Rutand

I have posted about Rutland before but I was back there yesterday in perfect conditions, sun and wind were plentiful and being a Friday there was only a few other boats on the water.  While getting the boat ready to tow home I met someone who used to own a Storm 15 who might meet up for a sail next time I'm there. The "Garmin Connect" link is for the tracklog for the day, I used a Garmin running GPS hence the less that nautical units and the calorie count, the gadget seems to think I'm either swimming or walking on water



Garmin Connect

Ullswater

I have not sailed or posted in a while, our last trip to Amble proved to be a bit of a disaster. One good sail followed by engine failure and a tow back into the marina. Since then the engine has been fully overhauled and has now proved to be trouble free. We have sailed on Windermere a few times but this time went for the quieter northern lakes. A bit of googling found a cottage with a jetty and Ullswater marina were able to store the trailer and seemed keen to use their tractor to launch Meg Ullswater is a good deal more peaceful than Windermere and there were only a handful of other boats about and of course the ferries which run up and down the lake. As with Windermere they are entirely predictable in their course and speed. There was never any shortage of wind although the surrounding mountains do make it do some strange things. The sailing was limited to a couple of hours at a time, the kids interest being the limiting factor. Sailing it seems is a bit dull to the Xbox generation. My son was looking interested in some skiff sailors who were playing a game that involved alternating 5 minutes of sailing with 5 minutes of swimming. Overall it was a cracking weeks holiday and some great sailing, this end of the lake district has much to offer, so much in fact that we have booked the cottage for October half term. Managing to find somewhere to stay that enables you to tie the boat up at the end of the garden makes it so much easier to get out for an hour or so in the evening. The outboard seems to be working perfectly and the week was entirely problem free which was just what I needed and so I'm keen to get sailing again soon. PS the cottage is http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/accommodation/p8122806 a BR20 was quite happy at the jetty but the water wasn't very deep and in a hot summer the water level falls. The lake bed next to the jetty was small shingle and if the water level is low the boat could be beached. The cottage was comfortable, some of the reviews are a bit negative but if your going to take a boat 2 kids and 2 dogs and don't want to worry to much its perfect. They do have a sort of slipway/ gravel ramp to the water but its very steep and i wouldn't weant to us for anything bigger that a Lazer

Amble

We arrived and launched at Amble yesterday and now Meg is tied up in the marina and hopefully the week will bring some decent sailing. The slipway is next to the yacht club and slopes very gently so needs to be used around high water. It's fairly well surfaced but has a grassy rounabout at the top of the slipway. Clearly the idea is to turn at the roundabout and reverse down the the water. Unfortunately its too small to turn a car and trailer so a bit of manhandling is required. This is no great challenge with a Bayraider but a heavier boat might be more difficult. I've not used a marina mooring before and with easy parking and all the facilities at hand its certainly more civilsed than a drying mooring and having to use a tender to get aboard.

Staithes

We have just spent the last week on the Yorkshire coast at Staithes. It’s a small village a few miles north of Whitby with a drying harbour. It a cracking place for a holiday as the village is largely car free and the harbour has a beach area for the kids to play. I contacted the harbour master a few months ago about a mooring and tied lines into the chains running across the harbour. The road down to the harbour is very steep and the slipway is even steeper and I wouldn’t launch from there again rather I think it would be a lot easier to launch at Whitby and sail the 6 miles to Staithes. The sailing was good aside from a few problems with a rough running outboard. It was my first time sailing on tidal waters in many years and it feels a lot more adventurous than Rutland especially with the spectacular surf that runs near Staithes harbour and the imprssive cliffs. Highlight of the week was sailing down towards Whitby with the wind on the beam and the tide behind us a making a good 6 Knots over the ground. The return leg was considerably slower. The lowlight was reefing while being seasick in a bit of a swell. The area makes for good sailing and hopefully I’ll get to launch at Whitby for a weekends sailing in the next couple of months. The area is heavily potted but all seemed to be well marked. Unfortunately I have no pictures as my phone got a dunking. Next trip is Amble in acouple of weeks hopefully the weather will be good and we'll see some Seals.

Rutland

Sunday was back back at Rutland for a few hours sailing, the winds were light as seems to be the story for most of this year’s sailing but the sun was shining and the day was livened up by some of Rutands other activities. The creek was hosting a Dragon boat race which seemed to last all day with different teams paddling a short course with much shouting and drumming. The sun also seemed to bring out every canoer, paddle boarder and wind surfer from a 100 mile radius. This made getting in and out of the creek something of an obstacle course but we all survived the experience. Hopefully we should be sailing at the coast in a couple of weeks.

Home from Windermere

The weeks sailing came to a total of 27nm, not a lot but the light winds meant that little proper sailing was done and more time was spent motoring around the lake. I have sailed on Windermere in the past and always had good winds. In fact last year I hired a Beneteau 21.7 and spent most of the week reefed. Like much inland sailing the winds, when they do blow can be very erratic and influenced by the surrounding hills. Despite the poor winds its a good place to sail and holiday and there is plenty to keep the kids happy. We went to have a look ay Ullswater for a possible holiday next year and found a couple of spots to launch and when we went into one of the marina boat parks there was the Manta 19 I sold a couple of months ago. The recovery onto the trailer and packing the boat up for trailing went smoothly, the facilities at Ferry Nab are very good, particularly the hut selling Bacon sandwiches.

Little wind at Windermere

Since saturday's problems with the outboard it has worked faultlessly and started 1st or 2nd pull of the cord. I think that after being laid flat in the car boot an air lock might have formed in the fuel line and caused the problems. Since then the weather has been good apart from very light and erratic winds. A couple of hours sail this evening has been superb and we were the only boat in sight. The lake is a good place to sail, in the day you share the place with everything from Pico's and Topper's to 40 foot AWB's. By evening most have gone home and you can sail in solitude.