About us and the boat

About us and the boat:

We were lucky enough to retire early at the start of 2013 so we could head off and "live the dream" on board our Nordhavn 47 Trawler Yacht. The idea is to see some of the planet, at a slow 6 - 7 knots pace. There are no fixed goals or timings, we just had a plan to visit Scotland and then probably the Baltic before heading south.

The idea is to visit the nicer areas in these latitudes before heading south for warmer weather. If we like somewhere, we will stay for a while. If not, we will just move on. So, for the people who love forward planning and targets, this might seem a little relaxed!

If anyone else is contemplating a trawler yacht life, maybe our experiences will be enough to make you think again, or maybe do it sooner then you intended!

The boat is called Rockland and she is built for long distance cruising and a comfortable life on board too. If you want to see more about trawler yachts and the Nordhavn 47 in particular, there is a link to the manufacturers website in our "useful stuff" section. For the technically minded, there is a little info and pictures of the boat and equipment in the same section

Regards

Richard and June

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Guernsey life......

Well, owing to the strange high tide times, the diesel top up was booked for Thursday at 7:10am. A great excuse to spend some time exploring the town, island, local Waitrose (newish, enormous, wonderful!) and doing a bit more polishing. Also time to top up the petrol for the RIB and the little eggwhisk outboard for the small inflatable dinghy. Marine petrol at £1.06 a litre. Glad we had nearly dry tanks in the RIB when we arrived.

The pontoons in the harbour got busier during the week as the high pressure took over, the wind dropped and the French started to visit. Typical French yachts - scruffy, faded hull colours with a matt finish. Why do they not try to protect their investment a little better? Must ask the French people I know why houses, boats, cars all tend to get abused / ignored.  Their approach to boat maintenance is funny - using scouring powder on the shiny fibreglass isn't a good recipe for longevity.

On Wednesday, the P&O liner reappeared, think it is doing "taster cruises" from Southampton. Well, the town was again full of people who thought they were still on the liner and hence able to order others around. Felt like they were clogging up our pavements! The real shock horror is that the local bus service is about to discriminate against visitors. The £1 flat fare is going to be doubled for non residents and the famous no 7 bus that takes you all the way around the island for a quid will have a service cutback too. The locals are not happy - something for the ITV Channel islands service to run a major 3 hour special investigation into I reckon.....
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