Wet and windy day musings on Marinas, Harbour masters and statistics (for those so inclined)

During wet and blowy days, the thoughts of older folk, with strange sideways views on the world, tend to turn to entirely non-productive things. No attempt to invent a better wheel or cure a nasty disease from us. No, instead it was a comparison of the harbour master / marina staff across the various places we have visited on our travels so far.

The summary – Northern Ireland and Wales are the friendliest. Scotland seems the grumpiest, Jersey is the most money orientated (no surprise there!), the reception in Guernsey can be great but is very staff dependant and England varies from great to “let me process you”.

All-time highs? Well, the staff and manager in Penarth who found us a winter spot and were so helpful and friendly during our winter there.

The staff in Bangor, Northern Ireland who were equally helpful and friendly (another marina run by the Quay Marinas group – maybe they recruit and train their staff well??) Salcombe harbour (amazingly) where the attitude has changed so much over the past few years and you feel welcome rather than an inconvenience now. The lift staff and dock masters in Shamrock Quay where the boat was lifted this year for their care and overall friendly approach. Last by by no means least, the folks in Kilmelford Yacht Haven who looked after the boat so well last year when we had to disappear down south for extended periods:

All-time lows? MDL at Hamble Point where the prices are just simply mad and you certainly feel processed not served for the amount they extract from you. 

Most laid back? Peel - the harbour staff were very chilled about things and it was like being in a wonderful time warp.

Most confusing? The Tobermory harbour master. The blurb on their website and in the office says that he and the staff exist to welcome people to the area and create a good impression. Look at Tobermory website  In reality, it was so mixed. Good help, but not especially friendly, in getting a mooring buoy. Then we felt like intruders when we went to the office to pay for a couple of nights berthing – perhaps they thought we had come to steal money from them, not offer it up willingly. Deciding to stay for a third night, we bumped into the harbourmaster on the dinghy pontoon and he told us that we had been charged the wrong rate earlier by his administrator lady (£5 per night too cheap) but that we could have our extra night at the same lower rate! However, it wasn’t said in the way that made you feel good and thankful – an abject lesson in doing exactly the right thing in slightly the wrong way and hence leaving a poor impression.

Most disorganised?  Dunstaffnage. Some of the staff are strange in the way they deal with the public eg complaining to us about their colleagues. Their processes seem very paperwork, stapler and clipboard list intensive but they also spend lots of time staring at the PC rather than talking to you.  The office never seems to open when they say it will and there appears to be some kind of on-site war going on with the Alba Sailing charter yacht people about the use of their empty berths that spills over to become a customer’s problem. Would love to have a few months running the place!! Nicole, the American Mid-West lady was great though so if you visit, you know who to ask for things…

Now, the Statistics (for the numerical types or sad folk with nothing better to read / do right now)

Some folks asked about “the numbers”. Well, here they are:

So far this year in our 4 months underway, we have run about 275 main engine hours (not as many as expected since we spent over a week in Jersey waiting for nicer weather to make it to the UK, then 10 days enjoying the Isle of Man). Andrew (yup, the Welsh one, you are getting good at this) has helmed the boat for nearly 25% of this time. He needs to buy his own...

The genset has been used for about 170 hours (lots of nice time anchored or on mooring buoys / remote pontoons with no shore power plus the Caledonian Canal time)

The wing engine has had its regular short runs – only about 5 hours in total so far though. 10 hours per season is all we normally manage, just enough every couple of weeks to get it to operating temperature, run with a good load for a while and then cool off / shut down again.

Fuel burn – not sure yet, haven’t measured it and I’m not starting the main engine just to read the Murphy gauge information! We are still over 2/3 full (from our Guernsey fuel stop) so nothing to worry about anyway! Remember that the boat has plenty of fuel for a round Britain trip including genset use. At the speeds we normally travel, we could get 4,000 nm range easily.

Distance travelled – according to the log around 1,700 nautical miles. Actually, we’ve gone further than this as we’ve often timed our passages to take advantage of the tide. Looking at the GPS distance travelled, it is more like 1,900 but the Caledonian canal stuff (about 110 nm?) isn't included as we didn’t need the navigation gear switched on (apart from the foggy Loch Ness trip with the baby ducks in tow of course).

So, no huge distances, engine hours or fuel burn. Lots of lovely places visited and great memories though without any ocean crossings yet. Yet is such a teasing word….

Finally about you lot. Again, ignoring the internet crawlers and tools that scan the drivel in our blog, there have been about 12,500 page reads. This equates to a lot of wasted time on your behalf and we apologise unreservedly for causing this. Posts about Patrick are the major cause of time wasting we fear. 

This is hotly followed by the post on fuel burn and economical cruising (because Phil Roach, the Nordhavn Europe man has pointed several people at it who ask him “how much fuel does a Nordhavn use and what is the best cruise speed”). To save all those folks from reading the fuel burn post, our answer is “not much” and “travel at a speed that keeps the engine loaded properly, the boat and crew comfortable in the weather conditions and your bank account happy”

Feel enlightened after that lot? If so, bet you love The Big Bang Theory on TV……