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, 6 April 2019

The delights of Dartmouth, from Kingswear

As the nice Darthaven folks found and protected a slot for us in their visitor area, we felt obliged to stay a little longer. Mainly because it is such a good place to be really. So, what to do? Well, first of all walks down to Gallants Bower (the woods on the way to the castle) to let Izzy have a run. We'd forgotten just how steep the climbs are though and we are out of practice - we missed the Penarth hill training this winter. Izzy enjoyed the walk even if we were less keen.

You end up in some strange strange spots:




but we didn't spot any outward signs of heavy inbreeding. The finger count looked all OK on the folks we met there.

No matter how often you see it the church next to the castle is so pretty:





and the antique lower ferry car carrying barge and tug arrangement somehow suits the place:




Whilst in Dartmouth, a walk to Bayard's Cove is a must do for many reasons. One is that it is quintessentially Devon by the sea:




Another is because it is en route to the Castle. When you have Izzy with you it is because at low tide there is plenty of beach to play on and things to throw and chase - if you can find them:




Somehow we don't think she would make it as a search and rescue dog but that tail was having a really good time.

The weather, which had been very spring like, took a turn for the worse and a little hail shower changed the colour of the pontoon briefly:



but as we were on board and the heating was running it didn't cause too much trouble. One of the joys of living on board and no longer working is being able to pick and choose when we move, when we hunker down and do some interior cleaning / maintenance or just blob out. Hailstone day was the latter.

The last "must do" things in Dartmouth are having coffee and brownie at Saveurs (see website) , enjoying some excellent fish and chips at the Floating Bridge pub and saying hello to Tracy in her nice boutique the Fox Exchange. We did them all, some more than once. We leave you to work out the frequency of these activities.


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