We went Wild on Windermere! See what went on.
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After 1200 : Lunch, steam boat trips, an exploration of the Boat Museum.
After 1230 : Guided tour of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ exhibition.
After 1235 : Get together in our Virtual Yacht Club Bar (Closed now)
The organised events are all finished.
But you can still explore the museum, get the guided tour of the Swallows and Amazons exhibition, and read about the day’s other highlights below.
- This topic has 52 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 11 months ago by
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- Topic
E-WOW: Wild on Windemere – Together in the Ether
THIS SATURDAY (16th) Atalanta Folk Transcend The Lockdown
A minor impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic has been the cancellation of our planned ‘Wild On Windemere’ meet up.
Well, we may not be able to travel to the Windermere Jetty Boat Museum but we can still enjoy their delights. Online, in the virtual world, as E-WOW!There will be a ‘Virtual AOA Meet Up’ in the thread of this Forum Topic.
Starting at 12 midday there will be posts (Replies) against this Forum Topic which will bring us together in the Windermere Jetty Boat Museum and then, technology permitting, in a virtual meeting room for those that want. Grab a sandwich and a drink and join in:1200 : Lunch, steam boat trips, an exploration of the Boat Museum. Grab a drink, a sandwich and your computer and come along.
1230 : Guided tour of part of the museum by one of the museum Curators.
1235 : An opportunity for logged-in users to chat to each other in a Virtual Meeting Room – just click on the link that will be posted below at the allotted time.And of course we can all add our contributions throughout by adding ‘Replies’ as the event progresses.
In preparation for or get together I will ‘setting off’ as I originally planned on Friday around lunchtime heading for the National Trust Low Wray Campsite on the north-western shore of the lake. I will be travelling in my virtual electric car towing the virtual incarnation of my Yachting World Dayboat. I will keep you updated on my progress through this Topic. Why not share your virtual journey on the day – just reply to this topic.
‘See you’ on Saturday.
Click Here to refresh the Windermere thread and see latest contributions below
- Replies
So pleased we can all meet up. Sheila and I will be ‘travelling’ up to the Lakes on Friday, towing “Teal”. We have a B&B organised for the weekend and will be launching “Teal” from Ferry Nab. So we’ll ‘have’ two boats there on the Saturday all being well. Fingers crossed for a good forecast, though knowing my luck in the Lakes………….
“Teal” is just about ready for the trip north. Picture taken in the front garden just before the B***** lockdown….
Cheers, Mike
2030 Friday 15th May – Arrived at Low Wray Campsite
Hello everyone. Not a bad ‘virtual’ journey from Norfolk. Not a lot of traffic 😉
Stopped a couple of times for ‘virtual’ refreshments – had the very best sandwich at ‘The Wishful Thinker’ just outside Witts End.The Low Wray campsite is everything I imagined (funny that!). Got pitched by the lake and after a quick supper (corned beef hash) I got the boat on the water and had a quick sail around Low Wray Bay and up to Green Tuft Island. The weather was perfect – a steady Force 4 wind, cloudless sky and a very comfortable 18 degrees Celsius. Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.
Good trip up to Windermere and, for once, the weather good! Arrived in time to ‘have’ a sail, launching at Ferry Nab, round Belle Isle on the west side, round the top of the island and back down through Bowness Bay. Landed for old times sake at Fallbarrow – just south of the boat museum.
Forecast for tomorrow looks cloudy, but ought to stay dry. Look forward to meeting up.
Cheers, MikeE-WOW 0900 Saturday 16th May – Windermere forecast for Today
Hi there ….. looking forward to our virtual gathering at the Windermere Jetty Museum later today.
Just checked the forecast for today – dry and not much sun or wind.
See for yourself using one of the Windemere webcams:
- Windemere Lake Cruisers at Ambleside
- Car Ferry webcam at Freshwater Biological Association, looking towards Bowness
Click Here to refresh the Windermere thread and see latest contributions below
Low Wray is amazing – what a great site. Haven’t met Justin. Alexa showed us round the site and let us pick our pitch.
The National Trust have really entered into the whole ‘Virtual Windemere’ thing and have got tents pitched using sky-hooks:
I am not sure I fancy staying in one – apparently you can get quite sea-sick when its windy.
I wandered around Bowness this morning – all very quiet. I was expecting more people!
At the Royal Windermere Yacht Club I ogled the fleet of Flying Fifteens (Uffa designed in 1947), They look good in plastic but so much better in wood. The club Bosun let me virtualise him and we had a long discussion about the class, the club and the state of the Lake. He brought to my attention this appreciation of the Flying Fifteen made by the RYA.
He then took me for sail in his very nice wooden version – great, although I had to hold the camera steady for the whole trip which was a bit of a pain.
E-WOW: 1200 Saturday 16th May – Windermere virtual lunch, catch up and steam-boat trips
Continuing the very first ever Virtual Gathering of the AOA
Well, here I am at the Windemere Jetty Boat Museum. The cafe has amazing views over the lake and the food is – well, out of this world!
