Sailors

Ahoy there its time for dancing sailors high in the sky.  The crew are flying past at the Haverigg Kite Festival and required quite a bit a skill both to get them in formation for their hornpipe but also to get them aloft in very little wind.

There was still plenty of kite flying and routines to enjoy but some of the larger pieces such as this seahorse remained resolutely earth bound on a still August day.

One could sail up the coast from Port Haverigg and come across some sailors forever on land near Whitehaven harbour.

Created by John McKenna as part of the port's 'Quest' project these two are simply called "Sailors Waiting for Crew Work".  Happily to add to the 'S' count for this ABC Wednesday post there is also some scaffolding ready for the roofers in the background. Apart from its Georgian harbour one of Whitehaven's other claims to fame is of the attempt by the USS Ranger commander, John Paul Jones, to set fire to the hundreds of ships anchored in the port in 1778. Alas for him the row in small boats against the tide for 3 hours, the wind, a mutinous crew and the lure of the local pub for the sailors this was not a success.  The full story can be found here  The Quest project produced other sculptures around the town by John McKenna including one of John Paul Jones in action and spiking the guns at Half-moon Battery here.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at S here

ABC Wednesday - Kites

I was going to do kayak for this week which just proves how the memory plays tricks because when I looked at the photos they were canoes, and no, despite my browse of the dictionary I could find no archaic spelling with a K. Then I remembered I had some kites from the first Kitefest held earlier in the year at Haverigg.

There were all sorts of shapes and sizes

and the Fusion Team dancing kites to music.  Here they are practising before taking the field.  Not easy on this weekend because despite the fact there are a number of Kite Surfing events held locally because of the reliability of the wind the early part of the year was notable for warm and and windless weather. If you were a

butterfly it would be OK, but the huge Dragon Kites had difficulty getting off the ground.  No matter

there was a kite retail opportunity in the far tent and pancakes here or my favoured option

a kool ice cream.  The event took place on the Haverigg Rugby Ground a good space for a kids kick around.

The Letter K for the ABC Wednesday -  a journey from A to Z

Kitefest

Living on the north west coast one thing you can be sure of is there will be a wind. But this year's spring has been most unusual, high temperatures for the time of year and still days. When the first Western Lake District kite festival was planned to be held at Haverigg one thing that would be expected would be a strong wind.

Nope. Despite this the Fusion display team did manage to put on a series of musical displays but for the large

Chinese kites the 10 mile wind was not enough. Everybody had fun flying kites so we had a nice afternoon out and of course

an ice cream. You can also tell from this photo that the event was held on the Millom Rugby Union ground. They are hoping to hold another Kitefest next year,

Go Fly A Kite

The temperature has zoomed up to 7 degrees C but hardly any breeze so no zooming in the air for this power kite which gently bobbed along the coast without gaining much height. The easiest option would be to head for the tops but
the still air meant blue skies at sea level but cloud sat on this and the south Cumbrian fells tops all day.