Boat versus house – a Scottish holiday encourages us to make the comparison

Me at the helm of Ravensdale - you can't do this in a house 😊

A two-week shore-based holiday set me thinking about what I missed about life on board while away from our boat.

And, although I hate to admit it, I also realised that there are a few things I miss about living in a house now we live on our 43ft cruiser Ravensdale.

But I guess it’s good that it took time spent ashore to remind me of these things – I rarely, if ever, think about them when we’re at home on our Neptunus 133.

Meanwhile, we're really enjoying our holiday in the Scottish Highlands, even if it has rained most of the time w've been here, while most of the rest of the UK (including our home port of Maryport in Cumbria) enjoyed a mini heatwave for the first week we were away. Typical! 😊

Things that are better on a boat

Ravensdale in Maryport Marina, Cumbria, UK at sunrise

1.    The freedom to move our home anywhere we want without the cost and hassle of buying and selling a house. Having said that, we’re well aware that having to feed Ravensdale’s two hungry 300hp Volvo Penta engines means that the cost of diesel will limit how far we can go.

2.    We can take our home out for a spin 😊 If we fancy a change of scenery, we can go for a little cruise or take her out to sea, drop anchor and do a spot of fishing or just enjoy being out on the water.

Ravensdale in the Solway Firth

3.    If we didn’t like our neighbours, we could move - even if that only meant moving to another mooring in the same marina. However, we get on very well with the only person living on a boat near us, so that isn’t an issue at the moment.

4.    The rocking motion of living on water can be very comforting, especially when laying in bed at night. Of course, there are times during high winds and big swells when the rocking couldn’t really be described as comforting, but that just makes life more interesting 😊

5.    The feeling that we’re closer to nature. There’s always some sort of marine life or other wildlife to watch, whether in the marina or out at sea.

A barrel jellyfish that visited the marina last year

6.    The social aspect of life in a marina. If we want to keep ourselves to ourselves, we can do that, but there are also lots of people around to chat to and share a coffee with if we’re in a more sociable mood.

7.    And lastly, a big gain for me has been that the move from a house to a boat has enabled me to retire early, which has made a massive improvement to my life. I am no longer stressed out and my back, which had given me trouble for years, is so much better now I am up and moving around more than when I was sat in an office most of the time. I would say I feel like a new woman, however, every time I say that my husband says he feels the same but sadly he’s stuck with me 😊

Things that are better in a house/cottage/flat

1.    Being able to open the windows and let in some fresh air even when it’s raining. On the boat, the water comes straight in if we dare to open the windows in the rain.Worse still is when we open the windows in fine weather and forget to close them before it rains.

Thankfully we have an island bed on Ravensdale but there's very little room on either side

2.    Space – lots of space. We’ve only been living on a boat for 18 months and already we’ve got used to small space living, even if our Neptunus 133 is larger than the boats that some people live in. Both the holiday cottages we’ve stayed in during this break have been modest two-bedroom properties, but it is so weird having so much room to move around in, particularly while dressing and undressing.

3.    A comfy sofa. If there’s one thing I would love to change about our boat, it’s the seating. I’ve sort of got used to sitting up straight while relaxing and watching TV, but it has been really nice to be able to stretch out on a comfortable sofa, even if it does mean that I fall asleep and miss the end of the film I'm trying to watch 😊

The seating in Ravensdale's saloon

4.    A bathroom that we can use at any time. I’d forgotten what it was like to be able to go to the loo without having to either walk up to the marina facilities, which is a more than 300-step round trip, or use the onboard facilities, which will mean a pump-out will be required sooner. Being able to shower when I get up, without having to dress to walk up to the marina facilities has also been really nice. Yes, we do have a shower on the boat, but we try not to use it except in warm weather, so we don’t make the boat damp.

It’s very comforting to see that, having typed these lists, it seems I think there are almost twice as many good things about living on a boat than there are for living in a shore-based home 😊

Boat jobs

Our lovely welcoming home - hopefully with no nasty surprises

Unsurprisingly, no boat jobs have been undertaken this week – mainly because we haven’t seen our boat, let alone set foot on her for almost a fortnight.

