The 45th VOGALONGA 9th June 2019, Venice

09 Jun The 45th VOGALONGA 9th June 2019, Venice

2000 boats, 7000 rowers, 30km round the Venetian lagoon with a grand finish in the Grand Canal… what could possibly go wrong?

Six rowers from Clifton Pilot Gig Club and the lovely Donnee from Canada, together with Lucy our pilot all congregated in Venice on Saturday 8th June to help Mike Gilbert from Langstone launch the weekend’s boat. Within a few minutes  we found ourselves rowing up the Grand Canal, huge grins on every face , wondering how we’d pulled off the experience of a lifetime. Suitably refreshed with a round of gelati – we spent an hour paddling gently through tiny canals admiring  Venice from the water, away from the tourist hoards. Saturday afternoon’s task of finding a mooring for the night was more than successful when we found we’d actually tied the boat up 100m from our air BnB – the rowing gods were smiling down, we couldn’t wait till tomorrow…

Sunday morning dawned, bright, sunny and warm. Donning our Venetian masks we checked we had enough fluid for the day (Prosecco, Bellini, Limoncello, Spritz and of course a bottle or two of water!) A very short series of back-taps and suddenly we were out in the middle of the Grand Canal cruising past St Marks Square, surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of rowing boats, every possible size, shape, configuration and design stretching as far as the eye could see. Gondolas, Kayaks, Skiffs, Sculls, Canoes, Dragon Boats, Fours, Eights and most importantly of all, Laura Jane, our own Cornish Pilot Gig!  Flags from every corner of the world, coxes, coxing in a dozen different languages and all of this against the back-drop of the Campanile and the Doges Palace….truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We headed out into the lagoon, rowing steadily, singing along to Dean Martin and Dolly Parton and avoiding the inevitable bottle-necks. After a couple of hours we were admiring the brightly coloured fishermans houses of Burano and waving to Flushing and Mylor’s purple Gig.

Making fantastic time, we rowed through the centre of Murano, the glass-blowing island, cheered on by hundreds of spectators and were all too soon back at the northern end of the Grand Canal.

As we slowly followed a beautiful local boat up the Canal we started the long process of re-hydration. Pre-mixed Bellini seem to have the perfect combination of sugar, fluid and carbs – far preferable to post-row bananas!

Reaching  the Rialto bridge, we raised our oars in salute to cheers and applause and responded with a quick chant of Oggie, Oggie, Oggie.

We were on the final stretch and, with open water ahead, we at last had space to put the power on. A German Dragon Boat accepted the challenge and the race was on… It may have been short, but it was sweet and we did ourselves proud – Clifton can lay claim to being the only Gig to have raced and beaten a Dragon Boat in the Grand Canal!!

A gentle row back to the start and it was all over – a truly fabulous experience in one of the most beautiful locations on the planet. I can’t recommend it highly enough – I’m looking forward to the 46th Vogalonga already…