Joe's Retirement Blog: Head of the Charles Regatta, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The Head of the Charles Regatta is the largest two-day rowing event in the world attracting more than 9,000 competitors and 300,00 spectators. Held annually since 1965, a section of the Charles River adjacent to Harvard University campus, Cambridge, and Boston becomes the race course while the river banks and overarching bridges are crowded with fans and spectators.

It was difficult to coax my point-and-shoot camera to provide me a shutter speed-aperture-

ISO combination that froze the oar motion but provided a bit of background blur as I panned the camera. Times like this I wish I had a "real" camera - until I remember a "real" camera won't fit in my shirt pocket.

Spectators included many alumni of competing colleges. They crowded the designated gathering area on the Boston side of the river. (This boat and others where the racer's backs are to my camera are not in a race but rather are returning down-river to the starting line area).

The Cambridge side of the river was equally crowded with folks and vendors. Part of the Harvard University campus is on the other side of the treeline.

An eight-person crew passes beneath the John Weeks footbridge across the Charles River. This was a popular viewing spot affording a view directly down onto the river and boats as they passed beneath.

Part of the crowd on the footbridge, more of the Harvard campus in the background.

A four-person crew passes the Radcliffe Weld Boathouse in the background.

The two-person crew looks like they may have been doing this for a few years. I was fascinated by the whirlpools triggered by the powerful strokes of the oars.

Here's a four-person crew making more whirlpools.

An eight-person crew facing their coxswain in the stern of the boat.

And speaking of the coxswain, this one is in the bow of the boat and reclines. The coxswain steers the boat through both a small rudder and through instructions to the crew regarding rhythm and power of their strokes.

Since I don't really know anything about this sport of rowing, I can't say who did what to whom but, I think these two boats probably shouldn't be so close to each other.

This image and the next I processed into a high contrast, black and white view that was intending to suggest an old fashioned newspaper article from years gone by. Rowing is one of the oldest sports in the world with some documentation in Egypt more than 3000 years ago - though on papyrus not newsprint.