Much as we're enjoying our holiday, we’re looking forward to being back on board on Saturday and sincerely hoping Ravensdale hasn’t have come up with any new jobs for us while we’ve been away 😊

Back in the Scottish Highlands

Before we sold our house, bought a boat and moved onboard in November 2016, we lived in the Highlands for 16 years.

We’re both very happy on our boat, which is currently moored in Maryport Marina, but we miss the wildness of the Scottish landscape and easy access to the mountains.

We’re well aware that, while in Maryport, we have mountains fairly close by in the Lake District, but they seem to be much busier than the hills in the Highlands, particularly when we stay off the popular routes and tracks. And it’s the solitude of the mountains that we enjoy (if it’s even possible for two people to enjoy solitude together 😊).

We’d been missing Scotland over recent months, so we decided to book a cottage at Duror in Argyll for a week. We did so at very short notice and got a really good deal.

Our holiday cottage in Duror, Argyll, Scotland 

It was in a fantastic location, on the shores of Loch Linnhe, which is a large sea loch.

The view across Loch Linnhe from the beach in front of the cottage

The sun was shining when we got there on Saturday, April 14, and we saw an otter swimming in the loch within minutes of our arrival.

An otter on the shore near the cottage

The following day we went for a walk along the beach, taking photos across the loch to the mountains of Ardgour on the far side, then met up with friends in Fort William for lunch followed by a bit of shopping for supplies for our week in self-catering accommodation.

Phil set up his fishing rod on the beach outside the cottage in the evening, despite the fact it had started raining, and we were delighted to discover that he could sit inside the cottage to watch it rather than having to stay out on the beach and get wet.

He also tried fishing around the time of the high tide on two further evenings that week during which time he tried a variety of different types of bait, but never even got a bite so decided he was wasting his time.

Phil fishing in the rain on the beach outside the cottage

The best weather we had that week was on the day we arrived and the day we left, which were both beautiful sunny days, but we still really enjoyed our stay and managed to get a few good walks out in the hills.

These included a 10.2-mile walk during which we reached the peak of an unnamed 2,555ft mountain near the cottage in Argyll, so not too shabby for our first trek out into the hills for many months 😊

The forestry track leading to the hill we climbed in Argyll

We set off from the car and walked out along a good forestry track in reasonable weather, then headed up the hill when we reached the end of the track. 

Me on the way up the Argyll mountain

The views opened up as we climbed higher. 

It was a long time since we’d done anything like it and we were delighted to discover we must still be fitter than we thought as we were nearing the top before we started to feel it in our legs.

On the way up before the rain arrived

We got to the highest point and took photos before finding somewhere out of the wind to sit down to eat our lunch and have a cup of tea.

Phil taking photos on the top of the unnamed Argyll mountain

As we were eating and drinking, we could see the rain coming in across the hills, so we rapidly put everything away and put on our waterproof jackets just as the rain reached us, only it wasn’t rain, it was hailstones – quite large and very heavy hailstones.

The hail storm heading towards us

On the way back down the hill, we had rain, sun, more hail, more rain and thunder and lightning and we got back to the car very wet and very tired, but very happy with our achievement.

We woke up the following morning aching all over, proving that we really need to be getting out doing more serious walks more often.

It took a couple of days for our legs to recover enough to face another good walk, so we spent one of our recovery days visiting Tarbert, a lovely little fishing town in Argyll with an excellent marina.

The weather was much better there than it was when we left the cottage in Duror.

The harbour area looked beautiful and the marina was very busy. 

Tarbert harbour in Argyll, Scotland

It was good to see boats coming and going all the time, compared to Maryport where there’s very little boat movement most of the time.

The fishing dock at Tarbert Harbour in Aryll

This is partly due to the fact that boats can get in and out of Tarbert 24/7, whereas in Maryport the marina gate is only open for two to two and a half hours either side of high tide. Tarbert is also a much busier marina with many more boats moored there.

Part of the busy marina at Tarbert

We were very lucky that the location of our holiday cottage, which was on a working farm, meant we were able to watch lots of wildlife from the comfort of the property when the weather was bad or from the beach when it stopped raining.

