The races at the rowing meet I covered in this post tend to overlap from what we saw.  The length of the course and the time to complete it is such that the next race was started before the last was finished.  Consequently, there is not a way for the crews to return up the cut as the next boats are heading towards them.  Apparently, they all wait in the next bay.  Then, when it is clear, they all row back up together.  The cut was full of crews rowing back to take their boats out of the water.  It made for an impressive sight!

It was purely by coincidence that we happened to be at UW when a rowing meet was taking place.  We had read much about UW rowing in The Boys in the Boat (well worth a read if you have the opportunity) and were planning on walking down to the Cut to see the Shell House but there were plenty of boats and crews in the parking lot when we came through.  We actually got there almost at the end of the meet.  I guess they row early to get the calmest conditions?

A few final races came through as we walked along the cut.  The crews were working hard but still had some way to go when they came past us.  By that distance, the strongest crews were showing themselves clearly.  We watched them disappear up the cut and towards the finish line.  As the last race past by, you could see the course boats start to disperse so we knew it was done.  What we didn’t know was that we would get a nice finale.  That will be another post.