sundial
Member
I am obviously not the first, nor indeed the last of this somewhat strange species – or so it seems to our family, friends and work colleagues – to want to live on a boat; so this is just some or our reasons and how it’s changed our lives; even in one short month.
We’ve had boats since our first daughter was born some 35 years ago. We started with a little blow-up dinghy called “Jenny”, and used to muddle around Blakeney in north Norfolk when the tide was in. Invariably as we came back in, we’d go aground. The propeller would hit the mud and the sheer pin would snap. Never mind, I had a bag of spares. OK, change the pin and go aground again a few minutes later – until I ran out of spare pins. I solved this problem by carrying a box of 100!
Then we had a Fletcher speed boat, and our first cruiser a Project 31. I think that this was Princess Boats’ first boat. A very stable boat, but the two Perkins 4102 diesels couldn’t quite get her up on the plane. The electronic navigation was a radio direction finder where I had to go into the forward cabin and listen to Morse signals from transmitters around the channel. Then our second daughter got a temperature as soon as she came on board; even in the marina. Once off the boat the temperature would disappear. So the boat went!
After she had grown up, we got a 23 foot single engine petrol cruiser. This boat felt very unsafe, but did have Decca as its direction finder. That went when we decided to get a Sealine 32 footer. That had an early GPS plotter, and we had some superb holidays along the north coast of France and Brittany. But she had to be sold to pay for a new roof on our house some 14 years ago.
I had resisted the temptation to go to the Southampton boat show until last year, for obvious reasons. But when I saw the Princess V45 I was sold, or rather they sold one to me!
So why then choose to live aboard in Puerto Banus?
Having reached the age when I can afford to take a step back from my business, I attempted to analyse our situation. SWMBO had a replacement hip operation just over a year ago but she was left with a numb leg and can hardly walk. So the first reason was to go and live somewhere sunny and warm, with plenty of good food shops and restaurants close at hand; but quiet enough at night.
Next we were getting fed up with the levels of violence and general rowdy’s in the UK; add to that all the petty bureaucracy of local councils.
The original plan had been to keep “Chelsea Sound” at Gosport until September and then try and find a marina berth in the Mediterranean. However by sheer luck we were offered a berth from May in Puerto Banus; so we jumped at it.
We are now into our 5th week, and still loving it.
We’ve had boats since our first daughter was born some 35 years ago. We started with a little blow-up dinghy called “Jenny”, and used to muddle around Blakeney in north Norfolk when the tide was in. Invariably as we came back in, we’d go aground. The propeller would hit the mud and the sheer pin would snap. Never mind, I had a bag of spares. OK, change the pin and go aground again a few minutes later – until I ran out of spare pins. I solved this problem by carrying a box of 100!
Then we had a Fletcher speed boat, and our first cruiser a Project 31. I think that this was Princess Boats’ first boat. A very stable boat, but the two Perkins 4102 diesels couldn’t quite get her up on the plane. The electronic navigation was a radio direction finder where I had to go into the forward cabin and listen to Morse signals from transmitters around the channel. Then our second daughter got a temperature as soon as she came on board; even in the marina. Once off the boat the temperature would disappear. So the boat went!
After she had grown up, we got a 23 foot single engine petrol cruiser. This boat felt very unsafe, but did have Decca as its direction finder. That went when we decided to get a Sealine 32 footer. That had an early GPS plotter, and we had some superb holidays along the north coast of France and Brittany. But she had to be sold to pay for a new roof on our house some 14 years ago.
I had resisted the temptation to go to the Southampton boat show until last year, for obvious reasons. But when I saw the Princess V45 I was sold, or rather they sold one to me!
So why then choose to live aboard in Puerto Banus?
Having reached the age when I can afford to take a step back from my business, I attempted to analyse our situation. SWMBO had a replacement hip operation just over a year ago but she was left with a numb leg and can hardly walk. So the first reason was to go and live somewhere sunny and warm, with plenty of good food shops and restaurants close at hand; but quiet enough at night.
Next we were getting fed up with the levels of violence and general rowdy’s in the UK; add to that all the petty bureaucracy of local councils.
The original plan had been to keep “Chelsea Sound” at Gosport until September and then try and find a marina berth in the Mediterranean. However by sheer luck we were offered a berth from May in Puerto Banus; so we jumped at it.
We are now into our 5th week, and still loving it.
