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

Friday, 19 April 2013

Having spent several very chilled days in the Solent area, seeing friends, collecting a new baby outboard motor etc, the wind finally died down and the English Channel had a forecast that didn't have "rough" or "very rough" contained in it. The plan was to raid St Peter Port in Guernsey for better priced diesel as a fill up would get us all the way around the UK if needed. Carrying 5,500 litres has some benefits, the bill for filling the tanks isn't one of them of course

So, on Friday afternoon we left our mooring in Lymington (Dan Bran pontoon, great views and just far enough out of town to make the walk into the shops seem like healthy exercise too) and headed out of the Solent. The remains of n days of strong SW'ly winds combined with the Northerly today meant a nice "sloppy" sea for the run over to Studland Bay off Poole. Of course, as we arrived the sun went in and the rain started together with the usual wind squall that accompanies a shower. Great for anchoring when you have to be outside to check things and fit the snubber.

Still, it was good to be "on the way" to wherever we end up this year. Kind of felt like the start of the adventures to come. The Brighton / Solent time that we had enjoyed since retirement was good of course, but familiar territory stuff. The best part of the trip was the crew trying to get some pictures of the Needles rocks off the Isle of Wight that had a horizontal sea in the background. Sea conditions didn't help and about 20 tries later, there is still no nice image to post in here as a leaving the Solent landmark. Just this one:


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