New Local Rowing Club Takes to the Water by Dick Cooper
Brittle twigs and desiccated pine cones crunch underfoot as Rodney Tong leads the way down a dark path and through a stand of trees, guided only by the beam of his headlamp. It is 6 a.m., and even the birds that live along the banks of the nearby Tred Avon River are still asleep. “We’re just over here,” Rodney says as he steps into a clearing on the grounds of Evergreen Cove, near the end of Port Street in Easton. His daughter, Chloe, is working in the lantern light on what looks like a
65-foot-long white missile mounted on saw horses. The Tongs of Royal Oak are the advance crew for the Eastern Shore Community Rowers’ maiden voyage of their newlyrestored and repainted eight-man rowing shell. A s Rodney Tong tightens t he fasteners connecting the oarlocks to the gunwales, other rowers arrive in the clearing on this cold winter morning, dressed in multiple layers, knit caps and gloves. There is a bit of excitement as the rowers
Carrying the eight to the dock in the dark. 27