Feathered blades and feathered wings

Derwentwater, Lake District Sculls are the swiftest human-powered craft - but when they are gliding along they are also ideal for bird-watching

Skiddaw's scalloped massif rises above the old pencil town of Keswick, with the silvery-blue teardrop of Derwentwater poised below and stretching three miles towards crag-girt Great End in the far distance. At Portinscale, at the northern end of the lake, I watch as Nick Cowan, the Lakeland Rowing Club captain, clambers back on to the jetty and then - somewhat clumsily - I try to help him lift his thoroughbred 27ft scull ashore.

Sculls are the swiftest human-powered craft, Nick, a retired Cockermouth GP, tells me over coffee in the marina. But they have one risk. "Scullers balance on hip-width sliding seats. Their skinny shells can capsize. Fall in icy lake water and you could succumb to 'cold shock response'. This is why, summer apart, we wear life-vests and tend to hug the shore." Such is their exhilaration.