One of the sweetest sounds ...

When a rowing shell is set-up (ie - balanced properly), when the oars are off the water, when the releases and catches are clean, when the boat is moving at a fairly good speed ... when all of this happens at the same time ... the shell sings.

It's a mild trickling sound and the ever-so-slight feeling eminating from the floor of the shell.

It's the sound of a fluid dynamics phenomenon called cavitation - millions of tiny bubbles forming and collapsing in microseconds as the water rushes past the bottom of the boat due to optimum flow and pressure differentials.

It's the sound of a good row. And this morning, after the chop settled down, our boat was in fine voice.