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

Saturday, 20 April 2013

Studland Bay to St Peter Port (Guernsey)

This is a well trodden route across the channel that we and many others have used many times. Different before though as it was part of a tightly time-boxed holiday when our annual fuel fill up and few days in the Channel Islands was squeezed into the 2 or 3 weeks of freedom.

To try and avoid the worst of the foul tides around the north of Guernsey, and to arrive in daylight, we headed off nice and early. Well, early, maybe not nice. Lots of residual "slop" in the channel from the many days of strong winds but nothing that worried the stabilisers. Crossing the Traffic Separation area just north of the Channel islands was fun. The AIS screen was full of the big guys - much busier than we've seen for many years (maybe the world economy is picking up again??) and lots of course changes were needed to thread through them.

Arriving in St Peter Port we found a powerboat race underway with lots of tortured engine noises as the boats thrashed their way though some choppy waters just south of the harbour entrance. The arrival of the fast catamaran ferry from the UK added to the size of the waves they were battling - I think the island's osteopaths will be busy early next week.

The visitors moorings in the harbour were almost deserted - a first. We always reckon that a place is good if you have to go ashore by dinghy. St Peter Port is good.


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