Report from Windermere Weve done it! What a great day! What a sense of achievement!! Rejoined Windy at Fellfoot, where it was busy with holidaymakers visiting and going in the steamer cruises. A bit of bailing, stowing the kit, hoisting the sails and off to adventure part two! We had nice southwesterly winds with a steady 7-15mph and few gusts, so where we had been battling and struggling yesterday for hours trying to make any headway in long uncomfortable tacks, we were today running and reaching with the wind behind us on an even keel. We reached Bowness in record time and decided to crack on. Again, what a difference: where yesterday the blowy southernly called for constant swift tacks between island and harbour wall, rocks and moored yachts, we today negotiated the passage on text book jibes, noting again that any of the bigger yachts drop their sails and motor through here...tsk! After a weird moment of total becalmed-ness, where conflicting winds running off the mountains brought us to a standstill, the northern half of the lake presented us with a steady 15-20mph northwesterly wind, with few gusts, what fun! We made tremendous headway on a speedy closehaul, the foot straps again coming into frequent use for us to hang over the side to stabilise Windy on our course. We reached Waterhead in an amazing three hours sail and once moored up, what a sense of achievement! Weve done it, folks, sailed Windermere on Windy for Project 2015! A special thank you to our shore party, Liz & Richard Earl; the Lake Wardens at Windermere; the team at Pugneys Watersports Centre, especially Steve and Andy; to Jane and Rich for the publicity; all well-wishers; all who have sponsored us - and it is not too late to do so still!! - and a trusty Windaloo who is such a great little boat to see us safely thru! Yours Andi
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 05:51:59 +0000
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