poliphilo | Row, Row, Row

There's always someone out on the water. It might be a flock of tiny sailboats, or a speedboat knifing along parallel to the horizon or a sailboard or two- and those things can travel almost as fast as the speedboats- but yesterday there was a novelty- a proper racing row boat, such as you might see on the Cam or the Isis- with oarsmen sitting on sliding seats, backs to the prow and a cox facing forward, keeping them moving with precision- like a mechanical toy- and making sure they didn't plough into the head of some heedless swimmer...