Every year the Wayfarers kindly invite Wanderer sailors to join them during their Ullswater Rally in August, camping at Pooley Bridge.

I loosely arranged with the organiser that I might bump into them some time during the week this year, as we had booked a log cabin just to the south of Ullswater for the same week.

Having travelled straight up to the lakes after the soggy Poole Harbour cruise we took the boat from our cabin to Glenridding at the south of Ullswater on the Tuesday morning under threatening skies and fresh winds which we must have brought with us from Poole.

Glenridding offers a large car park, a nearby store for picnic goodies and easy access to a good gently shelving hard beach. Parking was only £3 for 4 hours and no one demanded monies for launching. We rigged on the grassy foreshore, watched the coming and goings of lake steamers, pulled in a reef as the weather looked anything but settled and fitted the dog up with his new buoyancy aid – this was to be his first attempt at sailing with us and we weren’t sure what he might do….panic and leave the boat despite an innate inability to swim? Or just be sick? We were about to find out.

The scenery around Ullswater is impressive, enormous fells swooping up to the heavens from the lakeside, which makes a fantastic backdrop for sailing, however it does play havoc with the wind… We set off beating gently up the lake and turned right at the bend in the middle only to find we were still beating, then running, then reaching, then becalmed, then over pressed on the beat again – all within about 100 yards. Dog didn’t seem to mind though, he curled up on his blanket by the centreboard and only complained when we trod on him during tacks.

It was at this mid point of the lake that we made ‘first contact’ with our Wayfaring friends, working their way down from Pooley Bridge to Glenridding where we had just come from. We said “hi” to the lead boat, introduced ourselves and then spoilt the quiet competence illusion we were trying to foster with our wayfarer cousins by dropping the digital camera down the centreboard case and having a ‘focussed’ couple of minutes trying to save it from a watery grave…all I can say is thank heavens for slot gaskets…saved a few £ worth of digital camera (waterproof luckily) and all our photos from the past month! Hooking the camera up out of the water by employing the skinny arm of young pressed crew we worked up to the north shore of the lake and beached in a small cove for lunch. Fortunately it turned out we had landed only yards from Aira Force, a well known visitor attraction, rather too well known actually as the car park was heaving and the path to the Falls was absolutely packed. Pretty waterfall though.

On returning to the boat we found we had been joined on the beach by 7 wayfarers all enjoying a break before beating back to Pooley bridge. We had a natter and compared boats in a comfortable atmosphere identical to Wanderer cruises, then rigged and set off for a lively run under full sail back to Glenridding. Boat packed away and back at the cabin by 15:00 so we jumped in the car to go and play on the Wrynose and Hardknott passes for the evening (1 in 3 gradients and one hairpin after another – fantastic fun), followed by chasing a steam train from Eskdale to Ravensglass and Pizza on the beach at Seascale.

Day One successfully completed without loosing the dog overboard or suffering crew mutiny, we next planned to visit Coniston and re-discover Wildcat Island and update the time-capsule Niamh and I left there a couple of years ago. Max is now being read the Swallows and Amazons series so he was keen not to miss out.

Day two – howling wind. Sailing postponed so climbed the mountains above Patterdale in the sunshine instead – 6 hours of fabulous scenery and force fed oxygen. Wonderful.

The weather gods were in improving mood come dawn the next day. Now we not only had sun but a gentle breeze to go with it. Coniston boating centre was in full swing when we arrived, tourists everywhere and long queues for booking rowing boats (or paying launching fees if you brought your own boat). Parking £4 for 3 hours, launching fees £9. Decided to rig up and pay fees later. Once the boat was rigged the queue was even longer so decided to pay when we returned.

Set off down the lake in perfect conditions, bright sun with a steady breeze from the north. Avoiding the many canoes and other dinghies enjoying the day afloat we broke out the spinnaker and ran straight down the lake to Wildcat island…well that was the plan…I spent some little time swearing at the spinnaker guys before the idyllic peace returned as I somehow got them wrapped round each other and one ended up under the boat – impossible to pull it forward with the boat moving so untied it from the sail and pulled it in over the stern.

We made straight for the ‘secret harbour’ on Wildcat Island (actually called Peel Island) but found it was not so secret on a sunny day in August. We only just squeezed onto the beach inside with about four canoes, several inflatable's and another sailing dinghy competing for space. The time capsule was re-discovered, surprisingly in good condition after two years hidden under the island, so we added Max, Saffron and the dog to the list of brave explorers and re-buried it for ‘next time’, whenever that might be!

Lunch ashore was followed by a long lazy beat back up to Coniston boating centre, giving us plenty of time to think up excuses and mitigation for our pay and display ticket now being over an hour overdue. Strangely as we approached the beach at Coniston I heard my name being bellowed from the beach and sailed in to find John Miller and family standing there to greet us. John is another association member who sailed with me to Weymouth last year! What a small world.

Cups of tea, ice creams and duck chasing at the boating centre rounded off a beautiful day on Coniston water and marked the end of our Lakes adventure for this year. And we never did get to pay our launching fee.

Whilst it is a long way to drive to Cumbria from Dorset, the Alde engineering trailer tows very well, and when the weather is so kind the scenery is so beautiful up there it makes it worth it. I am thinking of maybe resurrecting the ‘Coniston Week’ in 2008 if anyone is interested, camping on the lakeshore and maybe driving the boats to Ullswater and Windermere for day sails? Anyone interested?

Tim, Saffron, Niamh, Max and Blue the dog