What's going on with the boat?

After ten years living on Tarquilla we have moved to land. I'm often asked if we love the house or miss the boat and the real answer is - both. We still have Tarquilla and we are open to all options at the moment as far as her future is concerned. We will carry on working on her, it would be great to be able to sail her again. The Scilly Isles, Portishead marina, Bristol harbour and Falmouth are all places we have talked about as well as many others further afield. But, on the other hand, if a family was looking for a boat, ready to do the preparation she needs and wanted to take her on then we would sell her. She is not ready to sail off into the sunset but has a lot of life left in her. If you or someone you know would be interested then please contact us. She is 3 ply cold moulded, 42 foot long, one off design built in the 1960's. She has 2 double cabins and 2 single berths, a good size saloon, a decent size galley, head and a covered cockpit. She has two engines and a full suit of sails. We have lots more photos and can provide more details or answer questions. In the meantime, this blog has come to a natural pause for now as we take on new adventures.

Yachting Monthly


Some times things take time. Back in the winter of 2012/13 we were trapped by the weather in what became one of our favourite places – Gijon in Asturias, Northern Spain. Whilst we were there we spent time working on some writing projects. One of them was an article for Yachting Monthly which has just been published.

 
If you have come to see us because of the article, thank you and welcome. Make yourself at home; feel free to have a look around at the tags on the right and the sections above. I’ll go and put the kettle on and get the biscuits.



Tarquilla moored in Plymouth, Devon

What makes us so special that we feel we have something to say? Well nothing actually. We just realised that life was becoming far too much work and not enough play and decided to do something about it. I won’t pretend it was easy or that hard decisions didn’t need to be made but, for us, it was worth it.

 
Starting out we did lots of research and planning. The skipper won a competition with a prize of an RYA ‘Introduction to sailing’ course with Cornish Cruising. The instructor was fantastic, the weather variable and the experience memorable. We started with a peaceful morning on the Fal watching a seal and finished with roaring into the harbour in a hailstorm and force 6+ winds, we were hooked.

First time at the helm, exhilarating
- note the big grin

We set off on Tarquilla in the summer of 2011 with three boys, a dog and a very big sack of Lego. The plan was to travel for 2-3 years to see how far we got. The article talks about our trip along Southern Britain, across the channel through Brittany and the Vendee region to Spain. Following on from there we travelled through Northern Spain, the Basque country then back up through Atlantic France and Brittany (This is where we went)

 
We loved our time cruising and intend to carry on sailing more locally once work on the boat is completed whilst the boys are at secondary school. We met generosity and kindness on the way from so many people and saw the sun rise after a long night, dolphins swimming around the boat, a sky full of stars on an inky background and lizards basking on hot walls.

You can also follow Tarquilla on facebook to see lots of photos from our trip
and what we are doing now.

New adventures in new places
 

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