Going BIG - Nordhavn 55 time

Some of you might recall how in Guernsey a larger Nordhavn owner referred to our 47 as "the small Nordhavn over there". This initiated the SNOC. The Small Nordhavn Owners Club, with a small but most elite membership. Colin (the ex BA captain, ex Lightning fighter pilot with a hint of cross dressing in his past) and Martin (Cathay Pacific training captain and proper chap) both own N47s and are founder members.

With all this in mind, the captain and crew went big. We were invited by Alex and Gisele (the Dutch / Belgian couple who you've met in here before) for a trip out on their newly purchased Nordhavn 55. They are big boats. Vast in comparison to our "small Nordhavn" indeed.

This was their first trip out since Alex with two experienced Nordhavn skippers delivered the boat from Scotland to the Hamble river.  We were honoured as the owners of the smallest Nordhavn ever to be invited onto their huge craft.

The weather was so so kind. Sunny, gentle winds and the right tide times for a little trip to Lymington and back:

Alex deftly extricated the HUGE Nordhavn from her berth and headed down the Solent. He looked quite the part too:

and remarkably relaxed. We were most impressed with how quiet and smooth the boat was - quieter than the very lovely N63 "Due North" indeed.  Coffee and carrot cake were, of course, provided by Gisele and the crew, seen here in the HUGE saloon:

Yes, the word huge seems to be popping up regularly.

Arrival in Berthon was also stress free, Alex backed into a finger berth as though he had been doing it all his life on HUGE Nordhavns. After an excellent Sunday roast in a local pub we headed back with the sun gently setting astern of us. Late season boat trips just don't get any better really (especially as we did it without burning any of our diesel!) So you can appreciate how the 55 looks:

#Nordhavnenvy - until it comes to the cleaning and polishing that is.

Pottering around - Cardiff bay and the tiny canals

The boat needed a run out to warm up all the oily bits before she was given another few days rest so the usual mad route around the bay ensued:

That rather confused track allowed us to warm up the main and wing engines and have a nice wide open throttle run for the big Lugger too. There were a couple of yachts out as well, we must have confused them quite a lot with our apparently drunken wanderings, speed changes etc etc.

Having given the boat a run, we then deserted her. For, shock horror, another boat! Only this one was tin, painted, 65 feet long, very slim and on the Shropshire union canal. If you want more info, peek at Poppy web page.  We had two extra crew with us, Izzy the famous little furry hound who often appears in this blog and Tina, a slightly less furry person who has also popped up here in the past. 65 foot of tin with no keel handles rather differently to our Nordhavn. For a start it likes going sideways much more readily. Being in 3 feet of water is also strange when we like significantly more than that under our keel. As for the narrow cuttings where two boats struggle to pass each other - that is a bit like squeezing into the berth that the pretty hopeless folks at Hamble Point give you when they confuse metres and feet in your beam measurement.

As you can see, Izzy took her job of watchdog as we pottered along at under 3mph most seriously:

whilst Tina found that she was just a touch too short to see over the cabin roof whilst helming:

However, she does look entirely focussed on the job and suitable tooled for bad weather, of which there was very little indeed. Meanwhile the regular crew was a little concerned about hitting her head going through a tunnel:

whereas Tina was much braver:

and quite blase about the whole adventure. They managed all the lock winding, Izzy walking and cuddles that were needed most effectively. During one soggy afternoon, we opted for a superb pub lunch in Market Drayton and the opportunity to watch some of the Rugby World Cup. Izzy seemed transfixed by the sight of so many hunky men:

All went well until we had #walkingbootgate. Whilst wandering into Wheaton Aston Tina found that the sole of her boot had come loose and that it was gently flapping around as she walked. This was an excellent excuse for the 3 crew to hide in the nearby pub whilst the captain raided the local Spar shop for a repair kit consisting of string and superglue. We were lucky that they had those items, not exactly a huge place.

Gluing up the sole of Tina's boot in the pub and cutting some lengths of string in case they were needed to help tie things together on the way back to the boat seemed to cause much fun:

and Izzy promptly laid her head on the newly glued boot once it was refitted to Tina's foot. We think we have a glue sniffer for a  goddog. 

or just a very tired one.

No matter what / why, it was a most relaxing week afloat. Go and look at the Norbury Wharf website and book yourself a few days on the lovely Shropshire union. 

The sad but busy end to the cruising season

Once you arrive in your winter spot, there seems to be plenty to do to take your mind off the "what, no more proper sea voyages" feeling. In our case that meant removing the bimini cover, flybridge seating, anchor snubber and tiedowns, treating the covers that remain outside during the winter with Boracol, ditto for the teak, laying up the little Tohatsu outboard, washing off the salt from the trip, polishing the hull etc etc. One of the less enjoyable "etc" jobs was digging out the window washing pole and cleaning the accumulated grot off the domes. The captain has to stand downwind and almost directly under them for some of the job which means a good soaking. Luckily the weather was kind!

Some statistics for you:

This summer, we have clocked up another 323 hours on our main engine. The boat has also just passed the 25,000 nautical miles travelled mark. The genset had a relatively quiet year - only 92 hours run. Too much time in marinas.  We are not sure how much fuel we burned on passages as we didn't reset the murphy gauge info before we headed off.  Right now we still have just under half tanks left from our Guernsey fill up. Not bad at all considering how much travelling around in Scotland that we did with our visitors.

Our major piece of maintenance was the replacement of the two inverters - not planned stuff! Apart from that and a pesky thermostat cover job on the genset, things were not too taxing. The new Furuno navigation gear and FLIR have been a great success. Expensive but a great success. The other major repair work was to the captain's cracked tooth. Way more complex and also eye-wateringly expensive.

Since arriving in our winter home, we have been a bit busy. A trip to Hythe (now known as Toddlerville) was busy. Back afloat, the propane regulator and pigtails that connect to the cylinders got replaced:

only to discover that the "Seaflow" unit supplied by the usually excellent marine parts folks ASAP supplies came with a leaflet saying "not for use in motorhomes or boats". So, another regulator is coming. Most unimpressed with the branding (SEAflow that cannot go to Sea?) and the lack of information about that on their website.

Anyway, the regulator was well past the normal replacement date as were the pigtails. It needed doing for safety. The pipework through the boat to the hob will be a challenge next winter.

We also took some time off to walk the 2 Ps - Pip and Poppy. We managed to tire them out rather well:

but Pip managed to rouse himself enough to deliver a thank you lick:

Nice to be appreciated .