Wanna go sailin' with us?
The section below is geared to family and friends who'd like to join us for some time. 

Anyone interested to sail with Lady Rover has a lot of questions before. That's quite normal and I will answer some of them below.
If you are in a hurry, you can contact us by email fran@ladyrover.com or try to call us. But, be aware we are sometimes out of a phone network.
Fran's mobile is on WhatsApp and Signal as well. 

But best you read the section below first. 

What's it all about living on Lady Rover?  
Lady Rover is not about sailing into an expensive marina with a glitzy show-off yacht. 
It's much more about sailing, hanging out the water, exploring islands, coastlines and foreign cultures, pitoresque towns or amazing beaches.  
Sea, sun & fun. 
We prefer a relaxed cruising mode and sail conservative.  The boat is overcanvassed when compared to the initial design and we reef early therefore. 
Bad weather is nicer at an anchorage or in a museum than offshore. 
Still, sometimes you have to face it. We try to avoid it if possible though, its not good for mind and machine.
Frequent onshore trips for hiking or sightseeing AND sailing is what this trip is about. 

Who can come? 
Currently we take relatives, friends and sympathetic adventurers. 
Sailing alone is not as much fun as with friends.


Ideal crew: 
If you want to join us, we prefer happy, friendly and harmonic people. 

Worst case is people screaming, shouting and lack of harmony on board. 
When Franziska is alone onboard she normally takes only female crew onboard, she has a boyfriend and likes to keep him. 
If in doubt, female visitors are preferred, sorry usually no solo males when Fran is single handing.

This is all about cruising & fun and not at all about about racing or showing off. 
Age is not really important, as long as you are agile and happy with the modest comfort on board you are welcome. 
A certain amount of fitness is necessary as you will be fully involved in all aspects of cruising. 
You will be equally involved when WE choose our next destination and onshore sightseeing trips. 

Shared costs: 
Lets face it, a boat costs a lot of money and I am not a rich yachty person. 
Still, I paid for the boat and all equipment onboard already.
To balance this, I think its a fair deal if you cater for some of the daily expenses when we are underway. 

This means:
    -Food provisioning and marina fees for the time of your stay. 
    -Still, we will try to avoid costly marinas and professional mooring buoys whenever we can.
    -Should we need to get out of our way to get you somewhere where we can only get by engine, you are expected to cover the extra costs.
      We are a sailboat primarily and will sail whenever we can.
    -If you are super happy at the end of your stay feel free to up the budget ;-)

The idea is that we basically share while travelling together, to offset some off the costs the boat & cruise stir up along the way.
If we have a bigger budget we can go further ;-)

I hope we have a chance to see as much on our trip as possible. Including trips onshore of course.

Joining the boat: 
Lady Rover is a moving target. Whoever sails with us has to make it to the boat alone. 
Take a plane, train or bus to the closest big city and then chase us up with local transport. 
Same on your trip home.  
We try to get you to your favorite drop-off point, but as a sailboat we have to play with the weather. The weather is the main schedule maker, if the skipper has doubts on it we stay put, no matter what the schedule of airplanes, buses or trains it. This means you might need to take a train or else to reach us when coming to our current location or/and do the same when going back home even if its inconvenient.
Take a sporty attitude towards this, taking local transport can be fun and interesting too!


Location - France, UK, Portugal, Spain, .....??? ;-) 
Currently we are in Nantes. 
Next stop Bay of Biskay aka Golfe de Gascogne and Spain or Portugal.


Onboard comfort? - Keep it simple. 
Lady Rover is simple and offers some comfort but she is not a huge boat. There is sleeping space for up to six people on board, but usually there will be 4 people at most onboard normally there is only one visitor at a time, 

This leaves more space for sleeping bags & clothes and makes it not to complicated to share one toilet and shower. 


Do you have a shower? 
Yes, hot and cold ;-) Still we try to preserve water to some degree as this makes us more independent from marinas. 

Can I bring a big suitcase? 
A backpack or carryall is much more practical. Suitcases are a little hard to store - unless you want to share your bunk with it. 


What to bring - From sunglasses to Wellington boots 
So, you like the thought on joining Lady Rover and myself for a few days? 
Great, I'd love to have you onboard.
Here some things you should bring along: 

   - Swimsuit 
    -Sports shoes which can get wet 
    -Towel
    -Windbreaker jacket
    -Light down jacket
    -Basecap
    -Sunglasses
    -Camera
    -Rubberboots (preferably with razor cut style sole)
    -Oilskins (if you have, I've got a spare set for those who don't)
    -Warm tracksuit to sleep in or for under the oilskins
    -Warm underwear
    -One set or two sets of spare clothes
   -Sleeping bag or bed sheet to use as sleeping bag inlet
    -Please call, to see if I need some small spares onboard which you could bring along. 

Make sure all fits in a soft bag. There is limited storage space onboard as this is a live aboard yacht.