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, 24 June 2013

Mount Stuart



As everyone said "you have to go and see Mount Stuart" and the preview of the visitor centre that we had on our Bobil tour was good, we braved another bus trip.

The blurb says that Mount Stuart is "Britain's most astounding Victorian Gothic mansion and one of the world's great houses"

So now you know. Actually, we think they are not over egging the place. Some impressions:






The gardens are as impressive and spacious too. The highlight is the stunning interior, designed to showcase the families religious beliefs, botanical and astronomical interests. No interior photography is allowed so we have borrowed these to give you a taster:















Standing in the entrance hallway, you see a representation of the stars on the roof, the seasons around the 4 sides of the gallery and when the sun shines, little moving rainbows are produced inside thanks to lots of glass prisms that were installed. And yes, the sun did shine today:






All this was funded thanks to Welsh Coal exports apparently. 

Considered opinion is - the best house we have ever visited. If you haven't, just go and look and gawp and go wow like we did. 

Having tested out 2 more bus trips (interestingly both were on exactly the same life expired single decker as yesterday although we have seen evidence of other buses on the island) we still don't know why the stops are so close together. Perhaps it is so each one can be a fare stage and bump up the ticket prices?