Sailing a Nimrod with Tom

It is always good to call in at Glenridding, not only because Steve makes coffee almost as good as Costa do, but you also meet some great people.
Tom was not sailing on Saturday, as he does not like the rain, in fact when sailing his Nimrod he does not get wet at all.  No wet suit, no capsizing, such are the joys of sailing a boat with a keel.  What is great about the Nimrod, is that it is fast and handles more like a dinghy.
Sailing on Sunday looked unlikely, as there was thick fog at Kendal, all the way up to Kirkstone, but it seemed to change at the top, becoming cloud rather than fog. Then a quarter of a mile past the top there was .. sunshine.
Tom is a retired teacher, and he was soon instructing me on how to handle things when I fumbled with the sheet and tiller extension when going about; he demonstrated turning the boat without using the rudder; and was teaching me a thing or two about sailing up wind.
There are three ways of flattening a boat when it is healing (leaning over), and they are not interchangeable in Tom's book. We had learnt to continually test how close we could sail to the wind, but he put a different gloss on it. First of all, you lean out to reduce the heal, and when it gets too much you turn into the wind, the third option, loosing the main sheet, he never does, in fact he keeps it cleated. Sure you lose some speed as you turn into the wind, but what you lose in speed you gain in direction by getting up wind further.
I found not loosing the mainsail quite hard, both from a panic point of view, and because it tugged quite hard, with only one pulley. Tom likes to feel the responsiveness at low wind speeds, and is happier using a cleat.  By contrast the rudder was not pulling away from you sailing upwind, as Tom has leaned the mast forward slightly, to lessen the pull towards the wind from the mainsail.

So, what is a Nimrod?  A Westerley Nimrod 18, is a small yaught, eighteen feet long, a small cabin, and a retractable keel.
You can stand in front of the cabin, and there is a railing, but there is no railing at the back, you are able to lean out just as much as any dinghy.   The cabin is quite small, plenty of space for storage and space to sleep, if you really have to.  The keel is raised and lowered by a hand winch, so that the boat is very stable when it is down, and quite tippy when it is up.  The boat launches from a normal trolley, and sits low, like a dinghy when on shore, but it still weighs half a ton so you need a tow to launch and recover. The hull is quite flat, so that the boat can be made to plane like a speed boat, which adds to the excitement, although we did not quite manage it.
Tom chose it because it gives him all the excitement of dinghy sailing, with the bonus of not getting wet. It extends the season, sailing when it is too cold to risk capsizing, and he has even sailed it in gales off Whitby.
Thanks Tom, for a great day.

My walk to Hayeswater 20 March 2010

This was a low level walk, as the mountain tops were all in cloud, and I had spent most of the morning drinking coffee, but was very rewarding with good views and some spectacular waterfalls.
There is a car park in Hartsop, at the far end of the village, at the start of the footpath up to Hayeswater. There is a detour, past the remains of an old mill, and some mine workings, although I lost the track after the mill and returned to the main footpath.
The path follows Hayeswater Gill, past Hartsop Dodd, which is the one you pass on your left as you drive past Brother Water at the start of Kirkstone pass. After Hartsop Dodd there is a good view up Pastures Bottom, with Raven Crag very prominent part way along to the right.
After crossing the gill, the path rises over the lower slopes of Gray Crag, leaving the gill down the valley to the left.  There is an alternative route, with the gill on your right side, along the track to the filter house, after this it crosses by a foot bridge, and rises sharply to join the main path.
Either way, I wanted to be on the footbridge, because it marked the start of a section where there were a number of waterfalls, and I wanted to get nearer the action, and to take some closer photos.  They were quite beautiful.
On the other bank, above the filter house was Prison Crag, and a number of gills including Sulphur gill, which crossed an expanse of rock where it divides into a series of waterfalls.
All the time the view back over Hartsop was growing more spectacular, seeing Brother Water in the valley, over Hartsop above How on the other side, and beyond to St Sunday Crag on the other side of Deepdale.
Gradually the gill became more gentle, and the climb more level, and the path went alongside the gill until it reached the footbridge at the top.
I suppose Hayeswater is a man made lake, a reservoir created by the dam across the end.  The sky brightened a little making the water sparkle more than I had hoped, but the mountains of High Street and the Knott were lost in cloud.
I did attempt to cross the gill at the point where the map shows the footpath crossing it, some way before the footbridge. There was no bridge there, and not many stepping stones. If you can manage it, you are more adventurous than I am, or there is less recent rain.
Now the weather was not wonderful, but it was not awful either. It was pleasant walking, but not popular. I must have seen no more than 8 or 10 people all the time.
For all the time I took going up, traversing slopes to take pictures, climbing up towards the Knott, the route down took just 20 minutes, which was just as well as I needed to get back.