Enjoying Cumbria

Whitehaven itself is a sad town. Many beautiful buildings that are gently decaying, the usual raft of empty high street shops and a generally depressed air about it. However, the marina area is lovely, the coast walks have great views and the people are invariably very friendly. The town and area were very prosperous and powerful thanks to the port and the coal mining locally - have a read of local history

We had planned to explore the area and the nearby lakes a little. First trip out was by train to Carlisle. Having never seen the city properly before (Captain had visited for work briefly, many years ago, seeing the BMW dealer and the train station) we enjoyed a good wander around. The train trip along the coast was very pretty, even if in some places it has a 10 MPH speed limit! Arriving in Carlisle, there were two steam engines that were running excursion trips on the mainline:

Proper sounds and smells compared to the soulless electric things running from Glasgow down to London on the other platform.

The cathedral was beautiful (especially inside):

with a stunning ceiling and fascinating history being near the Scotland / England border and the various wars that have taken place over the years (not to mention the current SNP fun!) The city centre and general feel of the place were good, we have it on the list for a revisit.

Albatross, Mr Rae's Nordhavn 47 has been in the marina for a while, after a lift out for annual maintenance. Having 2 out of the tiny UK population of Nordhavn 47's here caused quite a stir locally. This picture generated around 100 Facebook likes:

Must have been a quiet time locally......

John, Irene and Archie the Lakeland Terrier came to see us and stayed for a couple of days. Naturally Archie was looking cute:

and soon took over on board with the crew having to find alternative spots to place their posteriors:

John and Irene kindly took us to Ennerdale (not Emmerdale for the benefit of UK TV soap addicts. Ennerdale is pretty, quiet and well worth spending time admiring the great views. Emmerdale on the other hand....)

A very pleasant walk around the lake ensued, spoilt only by meeting a couple who had serious verbal diarrhoea.  The verdict on them from Geordie Irene was "Mackems - they come from the other side of the Tyne". All a bit lost on us initially but read newspaper article for some background. They could not spoil the views though:

In the marina, we enjoyed watching a small but keen group of yachts head out for their race. Only it turned into a drift as the wind dropped. Some older chaps on a slightly battered red hulled yacht berthed near us probably didn't mind as most of their conversation centred on red wine anyway. Of more interest was a very special motorboat berthed here:

Polar bound is an apt name for her. You must read this account of her voyage and this account of David Scott Cowper's boating history . Quite an amazing man and quite an amazing boat.


Maintenance news:

As the boat was originally built for a Danish man, she had the continental two round pin 240v power outlets. We swapped most of them over to the UK three oblong pin versions but as there are just so many sockets, only wired up one of each pair. Well, how time changes. With the proliferation of devices that need charging now (tablets, phones, laptop, MiFi device, Fitbit for the addicted crew etc) we find that we need more outlets! So, a few hours were happily spent adding some wire to do just that to the pilothouse and saloon sockets:

note the mix of old and new wiring standards!