What made us do it?

Good question - how did we get from living on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with sheep, chickens, cats, a vegetable garden, and a 5m fishing boat to a live-aboard on the European canals?

Ah, the answer takes us back many, many years.  Suffice to say, for the moment, that we have been "boatie" people for a long time.  We met while on a long distance yacht race, built a sailing yacht in our back yard in Cape Town, South Africa, then, in 1986, took off on what we intended to be a round the world cruise.  We had no time scale but didn't think it would take more than 4 or 5 years.

Almost 30 years later we have never made it back to SA!  But I'll write those chronicles in separate pages as the mood takes me.

In 1990 we found ourselves working on the Grand Union Canal in Warwickshire and living aboard a canal boat.  What a different experience that was after many years on the open ocean and we loved it but we were still in our 30's and thought this would be a great way of life to re-visit some time in the future.

25 years later the future has arrived!

3 weeks to go...

.....or 22 sleeps to be more precise.  It is almost 4 months since we bought our canal cruiser, Njord, in Rotterdam, then left her behind to return to our home in the Azores.  Now at last the time is drawing near to start our travels on the canals and inland waterways of Europe.

Njord is a 9m Tak cruiser.  Yes, she is small, but comfortable and just big enough for the two of us.  Accommodation consists of a central saloon with interior steering position, heads and double bunk in the aft section, and dinette plus galley up forward.  There is an exterior steering position on the aft deck.

The galley is my domain!  It is very compact with a 4 burner gas hob, no oven, so we have invested in a Weber Q120 barbecue which can also serve as an oven - even to making lasagna - which will be permanently mounted on the aft deck.  There is a combination 220v/12v/gas refrigerator which is uneconomical to run on 12v so we have also acquired a National Lunar 40, a highly efficient compressor fridge/freezer.

Our aim is to be fairly independent of shore power, as we do not want to have to stop in marinas every day.  We have 3 solar panels with a total of 270W.

Some specs for those who are interested:

Length: 9m

Beam: 3m

Draught: 0.85m

Engine: Mitsubishi S4Q-2 50 hp

Closed cooling

Bow thruster

Eberspacher heater

Fuel tank: 300 l

Water tank: 100 l (got to do something about that!)

Built 1980 and re-engined in 2009