Sixteen enthusiastic paddlers from the Narooma Blue Water Dragons gathered at the dragon boat shed on Sunday morning looking forward to getting out on the water.
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And for many on the boat, this was their first experience of the wooden boat parade.
The perfect conditions of a slight breeze and slow current meant that this year the paddlers would have the opportunity to get in amongst the flotilla.
After launching the boat, they joined the craft circling in Forsters Bay, this was a great warm up for the rest of the paddling to come.
On the whistle they made our way up the channel with the rest of the vessels and steadily made our way through the crowd. It was wonderful seeing all the different varieties of wooden craft and engage in banter as they all tootled along together.
Sweep Ed Proudfoot successfully negotiated the bottleneck as we went under the bridge and steered the boat towards the boardwalk and the crowd of spectators.
“We made two passes of the boardwalk and hopefully impressed the crowd with our “paddle tap” routine before heading the boat for home,” paddler Donna Andersons said.
“We spent 90 minutes on the water with only a couple of brief stops so paddlers could change sides but as Phyllis remarked ‘It only felt like 10 minutes!’.
“Congratulations to the organisers for another fantastic event. We are already looking forward to next year.”
If you would like to have a go at dragon boating come down to Blue Water Dragons’ shed, next to the Quarterdeck Café, at 8.30am on a Saturday morning.
o learn a little bit more about the club and see what they get up to you can follow them on facebook.