I had a great sail down from Low Wray. The perfect F4 Easterly meant a fast passage and made it easy to impress the crowds coming alongside on the museum jetty. There was only one other boat on the jetty. Although it was a motor boat I was rather taken with the varnish which looked like a sheet of glass moulded around the wood. Perfect! Almost too perfect, like a dream.
Anyway, anyone else around?
At 1230 the Museum have very kindly offered us a personal tour of their exhibition celebrating 90 years since Arthur Ransom wrote Swallows and Amazons in the Lake District. A ‘Reply’ will be added to this Topic thread to allow you to join in.
And at 1245 a further ‘Reply’ will invite you to join other logged-in Atalanta folk in a ‘Virtual Meeting Room’.
Before that why not take a trip on a steam launch, or learn about the museum and how it came into being. Use the selection of videos below.
Steam launch trip
Some very kind people have offered to take us out on the Lake during our Virtual gathering.
Choose a trip below, or take them all!Learn about the Museum, its building and its volunteers
Aerial footage shot during construction (1m 30s)
2017 Kids project Esperance, they make a video about getting the museum ready (3m 41s)
Facebook announcement March 2019 (about 1m)
https://www.facebook.com/TimBackshallITV/videos/windermere-jetty-museum/307624183233795/
Prince Charles opens the museum in 2019 April from the museum website (clicks through to Museum website)
https://windermerejetty.org/aboutus/windermere-jetty-official-opening-8-april-2019/
The Steamboat museum (Windemere Jetty fore-runner) in 2011 incl Osprey under restoration (about 5m)
And you might find these other links interesting.
- The Windemere Jetty boat collection
- Information about the museum building design:
Click Here to refresh the Windermere thread and see latest contributions
‘See you’ later at the Curator led tour of the Swallows and Amazons exhibition
Have you all seen the ‘Esperance Project’ video. Quite a project. They have won all sorts of awards.
The video doesn’t really cover it but it has sustainability throughout the design. The ‘Brief overview of sustainable systems by Arup‘ link after the videos above includes some interesting information about that.
E-WOW: 1230 Saturday 16th May – Windermere Jetty Swallows and Amazons Exhibition
Nick Rogers, a curator at the Museum has very kindly offered us a personal tour of their exhibition celebrating 90 years since Arthur Ransom wrote Swallows and Amazons. I hope that you enjoy it.
Maybe see you afterwards for a quick catch up. I will post a link to the ‘Virtual Conference Room’ in a few minutes – just click the ‘Refresh’ message below.
Nick
Click Here to refresh the Windermere thread and see latest contributions
Doug,
Nick’s a bit busy at the moment spinning about 5 plates, trying to post all the videos on time, whilst trying to get people onto google meets video conferencing, and emailing people, and phoning people and remembering to breathe…….
Nick sold that super Citroen, and has bought an electric car.
Regards,
Richard
E-WOW: 1235 Saturday 16th May – Yacht Club Bar Now Open
We very much hope that you have enjoyed learning about the Museum and some of its exhibits as part of our virtual Windermere meet up ‘Wild on Windermere’.
With some trepidation we are now going to attempt a technical trick equivalent to working with animals or children on TV.
Click Here to refresh the Windermere thread and see latest contributions belowDear All,
If you want to see the actual weather in Winderemere, have a look at this:
E-WOW: 1600 Saturday 16th May – Farewell Windemere
This will be a post wrapping up the day. Something like
We very much hope that everyone enjoyed the first Virtual AOA Meet-Up. A number of us particularly enjoyed Nick Rogers taking us through the Windemere Jetty’s Swallows and Amazons exhibition. To counter this I know that there were some that thought ‘a few tatty old books’ didn’t belong in an Atalanta meeting. But overall I think everyone enjoyed learning about the Museum and its exhibits.
The ‘Virtual Meeting Room’ worked much better that many had feared. Technology is always a worry for many of us and although one or two had difficulties the Meet Up seemed to work alright.
It was particularly rewarding that the E-WOW became an international meeting with David and Michelle joining the England and Scotland Atalanta folk from the Virgin Islands. The call including a guided tour of their mountain top home and the views across the Caribbean from their windows which lifted everyone’s spirits!
The final Roll Call for involvement in E-WOW (in Atalanta sail number order!):
Mike Dixon – A1 Atalanta
Bernard Marshall – A86 Sassi
Richard James – A89 Colchide
Doug Odgers – A90 Jenaka II
Dominic Dobson (ex-A90)
Alistair Rodger – A102 Atalanta Mary
John and Marianna Ingleby – (ex-A105 Taku Maru)
Nick Phillips – A124 Helene
David & Michelle Walworth – A146 Le Bateau Ivre
Jonathan Stearn – A183 Bluster
Thanks to everyone who took part. We look forward to being able to return to physical meetings although we now have another ‘arrow in our quiver’ for keeping in touch.
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