Forest of Dean and visitor time

Well, back afloat again we decided that it was time the poor neglected RIB had a trip out. So, it was duly launched and then the crew took Izzy the dog for a walk, planning to meet the captain on the other side of the bay. However, the doglet had other ideas, put her paws down and wanted to return to the boat and join in the RIB trip. She does like the dinghies rather a lot. So, the stubborn dog was kitted out in her lifejacket (which she dislikes) and had a burn across the bay (which she loved): 

To break this boating addiction, we then headed to the Speech House hotel in the Forest of Dean for three nights. Having been there before we knew that it was ultra dog-friendly, that the area was beautiful, that there were many great walks and that we would enjoy the place too. On the way, we stopped off in Monmouth for a coffee break and a wander around the rather nice little town: 

in, as you can see, nice weather.

Izzy was spoiled rotten by the staff at the hotel, especially after she demonstrated all her party tricks like giving people a "high 10" etc etc. She quite enjoyed that and the pampering / treats that followed. We amused ourselves with a walk in the hills around Tintern, then a walk around the ruined abbey:

It was an amazingly tranquil place in a lovely riverside setting. Founded in 1131 and regularly built upon and extended until the dissolution of the monasteries effectively turned it into the ruin you see today.  Have a look on Google (other search engines are of course available) for more information.

On the way back to the hotel, we trotted around the sculptures walk in the forest (well, Izzy trotted, we plodded really) and the dog looked most at home sitting in the rather artistic "badger shelter":

if a little bit lost in the size of things. 

Also on the list was a Chepstow visit, never having been there before. We did some of the Wye valley walk (classed as easy in the guide, no idea why) with nice river views:

 then went into the town and decided to check out the ruined castle:

That was mainly because our Cadw membership let us in for free if we are honest about it. The setting is just perfect, on a bend in the river Wye and on a nice sunny day, what could be better? You get to see the elegant listed bridge::

and the riverscape around it:

As a side benefit, Izzy got to play Queen of the Castle, standing on a mock turret that is part of a very artistic bench seat:

The trip was topped off by meeting Michael and Frances (the Nordhavn 40 owners) for coffee at the steam railway tourist attraction they built (look up Perrygrove railway, amazing place)  and then for another lovely walk in the forest:

and lunch afterwards. We continue to be amazed at how many stunning places and walks there are in the area. We will be back..... (Sorry Michael and Frances)

After our return to the boat, we had a long overdue visit from and catch up with Graham and Pat. That involved seeing many of the "proper tourist" things in Cardiff like the Senedd (Welsh Parliament building), the castle and also a trip to Barrybados where Izzy and Moxie had so much fun on the beach chasing balls and each other it should have been illegal.

Maintenance news:

Not a lot really. Too much time away, too much time focussed on making sure that the little dog had fun. The captain did manage to paint the inside of the trash compactor with some zinc rich primer though as it was looking a little bit sad and starting to corrode in places. The pre-season ritual of fuel filters, GRP polishing etc will have to start soon. Now, when is "soon"?

HUGE Nordhavns, doglets and having fun

A little trip to Eastbourne was on the cards for the captain after he rebuilt and resealed the manual grey water pump from Lady Grey, the HUGE Nordhavn 55 owned by Alex and Gisele. We may have mentioned how large the 55 is before but it is worth repeating that compared to our 47 the 55 is way bigger.. 

The pump was refitted and a truly disgusting amount of goo was cleaned out from the tank itself involving our large wet and dry vacuum, copious quantities of Bio Blast to help break down / eat up the stuff and plenty of patience. It was quite satisfying to see a clean bottom to the tank once we finished. Alex celebrated by showing off the new ensign he had purchased for the boat:

Maybe we should call her a small ship instead though. Some prior owner had bastardised the grey water tank sender setup - probably because the original automatic float switch had packed up. So, to put everything back to "as built" a new sender assembly was ordered to pop in once it arrives. Amusingly, the nice folks at Leesan called to query the order. "Are you sure that you need probes that long? What depth is the tank?" When the captain explained that it was for a Nordhavn the guy understood at once - "oh yes, they have very big and very deep tanks". We know, we cleaned it out!

On the way back to Penarth, we had the pleasure of a lunch with Anne who brought along Izzy our goddog and the rather lovely if rather bigger Paddy too:

We then dognapped Izzy, ready for a 5 week stay with us. Naturally things then had to be arranged that were all focussed on the doglet and what she would like. A muddy walk in the country park at Barry, time on Barrybados beach and then a week in Blue Anchor bay in Somerset followed. #spoileddogletindeed

She seemed to expect such treatment though, with a quite imperious look:

The Somerset rental place had great views out to sea and over the fields:

and nearby Minehead had a proliferation of "old scrap metal art". You can guess where this one was positioned:

A lovely covid lockdown story - see BBC report. We enjoyed an excellent lunch at Woods in Dulverton (nice little place) and a good wander around Porlock Weir too:

In the local pub we discovered that the local mermaids seemed to be rather friendly:

but none were visible in the harbour - probably because it was low tide during our visit. 

A good forest walk around Dunster and up to the viewpoint tested the crew's back and it managed the challenge well - smiles not grimaces were apparent:

Once we reached the top, passing old Roman settlements and earthworks, Izzy did her "I am in charge" thing again:

More walks were enjoyed at Lynmouth:

and up the river which gave an impressive and slightly noisy backdrop:

After Anne left us, we felt obliged to revisit the beach to give the doglet a last runaround and ball fun before the drive back to the boat:

All in all a great week in an area that we didn't know at all but fully intend to revisit sometime.

Maintenance news

Neil, a Nordhavn 40 owner, has been very industrious and designed a replacement for the pesky Chi Tai DC panel meters that are installed on most Nordhavns. The meters fail over time and can get very hot, to the extent that some components melt with all the risks that brings. Instead of a circuit board full of old style components, Neil has a much smarter solution that uses chips and some logic to do the same job whilst consuming way less power too. We were lucky enough to get some of his first batch of completed boards and so the captain had a happy time swapping out the 6 DC meters on our boat that measure the 24v and 12v system consumption, alternator charging and battery voltage. Here is a comparison of the original and new boards:

and yes, you can see some heat discolouration on the original. Neil will be offering these to other owners in the future - if you have the Chi Tai originals installed, just replace them. It is a no brainer. There will be a similar solution for the 240v AC gauges sometime and we will be replacing those too. 

A very satisfying little job indeed although all you see are the new displays which look identical to the originals.