Guernsey time

You know how it is, you wake up, look out and see another Nordhavn in St Peter Port. Now, they are not that common. Then you get a message from Phil the Nordhavn Europe man who has just come over on the handover trip from the Hamble river with the brand new shiny boat. Makes ours look very sad indeed - polishing only just started for this year.

Phil came to say hello and get his signature on the sales paperwork witnessed. We told him that doctors charge big time for that sort of stuff. No visible reaction though. The new boat, Anura, you have seen in earlier posts, when she was out on trials in Southampton water. Yes, that was the time that Phil was wearing a kilt and in the interest of public decency we refused to post any close up pictures.

A reminder:

Whilst in Guernsey we visited M and G in St Sampson by bus to get a stainless steel bracket made up. The plastic one that supported the controller for the old Furuno Navnet kit on the flybridge had broken - the new controller has to be in a little Navpod and the weight plus the age of the plastic had taken its toll on the original bracket which just broke. M and G turned it around in just over a day - perhaps to make up for the shaft etc work timing. Anyway, we were very happy with it until it came to be fitted. Looks like they got ID and OD a bit mixed up when they measured the old one. the bracket was not wide enough so some temporary surgery was needed to the fitting on the Navpod too. Stuff is never simple.

What else? A trip to St Sampson by boat allowed Marcus, the very nice Rubis tanker man to fill us up with 2707 litres of diesel. Low fuel burn last year as we didn't cruise that far whilst moving the toddlers into their new home. Also, thanks to the unplanned extended stay out of the water in Guernsey, fewer hours for the Webasto heating.

We also saw Charlotte and Justin, the Guernsey Oysters folks and had a very pleasant catch up that involved way less alcohol than was planned thanks to tide times. (Neap tides meant we did not go to Beaucette marina to stay and hence they had some driving to do). A walk along the coast is always lovely, although Izzy kept staring at Herm hoping we would take her there perhaps as she heard how much her mum enjoyed the place:

The staring did not work as the ferry times were far from ideal.  The walk up to Candie Gardens was not a great success though - dogs on leads only but the views make up for that a little:

We heard some commotion outside early one morning (a boat arriving) and when we got up, were greeted by the sight of yet another Nordhavn 63:

This one is the old "Due North", that used to live in Craobh marina and anyone who went to the Southampton Boat Show last year would have seen her. Lovely boat, beautifully maintained by her first owner. She was en route to the Med with her new owners on board and James Knight, the Yacht tech man from the USA who was involved in the purchase. James came over to introduce himself and give us his business card - always looking for an opportunity we guess. By the way James, we think you need a less "typically American" shiny blue thing to hand out over here:

Three Nordhavn boats in St Peter Port and two of them the relatively rare 63 models. Almost a creche going on.

As the poor dog didn't get a walk on Herm, we took her to the Bluebell wood instead. Just a couple of weeks too early for the carpet of colour to appear but she still seemed happy amongst the few blooms that had ventured out:

Lunch sitting outside at the Beach Cafe at Fermain Bay was excellent as usual. Later on we were firmly put in our place. Charlotte and Justin came to St Peter Port to say bye to us, saw a grey hulled boat and walked down the pontoon to it. Only they had picked the brand new Nordhavn 63. They realised their error and the owners told them "you want the small Nordhavn over there". So, now we know. Size does matter.