We saw otters, a seal, swans, cormorants and lots of other seabirds, bullfinches, goldfinches, chaffinches, siskins and rabbits.

Juvenile swans coming ashore on the beach by our cottage

A beautiful-looking horse called Spencer spent a lot of the time in the field next to the cottage, there were also cows, sheep and lambs, but my favourite animal on the farm was Pedro the llama, kept as a pet by the owners of the farm.

Me getting a kiss from Pedro the llama

Spencer the horse waiting at the gate by our cottage

The weather was a little better on Friday and our legs had recovered so we went for a longer walk along the shore during which we decided we’d like to stay another week, despite the forecast of another week of bad weather.

We went to see the owners of a cottage in which we’d previously stayed at Ballachulish in Lochaber and discovered it was free, so we arranged to go there the following morning.

Saturday was my birthday and we awoke to a lovely sunny day with a clear view of the mountains on the other side of the loch.

The Ardgour mountains across Loch Linnhe just before we left

We packed and cleared up at the cottage in Duror, stopping to photograph an otter that was playing along the shoreline.

As we left, we said goodbye to the owners and to Pedro the llama 😊 

I’m pretty sure we’ll be staying there again as it was a fantastic location and would have been totally amazing if we’d had better weather.

One of the beautiful sunsets we saw while staying in Duror

On the way to the next cottage, we rang our marina asking staff to top up the electricity metre to ensure our fridge, freezer and, more importantly, automatic bilge pump continue to receive power until we return.

We dumped our stuff at the Ballachulish cottage, changed into our walking gear and went for a 7.9-mile walk along part of the West Highland Way in Glen Coe, climbing to 990ft.

The 96-mile West Highland Way is acclaimed as the most walked long-distance trail in Scotland. It attracts about 85,000 people every year, of whom more than 30,000 walk the entire route.

The weather was fantastic all day, with temperatures up to 16.5C, and we had a brilliant walk, even if our legs were still feeling the effects of Tuesday’s trip up the unnamed Argyll mountain.

What a great way to spend my birthday! 😊

Setting off along the West Highland Way in the sunshine

Phil and I were enjoying our lunchbreak when another walker offered to take a photo of us

As usual, I took loads of photographs that kept me busy when the weather forecast proved to be accurate and it rained most of the time.

The West Highland Way between Glencoe and Bridge of Orchy

One of the amazing views from the West Highland Way

Another view from the West Highland Way

The wild beauty of Rannoch Moor

Sadly, the weather forecast was correct. It rained most of Saturday/Sunday night and was still pelting it down when we got up on Sunday, so we decided to make the 30-mile round trip to Fort William to shop for the coming week.

On Monday, we took another walk out along the West Highland Way. We went further this time and, when we got back, we checked the GPS to discover we'd walked more than 10 miles.

The photo opportunities were few and far between as the first couple of times I got my camera out, it got wet and I didn’t want to do that to it too often.

A view from the West Highland Way

The beautiful landscape of Rannoch Moor

One of the many streams that runs under the West Highland Way

Walkers sheltering from the rain behind Blackrock Cottage

Wet walkers on one of the few parts of the West Highland Way that follows the road 

As expected, we got very wet, but still enjoyed being out walking in the Highlands.

One of the chaffinches that shared our lunch

When we stopped on a bridge for lunch a pair of chaffinches came to see if we would share it with them. How could we refuse? They obviously know where the thousands of people who walk the popular route each year tend to stop for breaks 😊

Tuesday morning was wet, followed by a mix of sunshine and showers, but we didn’t want to do anything too strenuous as our legs were still recovering from the previous day’s walk.

We decided to take a drive up to Glen Coe, stopping and getting out at various locations to take photographs between the showers.

Buachaille Etive Mor in Glen Coe

The Three Sisters in Glen Coe

Stob a' Ghlais Choire and Buachaille Etive Mor in Glen Coe

We were planning to tackle another big hill on Wednesday morning, but we had more rain overnight and another wet start to the day, so put our plans on hold while waiting to see if the weather improved, which it didn’t.

