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The sun sets over Maryport Marina. |
We now have our Yachtmaster Offshore certificates and are booked
for the VHF radio course early next month.
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Our Yachtmaster Offshore certificates |
The Yachtmaster theory course was pretty full on, but at least doing it that
way has enabled us to finish it before we are ready to go to sea, in the spring/summer, which was all
part of the plan when we decided to move onto a boat at the start of the
winter.
Definitely not part of the plan was being without heating
for a month during the coldest part of the year.
Our heater, which kept us so warm during our first two
months on board, packed up on January 5.
Initially, we hoped the existing Eberspacher 7 heater could
be fixed, but we were told it was beyond repair as the parts were no longer
available so we ordered a new Webasto 5 heater on January 11.
We were told the heater had to be ordered from Germany and
would take about a week to arrive in the UK. However, a series of delays,
including the courier losing the first one that was sent, mean we are still
without heat more than a month later.
But we received a call today to say it is now in Carlisle
and is due to be fitted tomorrow so hopefully this time tomorrow evening, we
will be sitting in a nice warm boat.
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Phil checks our electricity consumption |
We’ve been very fortunate that the weather has been
relatively mild for the time of year, but we have still spent a lot of extra
money on electricity and gas in attempt to stop the temperature on board from
dropping too low.
Most of the time we have succeeded in this, but we did get
up one morning to find the temperature in the main saloon was just 7C.
Now our coursework is over we still have various projects to
carry out on the boat, but we are also hoping to find time for more leisure
pursuits, such as walking, cycling, fishing and exploring the Lake District.
So far the nearest we have come to fishing is watching other
people fish off the pier at Maryport during a Sunday morning walk on the beach.
For once, I took my proper camera with me, rather than
taking snaps on my phone, which is what I usually end up doing.
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Fishing on the pier at Maryport |
The weather wasn’t great for scenic photography, but it made
for some moody skies that looked pretty impressive over Iggesund Paperboard’s
Workington Mill and the wind turbines that surround it.
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Workington Mill from Maryport Pier |
We’ve managed to get a few jobs done on the boat in between our studies.
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Phil replaces the anchor light |
It was freezing cold and I was feeling really guilty as I
had suggested doing that particular task that day, unaware it would
take so long because he couldn’t see into the light fitting and had to use a mirror to
fit it and to do all the electrical connections.
I stayed on the aft deck to give him moral support, passing
him tools and even got him a cushion to reduce the pressure on
his chest while leaning against the radar arch, but there was little more I
could do.
The funniest part was when a friend later pointed out that
we could have dropped the radar arch to carry out the work so Phil’s balancing
act was totally unnecessary, which thankfully he found really funny.
We also replaced two more ropes with new ones so we now have
a full set of new navy mooring ropes.
And Phil ended up fishing for litter in the marina after
bits of plastic and other rubbish started blowing into the water from the building site above us,
where a new touring caravan park is under construction.
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Phil's fishing trip |
Not quite the type of fishing he had been hoping for, but I’m
sure we’ll make up for that very soon.
We had been planning to go tomorrow morning, but that will
not be happening now as the heater is supposed to be arriving first thing.
Maybe we will get to go fishing on Thursday or Friday...
