By Amber Wong / Nonfiction /         The April air’s crisp as a Granny Smith, the water smooth as velvet. Shades of coral edge over the eastern horizon, the promise of a sunny spring day. At the top of the University of Washington crew racecourse on the edge of Lake Washington, my eyes sweep the skyline, north to south, hoping for a sweet reward. And there it is. Today, beyond the dark evergreen nests of firs, the blue-gray jags of the distant Cascade Mountains end with an e