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

Monday 16 October 2017

Pottering about

Now we understand what happens when we leave the boat in the winter. Graham and Pat (no longer boat owners, their flying machine has been sold) have figured out Patrick's strange and sometimes concerning behaviour. Have a look at BBC News report.

We felt the need to enjoy Cardiff and the bay again. Some painted dogs have arrived as a charity fundraiser. The one at Mermaid Quay is a clever depiction of the sights and landmarks around the bay:




To make up for the rather inert Snowdogs, we walked the more active fluffy couple. Afterwards, Pip had that "please cuddle me" look:




whilst Poppy simply collapsed:




We managed a brief trip to Malvern to meet up with Norman and Julie for a "day after Norm's birthday lunch" in an excellent pub. The crew managed to get a serious gum infection around the same time and ended up with an appointment in the dental hospital which was less than ideal. However, antibiotics and red wine seemed to clear things up. We are not sure which did the most good. Perhaps one worked on the gum and the other on her mood?

As for trips away, we visited John and Angela, the yacht owners from Holyhead marina and saw their lovely house in the Wirral area. They have the most amazing purpose built library in the house. Built as a balcony with a gorgeous wooden staircase and boat like rigging to hold it all up:





Quite a collection, we could have spent hours browsing in there.

We had a very happy couple of days afterwards, exploring the Lake District for a change - an area that neither of us knew well. Ullswater and Keswick on an atmospheric day were much enjoyed:




Not sure if we would like to take this old girl out in choppy waters mind you:





The Nordhavn is much more reassuring.

Monday 2 October 2017

Fixing things, catching up with family additions and contemplating the winter ahead

After arriving in Penarth, we felt obliged to sleep a lot and then wash the salt and gunge off the poor neglected boat. Greenock had been a good place to stay but treated us to lots of dirty rain. The plan was to collect the Defender and "do stuff". Of course, the night before we planned to depart, the bilge pump turned on and just kept going.

Having been there before, we checked the float switch to see if it was gunged up again. No, not that simple, it just was not pumping. Was the strum box that prevents things being sucked into the pump blocked? No. Oh good, it was the pump itself. Why "oh good". Because the pump is mounted in the least accessible spot possible, behind the genset. After removing the genset side panels, demolishing the supports for the housing and laying lots of cloths and things down to protect the captain's back, he wriggled his way into the tiny gap with two water filters digging into his back:




and the end of the genset enclosure neatly pinning the other side of him. Oh, then you have to work almost at full stretch forwards, just to add to the delight, and remove the housing bolts by feeling their positions to guide the socket onto them.

Sure enough the valves inside the pump had failed. They have a rivet that holds the flap material onto the housing and guess what, it corrodes through. We had been through this fun in 2013 so we had an overhaul kit in our spares stock:




You can see the tiny offending rivet on the new circular valve above. Two new ones were duly fitted and the captain retreated from purgatory in need of soothing red wine but far too late in the evening to do so respectably.  We ask again, why didn't they mount the genset 3 inches further forward??  The plan is to order some suitable marine grade M3 stainless bolts and to drill out the failure prone rivets in the new valves and replace them with something that will last a little longer. Then the torture will be repeated.

We duly took the train and collected the equally neglected Defender which had been spending the summer in his PJs happily locked away undercover. The tyres slowly got more circular as we drove him further.

A trip to the Southampton boat show to look at new generation electronics and contemplate an upgrade was good as was a visit to see Anne who should be well known to you by now. The visit was not just to see Anne and Izzy our goddog. Izzy had produced two pups and so a day of "puppy fun" was in order:







For fun you can of course read clearing up little opportunities that they leave behind them all over the floor. They were around 5 weeks old and active, so needed a little restraint to get a proper picture:




Upon returning to Penarth, we had another little job. The blower that extracts air from the master shower compartment had been sounding sick, running slowly and making unhappy noises. Then it stopped totally. The original had failed a few years ago and so we were not surprised. A new one was procured and another fun fitting job was undertaken - this one involves laying on your back in the wet locker with your head in a hatch next to the tumble dryer trying to work on the blower that is just above your nose. The S curve that your back has to make during this activity is most enjoyable too.

The little 24v blower:




was duly replaced and then the new one (which tested OK before fitting) refused to work. "Oh bother" said the captain (or something like that) as he re-bent his spine into unusual shapes. Re-plugging the old blower into the connectors was a bit surprising as it then worked, with no funny noises. Grr - must be an intermittent bad connection to the thing. After some tweaking, the positive feed was found to be playing up - a crimped on bullet connector from the factory. Connector duly replaced (and its twin on the negative side just in case) the new blower happily made the right noises and extracted air. We now have a spare but well used blower on board.

Just to add to the general maintenance happiness, we also polished the hull ready for the ravages of the winter and sorted out the corrosion on the port pilothouse door. That was a bit of a saga as a door keep was secured using Robertson screws - square headed things that are popular in Canada where the doors are made but rarer than rocking horse droppings here. Still, after ordering suitable bits it was removed and refitted with ease, this time with the machine screws coated in Duralac to try and avoid the galvanic corrosion problem for a while:




We have more painting to do but the weather forecast isn't looking kind....