Spring Rally
I was distressed by irresponsibility of some participants - in vain though. I turned to be not only affected by this but also "collected": Juryi-the-crook phoned me at 8 a.m. (never mind, it's a nick, he's almost a real english gentleman) and said that the half of his team has flowed aside so now he has 4 empty seatplaces on the 6-cat! Every cloud has a silver lining, that's true! Surely, it's much more funny and safe to ride a catamaran! Plus no need to carry, inflate, wash, dry and deflate MY boats. I called one of my team members whose husband was extremely against her participation and let her go))) - seemed that she was afraid of me more than of her husband/
1. Two captains, Clingons invite Federation.
Well, the rest part of our team was ready, dragged by the call of the soul and suffering of the heart: Vesta and her son Vova, Lootfullovna and me with Uma. Our meeting was on the start place - at the Friendship Monument area.
2. Showing up to formation
It was 33th Spring Rally this year. There were not many people though - barely 200, I think - the weather scared some teams.
3. Fops on chairs
The sun periodically struggled through the clouds but basically it was gloomy. Warm though, +3С. And wind from the river. And a black stormcloud on the skyline. He! Wild boar afraid of nothing! Dressed as a cabbage and took some tea. And some not-tea.
4. Not tea
Uma was dressed better than an -25 C. Jenya, my friend, came along with her girls to say bye-bye. Girls were watching the assembly with burning eyes and obviously wanted to join us. Suddenly the idea knoked me down - let's take Masha (one of the girls) along! Whe not? We have an extra safety jacket. We have desire. We have place. And we have her mother's agreement! So, Jenya birdflew home and brought some winter clothes and rubber boots, and we took Mashka to her first Big Sailing.
5. Team formation
Took a start at a midday. It was the that clingon catamaran from Nougoush... you cannot cheat karma, comrades. Cruiser grounded on a concrete bank 10 m to the real bank! Everyone passed this place with no trouble, but not us. We were snagging from this mysterious shit for 10 minutes! Too deep around to step in the water... too cold to step into the water... Water was + 4C... And exactly a minute after the start it started raining. But no way to flood us with that! Slowly but surely we started our rotationally progressive movement forward.
6. Smile!
We managed to have one shot for the bridge after the brigde and the "festival" shutted down. Hurracaine flew down, cloudburst with hail that beated our heads and faces. It was such a hell fucking shit that the only thing we had left to do was to shout with laughter and yell each other that those who stayed home today are such fools and probably are extremely envious of us herous right now! Masha seemed to be extremely astonished, Vova and Uma were in a philosophic mood.
7. Snow, hail, rain and other non-human joys of rally
That's it. We went for 4 hours, weather pleased us with variable sunshine (though it didn't warm us for some reason), facewind and scary black clouds ahead. Periodically there were absolutely space landscapes with the part of bank, brightly lighten by sun, seemed to be painted on a black sky.
8. Behind the second bridge
9. Old boat
We managed to board other boats couple of times and took away some tasty food. On our way at some moment a doublecat join us. A couple, a boy and a girl, about 20, and sticker of Rainbow pony on the alongside. They turned out to be specialists in the topic and had a very long and interesting discussion with Uma. I understood none of the sense and half of the words))) Moreover, the guy was disputing the most! Uma was delighted! Besides we had a guitar with guitarist, so music was with us.
10. Happy faces
11. Along the railway station
12. Clingon romantic
So... as we sang, ate, drank, got acquainted, said hello and goodbye it turned out that we are almost the first. From the other side))) And a black cloud again loomed ahead. Resquers on their motorboats ran after those who were behind us, caught them and dragged to the finish - as I understood the rescuers wanted to go home in some decent time, because it was the first time they helped so vigorously. Maybe they were moved by altruism, however. I don't know. Well, they tugged everyone, only us were left. They circled around us like sharks but our team couldn't decide what to do: me, Uma and two paddling girls shouted for further way by ourselves and all the men and the rest of the girls voted for riding the rescuers. Finally rescuers heard their supplications and took us by tug. It was funny: out catamaran was so crooked that refused to be tugged evenly, so we've got water drift! Vova squalled with delight but others got tired to wave paddles to correct the course
13. Saviors Rescuers
The rescuers let us free 300 m before the finish so we finished decently. Almost decently))) Children yelled together
Ole-ole-ole-ole
The first!
From the end!
People on the bank laughed and showed at us
So was the glory finish of our team!
The main goal to get tired is reached!!!
14. Hurray, comrades!
15. Finishing!
