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 30 May 2014

Postman Pat and Bank holiday pressures

You might recall the recent email exchange between Patrick and Bron the spaniel from Penarth when Patrick was told that he could not get the job as waterbus skipper. You might also recall the attempts he made to contact his granny for advice and how he has been a bit "off" with us since then.

Well, he had another email from Bron, the less racy section of which we've copied in below for you. Seems like Bron is getting a bit bored with the daily waterbus trips across Cardiff bay:


Not much else to report right now. We just seem to keep going round and round although I did learn some more rude words yesterday. The boat didn't stop and we bashed a wall. He said it was the gear box cable that snapped. I think he was just eying up a French teacher .... Well She was pretty! Anyway he spent ages with his bum in the air changing the cable and says its fine now. 

I wonder if, as you are so small, if they couldn't pop you in the post to me. You'd be here in a day. 



Of course, as soon as Patrick read this he was on a mission. We found him half way up the pontoon clutching a jiffy bag, a roll of parcel tape and book of stamps arm in arm with a French yachtsman who had been persuaded to take him to a post box. Poor Patrick doesn't realise that Jersey have their own stamps and Steve the waterbus man would be very unhappy to pay excess postage at his end just to have a small furry penguin delivered to Wales. However, we are sorely tempted....

He does look a bit sheepish now though (if penguins can look sheepish?):



He has a LOT of making up to do....

As yesterday was a French bank holiday, the marina was well and truly overrun. This morning yet more French boats arrived. A largish motor cruiser picked an empty finger berth near to us but was shooed off by the harbour staff as it was a permanent berth holder's place. Instead they shoehorned him into a very small gap opposite, which a much smaller yacht had vacated earlier on.

Initially, the bowsprit of the yacht was over the motor cruiser's bathing platform and almost poking through the cockpit canopy:



They decided this was a bit cosy and so the solution was not to move - oh no, much more inventive. It was to drop the anchor so they could go a little bit further forward (all of a half metre):



Never seen that before - or are likely to see it again we guess....

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.....