Two Star river trip
I normally leave work at 6:00 pm on a Tuesday evening to be in good time for my weekly club paddle. Last night, at around 6:15 pm, I realised that I was artificially busying myself with 'urgent' calls and emails that I had been subconsciously putting off all afternoon so that I would be too late to go paddling on this freezing cold evening. Mentally giving myself a slap in the face, I grabbed my kit bag and ran for the bus, as always, it was worth the effort.
I was on coaching duty and not looking forward to a lot of sitting still on Shadwell Basin. Luckily, nobody else fancied that either and, as all those who wanted to paddle were of at least Two Star standard, we decided on a river trip instead (our club rules were recently relaxed to allow 'Two Stars' to paddle on the Thames providing they buddy up with a 'Three Star').
A group of five regular river paddlers set off ahead of us leaving eleven including three 'Two Stars' for whom it was their first time paddling this far on the river (the 10 km to Greenwich and back took us two hours). They all seemed to enjoy the opportunity to do something other than practising strokes on the Basin and I think they gained confidence paddling on the Thames in the dark and cold, which can be an intimidating environment.