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

Monday, 29 April 2013

St Sampsons and diesel

After a few very chilled days enjoying the island, the sun (but not the cold winds) and doing a bit of boat cleaning / polishing too, Monday morning meant getting mobile again. We had a slot booked to get diesel in St Sampsons Harbour where you tie up to a pretty elderly floating pontoon in the corner of the harbour around high water (it dries out....) and get filled up from a road tanker. Way way cheaper than using the pumps in St Peter Port (and nicer people serve you too!)

So, a short (2.5 nautical miles) trip arriving just before Kevin the Rubis tanker man. 2,588 litres of fuel later, the boat was floating a little lower in the water but ready for many many miles of travel. (She holds 5,500 litres, good for way over 3,500 nautical miles if you go at a sensible pace). The best bit was the 60ppl price. If we'd had a fog free day last Thursday, it would have been 3p a litre more so we ended up thanking the fog! Funny world, isn't it..... A reminder to all the other boaters who fill up at Boatworks + in St Peter Port harbour - their diesel was 17ppl more expensive than the nice tanker man, and he chats and smiles quite unlike the grumpy lot here. When you come to Guernsey for fuel, ring Rubis and be nice to Kevin!

We had decided to trundle back to St Peter Port afterwards, to clean up the other side of the hull. The Port side tends to get neglected as the walkway is to starboard and so we always moor up "that side to". Even giving the port side a good wash is difficult in a marina as there is rarely space to get a dinghy between us and the neighbours.

Having washed off the worst of the grot, some polishing in the SUN followed. Riotous life eh? Still, it has to be done once a year and this is the once. Great setting to work in and warm for a change too. We like this life.
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