Loch Leven at Ballachulish in Lochaber

The River Laroch at Ballachulish

Glencoe looking across Loch Leven from Ballachulish

More rain overnight on Wednesday into this morning (Thursday), which continued for the rest of today led us to decide to have another day off and save our legs for something more strenuous tomorrow (Friday) when better weather is forecast.

The cottage at Ballachulish in Lochaber, Scotland

Even when we've been unable to get out into the hills this week, it's been nice to be able to look at mountains out of the windows of our very comfortable holiday cottage.

The view from the cottage in Ballachulish

And spending more time indoors today (Thursday) enabled me to get most of my photos processed and to get on and write this 😊

Our boat bequest dilemma and the return of the missing brush

An early morning shot of Ravensdale at Maryport Marina, Cumbria, UK

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking this week – about where we want to be for the next few years and what happens to our boat when we die.

Phil and I are trying to sort out our wills and are struggling to work out how to deal with our 43ft seagoing cruiser Ravensdale.

We’ve also been missing the Scottish mountains, having lived in the Highlands for 16 years before selling our house and moving onto our boat 17 months ago.

We’ve been based at Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK, ever since, but we’re now looking at marinas in Scotland with a view to heading up that way.

We’re also considering a move to Wales, where we’d be closer to our families.

Meanwhile, we’ve been totally amazed by the reappearance of a deck brush that Phil lost overboard while cleaning Ravensdale in the marina last week.

Our will dilemma

The death of a fellow liveaboard has left us trying to decide what happens to our boat when we die.

For some time, Phil and I have been thinking that our wills needed revising as they were written 18 years ago.

There have been many changes in our lives since then, the biggest of which was probably selling our house and buying the boat that is now our home. If one of us went first, the boat would go to the other one. Our concern is what happens if we both go together. 

Our Neptunus 133 at Maryport Marina

We can’t help thinking that leaving someone a boat, or even a part share in a boat, is very different to leaving them a house.

For a start, selling a house is usually considerably easier than selling a boat.

Also, a boat costs a small fortune in mooring fees, insurance and maintenance that would have to be financed until she was sold, which could take months or even years.

I’ve heard it said that you only leave a boat to your worst enemy. Thankfully, we don’t have any of those (as far as we’re aware 😊) and we certainly wouldn’t want Ravensdale to become a millstone around the necks of any of our family.

I posted a question on a couple of Facebook liveaboard groups in the hope that someone had found a good solution to this problem and got a wide variety of answers.

As always, I was amazed at how helpful other folk are when we ask for help and advice and amused, but not in the least bit surprised, by the number of people who offered to solve our problem by taking Ravensdale off our hands when we go 😊

Some even offered to take ownership of her now, but I pointed out that we’re hoping to spend many more happy years living aboard before she needs to be rehomed. 

Phil and I enjoying some winter sunshine on Ravensdale's foredeck while at anchor

And a few people recommended a Viking funeral, which could be appropriate given my husband's Norwegian roots 😊

The sensible suggestions included asking our families whether they would want her, which we’d intended to do anyway, but we were trying to get a clearer picture of how it could work before asking them.

Others put forward the idea of leaving her to charity, which is a definite possibility if none of the family wants to take her on.

Another option was to set up some sort of trust fund to pay her expenses until she could be sold and the money raised could then be divided as stipulated in our wills.

We’ve now spoken to our relatives about this and are planning to take legal advice on the best way to ensure things go smoothly when we're gone.

Having written this, I’m feeling a little bit guilty talking about Ravensdale in this way. I sort of feel I should be covering her ears, so she doesn’t hear our discussions about her future 😊

The Swan Man

It was the death of Phil Lee, who became known locally as the Swan Man because he fed the pair of swans that were regular visitors to our marina, that set us thinking about our own wills.

The Swan Man with the swans at Maryport Marina

I attended his funeral last month and we offered to scatter his ashes at sea if that was what the family wanted.

We got to know his sister, who’s his only surviving relative, while she and her husband were here removing his belongings from his boat.

They’re not boating people and are having to deal with things like mooring fees, insurance and selling the boat, which is now on the market.

