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

Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Mallaig to Tobermory

The promised rain happened. Shame that they had to get that bit of the forecast right. Our departure was timed brilliantly - the rain started and a couple of ferries decided to arrive / depart just as we were ready to leave. That meant a little hanging about. The captain decided that he could leave our berth helming inside the pilothouse. The crew commented that handling the lines from inside was not as easy and put her full wet weather gear on. A few comments were made as well, but not to be reported here.

The trip around the (in)famous Ardnamurchan point was to be grey, gloomy but relatively calm. We did the right thing and timed it to arrive off the point at slack water - getting tidal help all the way down there but then having to push the tide up towards Tobermory. The SW'ly 4 to 5 didn't drag up any waves that could tax a Nordhavn on a mission.

As you can see, the Ardnamurchan lighthouse and point looked a little different to the pictures from our north bound trip:




At least the waves were not big....  Arriving in Tobermory, we found some nice new mooring buoys and after checking picked up the captive line and settled down inside. A little rain still and more promised so no big "going ashore plans".

Of course, the forecast had to be a little bit wrong - here is the evening view across the bay:



The trip takes around 6 hours and apart from avoiding a few fishing vessels and a few pot markers was very straightforward. Just grey.




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