The Last Race This Season

Today was the last race of this seasons Winter Series on Windermere we had loads of wind which was really good because so far in this season it's been like drifting around a mill pond rather than racing a yacht!!!

We all had good fun - even if it was a lot of hard work - the weather was so bad we couldn't get near the committee boat to get the course information & then we had engine trouble & also had to drop the main sail to reef it so by the time we got sorted our start signal was given & we just had to go & follow the other boats til we got the course sorted!!

The crew for the day were Stuart, Ric, Amanda, Ian and Doug (left- right in the pic)

Fun at the Old Man

The snow was still around this weekend so Ian, myself and our two dogs, Siula and Storm, decided to go for a walk up Coniston Old Man.

The sun was out & it was very cold so armed with ice axes and crampons and lots of hot drink, spare clothes and food (not forgetting map and compass!!) we set off from Walner Scar car park and headed along the path to Goats Water, from there we cut directly up to he summit through the deep snow just for the fun of it rather than sticking to the path (not to be done without the right equipment!!!) the dogs really loved the thick snow and we had loads of snowball fights.

We got back to the car park just as the ice cream van pulled up (can only happen in England) luckily he was selling tea & coffee which was a welcome sight!

Cumbrian Snow

4am - a light sprinkling of snow out of the window didn't look promising for a race day on the yacht!!

By 8am we decided if we were going to get to the boat on Windermere we'd better leave early and after an hour of struggling through the snow, keeping track of the progress of other crew members and getting nowhere fast, we finally heard from the race officials that the race was cancelled - we turned for home, picked up the dogs and went for a days play in the thick snow - we couldn't actually get up into the mountains as the roads were still being ploughed so we pulled off into a car park (conveniently near a pub) and went walking through the fields playing with the dogs and burying my partner Ian.

We finished the day off with a late lunch in the pub - The Watermill Inn at Ings, good beer, good food & most importantly an open fire to warm up beside. The dogs, of course were welcome too!

Jumping Ship

Today I had the opportunity to jump ship from the J92 yacht, Pure Adrenalin, to a yacht called Jack - Jack is the largest yacht ever to be launched on Windermere and is 53 feet long and I really had fun racing her as part of her crew.

The race is the Winter Series held on Windermere between November and April each year and attracts competitors from all over Great Britain as well as abroad. It's a fantastic race series. There are usually about 45-50 boats competing in each race and there are 4 classes - Pure Adrenalin and Jack are both in the sports boat class.

The picture is from Jack with Pure Adrenalin at the front.