And they’ve left an urn containing his ashes with us to take out to sea next time we go.

Meanwhile, the swans have still not returned since he died and I volunteered to feed them, but I’m sure they’ll be back once the nesting season is over.

A cygnet hitching a ride on Mum's back

And, when they return, I’m hoping they’ll bring their cygnets with them as they did last year.

Marina thoughts – do we stay, or do we go?

Every time I see photos of the Scottish mountains, I have a hankering to return.

Phil and I at the summit of 3,274ft Ben More Assynt in April 2007

This week, I asked Phil if he felt the same way and he said he did.

We first moved to Scotland in 2000 because we loved the mountains and the stunning landscapes. And we spent a lot our free time while living there out in the hills.

During that time, we lived in Sutherland, Easter Ross and latterly near Fort William in Lochaber, where I never got tired of seeing Ben Nevis on my way to work every day.

This conversation set us thinking about whether we should consider moving our boat up to Scotland, so we’ve been researching suitable marinas that would give us easy access to the hills, including the possibility of Tarbert in Argyll, where we have friends with boats.

Tarbert Marina on the west coast of Scotland

We’re also looking at marinas in Wales – north Wales would mean we’d still be close to mountains, but west or south Wales would mean we’d be closer to my children and grandchildren and Phil’s brother.

Or we might just stay put as we like it here too.

Decisions! decisions!

But at least living on a boat, we can move our home anywhere we want without having to go through the palaver of selling one house and buying another 😊

Creatures of habit

Is it only me or do other people who regularly use the toilet and shower facilities at their marina tend to use the same one and consider it “their toilet” or "their shower"?

I know it’s unreasonable to even think this way.

The toilet and shower block at Maryport Marina

However, if I walk into the toilet and shower block and somebody is in the shower I use, even if I’m not planning to have a shower at that time, I can’t help thinking: “There’s somebody in my shower!”

And it’s happening more often since the marina caravan site reopened at Easter.

Actually, I know it isn’t only me as I was speaking to a liveaboard from another marina recently who told me she’s exactly the same, which was a huge relief as I thought I was the only one 😊

Return of the missing brush

After two tides had come in and gone out again, the deck brush that fell overboard while Phil was cleaning Ravensdale Friday lunchtime, turned up at the far end of the marina on Saturday morning.

Phil washing Ravensdale with the brush that went missing

That would have been amazing enough, but even more so was its location and the way in which it had come to rest.

It was upright, leaning against the wall at the bottom of a flight of stone steps down into the water next to an old trawler, called the Sara Maria, which is more than 100 yards from our boat and right next to the marina gate.

View from Ravensdale's aft deck showing the Sara Maria at the far end of the marina

We can only think that the wooden handle was lighter than the head causing it to float in an upright position and it came to rest on a ledge at the bottom of the steps, where the head was tangled up in the seaweed.

Phil retrieving the brush from the other end of the marina

As the handle had been out of the water for some time, it had almost dried out. Phil rinsed out the head in the marina water and it’s as good as new – well, not quite as it wasn’t that good when he lost it, but it’s no worse than it was.

And, as it was his favourite soft deck brush, which holds water, we were very happy to get it back.

We just couldn’t believe how and where it was when we found it.

How lucky was that? 😊

Pelican of London

I’ve been wanting to take a trip to Whitehaven Marina, which is about 15 miles from Maryport, ever since a tall ship, called Pelican of London, arrived there Easter weekend.

However, since then, most of the time the weather wasn’t good for photographs and, when it was, we were busy doing other things.

The light still wasn’t great on Monday, but we decided to go anyway as we also needed some cleaning materials from the chandlery at the marina as we don't have one here.

Pelican of London at Whitehaven Marina in Cumbria

The 34.6m long, 21.2m high square rigger is a sail training ship based in Weymouth, Dorset, in the UK.

Built in 1948 as Pelican, she served as an Arctic trawler and then a coastal trading vessel named Kadett until 1995.

