Parting Ways ...
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Yes, it's true ... We have indeed parted ways with 'Albacore', the decommissioned wooden trawler we spent 7 long years restoring and converting.
Those of you who followed us and supported us on that journey, from the very early days with Tim in Kilkeel in Northern Ireland, and his (somewhat perilous) journey across the Irish Sea, through the years of life onboard and the ups and downs of restoration work slowly and meticulously carried out, we thank you and would like to assure you that although this is the end of one adventure, it is also the gateway into another. |
Our decision to sell wasn't easy, but after 5 years (7 for Tim) the time eventually came for us to start thinking about a new adventure. No plan is set in stone, but after a well earned break and a lot of soul searching we are currently, as of January 2020, researching and planning a major new endeavour. There will be lots more on that coming to this website soon, but in the meantime, we would like to share with you some of our memories, our triumphs and disasters, from our years on board Albacore and how it was that that great, rusting old fishing trawler, rescued from the scrap heap by Tim, became The May Queen ...
- Lisa
January 2020
From this ... 'Albacore N303' and how she looked in the summer of 2013, shortly after arriving at her new home in the boatyard at Torpoint where she remains until this day ...
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To this ... Same boat, same spot, but with a new (old?) name:
'May Queen IV' was looking a lot different by the summer of 2018 ... |
The Tall Tale of how I Rescued
A Little Ol' Fishing Boat
Crossing The Irish Sea ...
'May Queen IV' was built in 1970 by Mackays of Arbroath as a larch-on-oak traditional fishing trawler. She was decommissioned in 2008 and in 2011, I took the ferry from Wales to Northern Ireland and travelled to Kilkeel where 'Albacore', as she was then, had spent her last years as a fishing vessel. The story goes that I bought this boat from an Irish fisherman in a bar, and who am I to argue with such a romantic tale? After several weeks in Kilkeel making repairs I then sailed her singlehandedly across the Irish Sea to Ilfracombe in North Devon. Whilst this is not a course of action I would recommend to everyone, the adventure makes a great anecdote and Lisa even managed to create a whole art project and story from the tale. You can read her (mostly?) fictional account of what happened in 'Salt in the Blood'. A cracking yarn indeed!
This little film was cobbled together from a few snippets of video I took on my old camera whilst bringing 'Albacore' across the sea from Ireland to Ilfracombe in Cornwall in 2011. It looks relaxing and romantic, but it really wasn't. It was rough, dirty and terrifying. It was also an utterly unforgettable and life-changing adventure. Would I do it again? ... Probably ...
Circumnavigating Cornwall ...
After the weeks spent alone in Ireland and my rather exhausting solo trip across the Irish Sea, it was a real joy to have my friend Ben come along for the journey around Cornwall, a journey which would see us setting out from Ilfracombe in North Devon and travelling first to Padstow where I moored for a few - (eye-wateringly expensive) - weeks, and then back to Cornwall again for the next leg around Land's End and into Newlyn harbour for one sneaky free night under the cloak of darkness, before finally setting out one glorious spring day in April 2011 for the final part of Albacore's journey up the south coast past St.Michael's Mount and Penzance, then The Lizard and Falmouth and finally, gratefully, on to Torpoint where we were to find our new home ...
The Restoration Years
In The Beginning ...
More to follow very soon ...