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

Sunday 15 May 2016

Skomer to Neyland, Bronwen came to visit

Quite a messy title really. Anyway, we left Skomer once the forecast hinted at some nice southerly winds which would put a nasty swell into the anchorage from heaven. We contemplated heading up north but decided upon going into Milford Haven for a while to check the forecasts (no mobile phone signal near Skomer) and potentially see Bronwen, the famous spaniel.

We did the short hop into Milford Haven and luckily the nice folks at Neyland Marina had a spot for us, but only for one night. So, we caried on towards Pembroke, happy to have escaped the delights of Milford itself (as sad as Holyhead, just in south rather than north Wales).

Passing through the harbour we spotted 4 commercial ships (oil / gas tankers) and 9 tugs in total. Here are three rafted up in mid channel:





We reckon that Milford is a rest and recouperation centre for distressed and overworked tugs where they can recover or just quietly rust away in peace.

Arriving at Neyland, we had a welcoming comittee on the pontoon. One of the dockmasters from the marina plus the full crew from C-spirit. Remember their names?? Neyland is entertaining. You enter via a narrow channel then have to do a 180 degree turn to go alongside the visitor area. the only challenge is that the turning area is about 20 foot longer then the boat at half tide. No pressure then, with such an audience. This had to be a no thrusters, no drama docking - amazingly it was.

After a chat to the C-spirit folks and a very kind offer to take us shopping if needed, we did a little boat washing off. Well, quite a lot really. Thanks puffins. We also admired a Royal Marines craft moored nearby:



When you walked around to the bow, you could also admire their temporary repair capability:



In the captain's youth working on Norfolk Broads hirefleet boatyards, a large plywood patch would be slapped on, known as a "tingle". When the skipper of this craft unfortunately got a little close to their little remote controlled vessel out to sea, we bet he tingled a bit. Imagine the Naval paperwork he had to fill out for this hole.

On Sunday, we had a visit from Bronwen, who needed some help from Steve (aka dad) and Paula since she doesn't have a driving licence yet. For those of you who don't know this famous girl, have a look at her Facebook page.

Here was her "please feed me" face:



So, soft touch Steve felt he had to:



As did the crew and captain of course.  Most important was the relighting of the flame that existed before between Bronwen and Patrick. You can read their email exchanges in earlier blog posts but it was touching to see them interact again:


Patrick was pretty upset when she went for a walk. so were we when she got herself all wet and muddy and then resisted the towel upon her return:



After her departure, Patrick went all quiet and has remained so since. Hope he isn't going to be a broody, sulky, hormone crazed teenage penguin now.

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