Meryl Grandy

10 February 2013

 We’ve just had our first overnight guests on Alcheringa.  Aussie friends Gary and Tanya were holidaying in Europe and dropped in to see us in Gibraltar for a couple of days. It gave us our first opportunity to make use of one of the cleverest features of our Jeanneau 43DS. Thanks to some ingenious design work by Jeanneau, it took all of ten minutes for Rob and Marc to split our huge stateroom into two conventional aft cabins so we could accommodate our guests.
 



Don't you love guests who arrive with essential provisions. Gary, Tanya, Karen and Rob with some bubbles for sundowners

Stored in a dedicated space beneath the bunk we have five timber panels that slide easily into a track on the bunk base and cabin ceiling interlocking to form an instant wall to divide the room. Two triangular in fills then convert our semi walk around queen size bunk into two doubles.  Voila! Instant guest cabin.
 



Our fantastic, very large stateroom on Alcheringa

In just ten minutes the stateroom can be split into two, good size double cabins. You can see the timber panels in place on the left.

When choosing a boat, we always had in mind that although there would just be the three of us on board for the vast majority of the time, we definitely wanted the space to comfortably have friends and family join us at various times. The flexibility that Jeanneau’s 43DS provides was one of a number of features that strongly attracted us to this make and model of yacht. Now we’ve actually used it, we’re even more convinced of its value. Alcheringawas one of the last of its design constructed and we struggle to understand why Jeanneau didn’t continue this innovative idea in their later deck salon models.



Sundowners in the cockpit. We're not sure whether we need to get smaller strawberries for the champagneor larger glasses.

 

It was great to have Gary and Tanya with us for their brief visit. Fortunately Gibraltar turned on more fantastic winter weather with clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine and we were able to enjoy sundowners in the cockpit on the afternoon they arrived at least giving them a little taste of how cruisers entertain.

The following day our good friend Jeanna from the yacht Deca Dance joined the party and the six of us headed around to Stefano’s, our favourite cafe at Catalan Bay, for a wonderful afternoon of brilliant tapas, nice drinks, great conversation and lots of laughs. We were all having such a good time it was almost 9.00pm before we knew it prompting a dash up to the main road to catch the last bus back to town. We did get to the stop in time but for some reason the bus sailed on by without slowing down. We didn’t think we looked that unruly. Fortunately a taxi appeared a few minutes later saving us from a long walk home in the dark.
 



Afternoon soon became evening at Catalan Bay's Stefano's and the laughs kept coming.

Next morning we bid farewell to our friends as they headed to the airport for a flight to London and then converted the stern back to the huge stateroom we love in just minutes. Even if our boat had just been sitting in the marina, Gary and Tanya’s visit whetted our appetite for the approaching summer when we have a few more friends and family joining us at different stages during our travels. It’s great to know we will be able to accommodate them in comfort without compromising our own. Thank you Jeanneau.