Update One, from 46°53’27.9″N 8°14’35.6″E
As many of you know, we’ve kicked off the second leg of our 2017 Henley Adventure (the first being just shy of two weeks of training at home in C’Ville). This means we are currently training in Sarnen, Switzerland; a canton just outside of Zürich and Luzern and home to the Swiss Rowing Federation.
We’ll be here until Friday when we head back into Zürich to race in the Greifensee Regatta over the weekend; our races kicking off at about 1600 (1000 EST) with the four.
As we continue our travels, each of the guys will share a bit of their experience and perspective through these updates. Today’s is from second-year Sean Allen from Williamsburg, VA (who’s currently the spare):
This is my first time outside of the States and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to row abroad. When we arrived in Switzerland [Monday, June 12, 0800] we all crammed into 2 vans [with 12 oars and luggage] and headed for the Ruderclub Erlenbach, where Frank used to row.
There we picked up a trailer, van to tow it, and a Hudson 8+ and headed for Luzern to pick up an Empacher straight 4. From there we continued on to Ruderclub Sarnen, our final destination. We unpacked our stuff at the Swiss National Team house and went out for a rather jet-lagged row. The lake was so beautiful, set in the foothills of the Alps. We have slowly adjusted to the time change over the last several days and have been rowing twice a day.
I was able to borrow and brand new Fillipi single from the Swiss National Team each day. Being alone out on the water with the beautiful scenery is truly amazing. I have always followed up the end of each piece by looking around me in 360 degrees to take it all in. It’s been a great experience and a much better summer than anything at home.
If you’d like to see more of our adventure, you can also follow our travels on twitter (@VirginiaRowing) and instagram (@vmensrowing).