Author Archives: npdonohoe

After a couple of weeks of provisioning, repairing, double checking and even hand waxing the topsides (who needs a gym!), we drove to Orlando Airport to pick up our broker-turned-good friend, Jeff Merrill, to travel with us on the first leg of our journey. We ventured out to meet some friends for a last eveningContinue reading “New Adventures Begin!”

It has been quite a while since we last posted… We know.  We, like the rest of the world, have been adjusting to “a new normal” with Covid-19 in our surroundings.  Luckily, so far, we have been very healthy and have not been stricken with this virus – nor has anyone in our marina. Unfortunately,Continue reading “The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men….”

It has been surprisingly difficult to schedule people to visit us. Between guests having jobs and school obligations, weather whims that we cannot control, and the never-ending list of things to be attended to and fixed on the boat, we have had quite a challenge. However, as we settle into this life and weather turnsContinue reading “Feb 15 – 21: FIRST VISITORS!”

After hanging out at Old Port Cove marina in Palm Beach Gardens for several more days, we finally got the important repairs completed and decided to head back to our marina on February 4th. Palm Beach is lovely, but we were anxious to get back to our home base. After checking the weather and planningContinue reading “Feb 4: HOMEWARD BOUND – FINALLY”

After our training adventure and solo outing, we went to Vancouver, Canada to spend the holidays with family. It was wonderful and fun. And wet. Very wet. Like, “there for 26 days, it rained for 25 of them” kind of wet. But we had beautiful hikes, too much food, lots of laughs and philosophizing andContinue reading “IT’S ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL IT’S TIME TO HAUL OUT THE BOAT”

We decided to take a short trip up the ICW to visit some place new, and to practice our newly developed skills. Melbourne is 26 miles up the ICW (which at our boat speed is about 3.5 hours). We charted our course, researched anchorages, checked and recheck weather. On the morning of December 5th, weContinue reading “First solo cruise”

Before we bought Granuaile (previously Tivoli), Neil researched training captains, and decided to hire Bernie Francis, a training captain in Florida with 30 years boating experience. It turned out that Bernie had worked with Clayton and Deanna, the owners of Tivoli, and had captained this boat before. We all agreed that three weeks on theContinue reading “Training….”

We embarked this adventure many years ago – culminating in taking ownership of a Nordhavn 50 trawler on November 6, 2019. Being landlubbers with very little experience, we hired a training captain to teach us the ways of our new home and begin an entirely new life. All journeys start with the first step. AndContinue reading “Stepping off the dock …”

Post written by Kathleen:Granuaile (gran ya wail) – what the heck is that? When I was a child, I heard the story that we were descendants of a great Irish pirate queen, by the name of Grace O’Malley. I grew up around legends and stories, and thought there was nothing much to them. The firstContinue reading “Granuaile”