a Tiger

If you hang around long enough with ocean rowers, and find that you've developed a taste for expedition rowing (albeit in events you can fit into a weekend), sooner or  later you're going to come to the conclusion that, if your piggy bank can cope, there's really no good reason NOT to row an ocean yourself.

And so it was that my husband and I set off from the Canary Islands in our tiger-striped boat, and landed in Barbados nearly 11 weeks later. Along the way, we'd lost a rudder, been brought another, seen dolphins for 30 seconds, enjoyed eating biltong in bed (only one of us), listened to all seven Harry Potter books, and been reminded almost every day that ocean rowing is much more about the ocean than it is about rowing.

Meander 2011 (Part 2): Ending with a fizz

Day 2 of our "meander" by skiff from Lechlade to Teddington (you can read the story so far here) saw our little flotilla of six boats taking to the water at 6am. Which was a bit grim, but also extremely beautiful. 

Our first lock of the day was Abingdon, and once out of that we rewarded with the iconic sight of Didcot Power Station's cooling towers looming above the reeds in the distance. 

Meander 2011 (Part 1): From tadpole to opera

Many, many rowers, myself included, row regularly on one of the 45 stretches of the Thames between locks. We often race on another two or three. 

But that leaves an awful lot of Britain's most famous river left to explore, which was one of the best bits of this 135 mile skiffing tour from Lechlade to Teddington over an Easter weekend.

There were also chocolate eggs, history lessons and a Handel aria in an unexpected place.

Tour du Leman 2009: Never again?

The story so far: in 2006, I amazed myself by completing the Tour du Léman à l'Aviron in a mixed crew. In 2008, I set out to do the race "the hard way" without those big-engined blokes in an all-women's crew. Unfortunately, the weather got the better of us and we "swamped" after an hour and 20 minutes of battling through breaking waves.

Disliking unfinished business, the five of us returned to Geneva the next year, more practised, equipped with an electric pump, and with an updated flag.

The Rallye du Canal du Midi: The salad is being served

This event in southern France is so much more than a rowing expedition, or so we eventually figured out. It was equally a water-based opportunity to explore the thing that the southern French care most about – food, and wine.

But after various faux pas and misunderstandings, the organisers eventually realised that we weren't deliberately trying to be rude; rather, it was just that we were British and didn't understand. 

It was very, very HOT.

Tour du Leman 2008: The one that got away

When I first took part in the 160km, non-stop Tour du Léman à l'Aviron around Lake Geneva, I was thrilled to have completed what I felt at the time was a very daunting challenge, and was quite clear that there was no need ever to do it again. 

But some months later, the other woman from that mixed crew and I decided that we SHOULD do it again. And actually, make it harder this time by doing it in an all-women's crew.

Having pulled together a carefully chosen quintet of ladies who can "shut up and row", we set off for what we thought was going to be a tough row. In fact, it turned out not to be about rowing that year, but about the pumps. Of which  we only had one, and it was rather inadequate.