There is a book that my mom gave to Abby and Maddy called The Daring Book for Girls. It’s sort of a manual for everything that girls need to know with stories about female heroes in history and a variety of skills that might come in handy throughout their lives. The description on GoodReads.com ends with “this book is every girl’s invitation to adventure.” Over the past month, I think my girls deserve an entry in the book.

Recently, Maddy started rowing with the Hillsborough High School Rowing Club, and while she wasn’t sure if she would like it at first, I think she has been sucked into our obsession! About a month ago, she competed in her first regatta, the Head of the Henderson, in Inverness, Florida. During this fall season in the sport, our races are 5Ks, and the venue on Lake Henderson is awesome, both for racing and for watching. What made this regatta even better is that all four of us had races throughout the day. Kim and I had a race together towards the end of the day, and as soon as we finished, we hustled back to the water to catch the finish of Maddy’s first race which we, of course, hoped would be a good experience for her.

But we are in Florida, and you cannot predict the weather. This was the first weekend in October, so there was still some summertime moisture in the air, and all day long it was windy and sort of threatening to rain. But for most of the day, it didn’t. Until Maddy’s boat of four girls got to within sight of the finish line with about 1500 meters to go. At that moment, the skies just unloaded. No lightning, fortunately, but absolutely torrential rain. And those girls could have just given up, but they didn’t. They kept rowing and rowing and rowing, and pretty soon they closed in on the finish line to a roaring crowd of coaches, parents, and teammates encouraging them to keep going. When their crew finally got back to the dock, a huge group of their teammates all went to help them get the boat, carry the oars, and give them encouragement after such a challenging race. All four girls looked like they’d been swimming, not rowing. There was definitely a mix of tears and relief, but what a great example of courage and bravery and overcoming a tough situation. (And don’t worry, they weren’t out on the water by themselves, at the races there are plenty of safety launches out on the race course.)

Of course, Abby isn’t to be outdone. Another recent race they participated in is the Halloween Regatta, and it is held locally at the Bypass Canal. Abby was coxswain (that’s the person, usually small, that crouches down low in the boat and is responsible for steering and directing the team’s race plan) for a girl’s boat. Abby is relatively new to rowing, but the group of four girls that she was coxing in this boat are more experienced rowers and have a pretty good chance of going to nationals this year. This particular race was about 3800 meters, but the challenging part about these races is that they are along waterways. That means that you steer through bridges, around obstacles, and have to follow the natural twists and turns of the river, lake, or canal that you are on. The Bypass Canal is no exception. In the middle of the race course there is a fairly sharp curve that rowers have to make. But there is one more challenge in these races: they are time trials. All of the boats in a particular heat start about 15 seconds apart, rather than lining up and listening for the start signal. Only after all boats are done are the times compared and medals awarded. While you are racing you have no idea where you stand among the other boats. But since the distance between boats is only 15 seconds, it is often the case that boats catch up to one another, and then a little dance occurs as the passing boat tries to gain the advantage and get ahead. 

And this happened in Abby’s race. We’d watched a number of boats take this turn along the canal and make it a little too wide, wasting valuable time and adding extra meters to the course. As Abby’s boat approached, you could tell they had made up some distance and were on the tail of the boat in front of them. Then Abby made a move. I think it sort of shocked her coaches. She angled her boat to take the inside line, but it would mean threading the needle between the shoreline and the boat they wanted to overtake. At first you heard a little nervousness from the coaches, but as the rowers gave her an extra boost of power, it became clear that her gamble had paid off. She skirted the shore, but stayed far enough away from it, and the power from her rowers gave them enough distance to overtake the boat ahead of them. The coaches went from nervous to ecstatic as they started to cheer like we hadn’t heard them cheer before. At this point, the girls were only halfway through the race, so Kim sprinted further down the race course to keep cheering the boat on. And when they finished, we only had to wait a few minutes to find out that their boat had won silver and had an incredibly fast time.  By the end of the day, everyone was talking about Abby’s move and how it was her daring that had played a huge role in the boat winning their medal.

Honestly, I could write my own Daring Book for Girls manual, just based on the courage, moxie, and spunk that my two girls have. These are just two little glimpses into how they put it into action. I couldn’t be prouder of the young women they are becoming. The only thing I wish is that I could slow time down a little. Abby turns 15 this weekend, so pretty soon, you may see her driving around the Brandon area! It is hard to believe that time moves so quickly. When you are holding a little baby, people always say the minutes are slow, but the years are fast, and, wow, they weren’t kidding! 

OK, I realize that got super long, so if you are still with me, we appreciate you reading the newsletter! It’s not as daring as the girl’s adventures, but I’ll be teaching a seminar on growing tasty herbs this Saturday at 10 am. It’s the perfect time to get your gardens in shape for the upcoming holiday season.