Welcome to our brand new site all about the adventures we'll hopefully be having in our new boat Riona Dawn (formerly windbird I renamed her after my wife and daughter and the name in Gaelic means the Royal Dawn, which is quite fitting as she marks the dawn of a new era in our lives).

Almost ready

Some may have joined us here after following our previous adventures in our original boat Lady Emily ( LadyEmily.co.uk )  and we welcome you and all our new visitors to continue with us on our various journeys expeditions and fun.

Lady Emily is now in the new ownership of a lovely couple and their young son and we hope some of you may also keep viewing their own blog as they continue where we left off at the above address.

So here we stand on the Royal Dawn of our new venture, a venture made possible by sincere good friends without who'm this dream could never have happened at all.. Thank you Thank you Thank You (You know who you are :))

Riona Dawn is our 23ft Westerly pageant Sloop yacht and since I started sailing and realising the struggle I had so many times trying to stay below on lady Emily with this debilitating Disease.
At the end of the season last year when we spent a beautiful weekend on the river Ruan at Truro anchored alongside our Good friend in his Catalac 8m Catamaran and Leanne having recently come out of hospital after giving birth to our beautiful little baby daughter Jasmyn Riona was invited to spend the night in more comfortable surroundings on his boat and eventually I succumbed to join her and we locked up Lady Emily for the night and retired aboard Swallowtail.
It was the most comfortable and pleasant evening we'd ever had on the river and at 5am the next morning I was drifting in my Dinghy on a sun drenched dawn through the ground mist hanging over the river in total awe and ecstasy.. sadly those photographs were lost in a hard drive crash, but believe me it was the most beautiful morning I have ever seen in my life this far.
On this morning drift I realised this was how it should be for us.. to be able to stay in comfort like we had at any time we wanted on the river was perfect.. and with a touch of sadness I decided to put Lady Emily on the market and look for something with more headroom and a larger cabin space for us. At that point a westerly pageant (though perfect) was only a dream and way out of anything we could afford.
That is until we came across two wonderful people Chris and Fiona at Islington Wharf Boatyard who were the owners of one which was standing slowly deteriorating.. with long deliberation Negotiation and encouragement from our very good friends and with the generous offer made by Chris we were able to realise a dream and spend the winter restoring and renovating Windbird which became Riona Dawn.
The icing on that cake was finding an interested young couple who so reminded me of us when we bought Lady Emily to take over her ownership, and I wouldn't wish her to be going to anyone else.

So with lady Emily gone to her new  home and the spring fast approaching we arte cleaning and polishing and in the final stages of preparation for what we hope will be the best summer of our lives to spend on the river with Our beautiful little girl and good good friends.
Come with us on this journey and enjoy with us through my words and Photographs and I promise you an epic trip (But Gentle Leanne reminds me)  :)