She is now used as a sail training ship. She has seven crew members and can take up to 32 trainees - Pelican of London

Other photographic opportunities

I haven’t been out for as many walks with my camera, as usual, this week but, when I did, I more than made up for it with the number of photos I took – more deleting required 😊

There was a lovely golden light during the evening on Sunday and some great reflections on the water in Maryport harbour around the time of the high tide.

A calm evening at Maryport harbour

Rippled reflections of some of the fishing boats in Maryport harbour

More colourful fishing boats in Maryport harbour

A fishing boat leaving Maryport harbour

I also used the trip to Whitehaven as an opportunity to take photos of the marina, as well as Pelican of London. The light wasn’t great, but there was no way I could resist taking a few (OK, more than a few 😊) snaps while there.

Whitehaven Marina in the sunshine

Another view of Whitehaven Marina

The sea lock at Whitehaven Marina

A wider view of Whitehaven Marina

Marina wildlife

Although we haven’t seen the swans in the marina for about a month, a pair of mallards turn up from time to time looking for food and I feed them if they come near our boat.

Meanwhile, I’ve spent ages sitting on Ravensdale’s foredeck with my camera trying to get photos of the pigeons coming and going from the drainage hole in the harbour wall near our boat.

One of the pigeons sitting in the drainage hole

They've been nesting in there even though water pours through it from the road above whenever it rains and, up until now, it seemed to be working out fine for them.

Sadly, last night, after very heavy rain, the nest was washed down into the entrance of the hole. We have no idea whether there are eggs or babies in it, but there was nothing we could do to help.

Sadder still, it seems that they're planning to rebuild in the same place as we've seen them carrying nesting material into the hole this morning (Friday).

The pigeons' nest washed out of the drainage pipe

We’re also still keeping an eye out for the pair of otters that we saw playing in the water in the marina recently, especially in the evening, but we haven’t seen them again since.

Unseasonal weather

The weather here in Maryport hasn’t been very spring-like this week.

Even when the sun has come out, there has still been a cool wind, and there hasn’t been a particularly good sunset all week or, if there has, I’ve missed it, which is probably nearer the truth given my track record 😊

I took a couple of photos of a so, so sunset on Friday, but that was as good as it got.

Sunset over Maryport Marina and caravan site

View from Ravensdale's aft deck at sunset on Friday evening

Saturday promised to be the best day of the week, which was good as we had friends coming to visit from Scotland. It started calm, dry and reasonably sunny, but started raining late morning.

Sunday morning was sunny first thing, then the mist rolled in from the sea. It lifted late morning and the sun came out again. The daytime temperature peaked at 8.6C (47F), with a light southerly wind during the day, however, it moved around to northerly by 8pm.

It was fairly cool overnight Sunday/Monday with a low of 2.8C (37F).

On Monday, we had sun, then mist, then sun again, with very little wind, and the highest temperature recorded locally during the day was 10.4C (51F).

Monday morning mist at Maryport Marina

Monday night into Tuesday was one of the warmest nights yet, with temperatures ranging from 7C to 10C (44-50F).

Tuesday started calm, but the wind picked up during the day. We had north and east-northeasterly winds averaging up to 31mph and gusting up to 41mph. It rained most of the day with temperatures from about 6C to 8C (43-46F).

The temperature didn’t drop much overnight with a low of 5.1C (41F) recorded locally.

Wednesday was overcast and not particularly pleasant despite being the warmest day of the week, with the temperature hitting 12.3C (54F) at 5pm. It felt a lot colder in the north and northeasterly winds with a top average speed of 22mph, gusting 34mph.

Overnight Wednesday into yesterday (Thursday) was another mild night. Northeasterly winds up to 18mph were recorded during the night, which is not particularly high, but the boat was still rocking well due to the wind direction. The water was also making a lot of noise slapping again Ravensdale’s hull – lapping is good, slapping is not so good 😊

Phil wrapped up against the wind while filling Ravensdale's freshwater tank yesterday

Yesterday was another mainly overcast and windy day, although the sun did attempt to come out a few times. with temperatures up to 10.9C (51F) but still feeling cool in the north and northeasterly wind. Last night was mild again and today (Friday) we woke up to rain, which stopped mid-morning.