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 16 August 2013

Ladies that lunch (Captains too)

As a pre trip south treat, we decided to lunch at the Cuilfail Hotel again. The owner (another member of the south Oban English ghetto) had been very friendly as were the staff and the food was fine too.

If you are in the area, go along and see them (www.cuilfail.co.uk) and enjoy the hospitality:


They do a great duck & noodles main course and the red berry cranachan dessert is also good but enormous. Probably very bad for the body though. As the village is kind of small it is also the centre of events and gossip. You learn so much in the bar whilst having lunch by just listening to the local customers. Some of it could be published on the web too!

Apparently this weekend is the official launch of the village skiff. It was built as a co-operative venture by the residents, using shed space and advice from the experts who did the work for us recently here at the Yacht Haven:



We've seen this in many coastal villages and it was great to see the "shareholders" out practising in the evening, although the weather wasn't too kind. Sue, the nice lady who works in the office here, is rowing stroke:



For the non boaters, "Stroke" is the person rowing who is seated closest to the stern (back) of the boat. Kind of important as everyone else has to take their timing from you. If you mess it up, lots of fun ensues as oars get tangled, temperatures and voices raised etc. When the captain was taught to row, any unplanned variation in speed was rewarded with lots of bad words from the rest of the crew and a soaking later on. Hope Sue escaped this.

If interested https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kilmelford-Coastal-Rowing/100390056811062?ref=stream gives you a feel for things and if you look at the video on their Facebook page, you will see our Nordhavn in the background.

Sunday BBQ anyone? We are only 3 hours north of Glasgow after all....

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