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 4 April 2014

Bumps and walks around the Fal River



After the long trip, we didn’t rush to get up. Having finally managed this herculean feat, we were sitting in the pilothouse, on the phone to Phil Roach the Nordhavn man talking about arranging some things when the mast and rigging of the scruffy old wooden yacht that was moored ahead of us appeared right alongside our bow. It should not be there. Never ever.

Much shouting and rushing outside found the idiot skipper had headed off with the tide carrying him onto us, having ignored the advice of other people on the pontoon to “pull his boat back to get some clearance before trying to motor out”. The folks on the pontoon were dragging him back off us and the bemused / hopeless skipper of the yacht (singlehanded of course) was rushing about trying to fend off.

He had given the anchor a good clunk, but also managed to nicely scratch and gouge the port topsides our boat with his rigging / stanchions / whatever – yes, our newly cleaned and sealed hull that caused so much muscle ache recently:





 Details swapped, the idiot departed. Why idiot? Well, boats will run into each other from time to time, sadly. Mechanical things can go wrong like gear cables breaking or jamming, steering systems failing etc. Skippers can misjudge big gusts of wind. However, what this guy did was just plain old stupid. There was no way that he could ever clear our bow with the tide pushing him onto us if he just cast off and tried to motor away. But he tried; hence idiot. 

The frustration for us is that the marks will not simply polish out, they will need properly repairing and getting a good long lasting colour match for the gelcoat colour is never easy. Grr again. Also, as it is high up, the repair might need the boat to be out of the water for access.

The biggest worry is his insurer – he told us it was “Basic boat insurance Ltd”. Does not bode well.

After lunch, to calm down, we took the RIB to Trelissick and went for a walk around the woodlands, with a cream tea stop half way:




The two woodland walks are just lovely with great views at this time of year before the trees develop more leaves.






That helped us calm down as did G&T / wine in the evening!

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Thanks for your ideas / cheek / corrections / whatever! They should hit the blog shortly after the system checks them to make sure they will not put us or you in jail.....