Lights and a tender - things are moving on...

Phil inflating our dinghy on Ravensdale's aft deck.

We’re still waiting for a date for our new heating system to be installed.

It’s now nearly three weeks since it broke down and it’s beginning to take its toll.

Phil, Dex and I are keeping warm enough, thanks to relatively mild weather, our gas cooker, small electric heaters and thermal underwear (the last bit applies to Phil and I – not Dex J)

However, Ravensdale is beginning to suffer as it’s getting more and more difficult to tackle the damp.

The gas stove doubles as our main heater

We know leaving the door of the gas stove open to heat the boat isn’t helping the condensation problem, but it makes a big difference to the temperature on board.

We’re still using our dehumidifiers, which are helping a lot, but we’re finding damp in places where there was previously no problem, but I’m sure it will all sort itself out once the new Webasto heating system is installed.

Meanwhile, the marina quickly repaired the gate that controls the water level in the marina after the cable snapped so we didn’t have to put up with the stinking mud at low tide for too long.

Despite the heating problems, we remain upbeat.

We’re getting on well with our yachtmaster course with Keith Morgans at Whitehaven Marina.

We also met Paul Crooks, who sells LED lights for boats, while he was visiting a friend who is a berth holder at Maryport Marina.

Paul, of JMG LED Lighting, brought along a couple of boxes of bulbs and found suitable LED lights for all the fittings on Ravensdale, which was not easy as just about every light has a different fitting.

How many men does it take to change a lightbulb? Phil and Paul try out different wattage bulbs

This week, we also checked out the tender that was on board when we bought the boat to discover it was in good condition, which is great.

So that’s one less thing we need to buy before we can set off on our travels. But we still need to get an outboard motor for it or we will have to row ashore if we decide to tie up to a swinging mooring.

A bracing walk in the wind on Maryport Beach

And the highlight of the week for me was Phil actually managing to get a video of Dex singing along to the Coronation Street theme tune. I’ve been trying to capture him doing that for so long, but without success.

I love that video, it’s so funny! Just wish I could work out how to post it on here, but I can’t so anyone wanting to see it should be able to see it on YouTube here

I'm still enjoying taking Dex out for walks, whatever the weather, but he doesn't always enjoy walks with me if Phil isn't with us as I sometimes tie him up so I can take photos like the image below of Maryport.

One of the many photos I've taken of Maryport while out walking Dex

Still loving the place, but really looking forward to getting out to sea on Ravensdale.