On The Rocks




Menai Suspension Bridge
from our holiday cottage

Every now and then, probably every couple of years, the Captain becomes afflicted with what can only be described as ‘the call of the sea.’

The last time it happened was in 2014. We were holidaying on the Crinan Canal and staying in the lock keeper’s cottage next to the Crinan sea lock. On that occasion, he had too much sunshine and saw too many boats. And so we were soon drowning under piles of motorboat magazines.

After many cold baths back in the Peak District, he slowly returned to normal, and after a few weeks, the motorboat magazines were thrown out.

But we are now in the midst of a more serious attack. In fact we are in North Wales for the week looking at marinas, boats, tides, and goodness knows what.

Captain now has a whole new language and Cardinal buoys, high water slack, tidal streams and The Swellies (which our holiday cottage overlooks) are now all part of our everyday conversation.





Swellies Rock (submerged) 
just before high water slack

Moving from the relative luxuries of a narrowboat to any sea boat is tricky. We are used to hot water, heating, a multifuel stove, being able to stop almost anywhere, with that anywhere, usually outside a pub.


On these sea boat things, even hot water is not guaranteed, which is why Captain has decided that we need an inboard shaft driven diesel powered boat as these quite often have hot water (and sometimes diesel fuelled heating).

Yesterday, he got very excited by a Merry Fisher 805 he saw at Doug Edwards boatyard near Beaumaris.

“It ticks most of our boxes,” he said, ticking most of the boxes.

This will all pass soon and he will be back to planning our August passage to Tamworth, Birmingham and Wolverhampton.