First sunset at sea, first time docking unaided and a scary nocturnal visitor

Ravensdale returning to Maryport Marina at sunset by Jan Fialkowski

I have to admit I totally love our liveaboard lifestyle, especially when the weather’s as amazing as it’s been this week.

Phil waiting for a fish to bite

I still have to pinch myself to make sure I really am awake while sitting on Ravensdale’s deck in the sunshine when we’re out on the water.

And Tuesday’s fishing trip was no exception.

It was the first time we’d stayed out for almost 13 hours and I caught my first baby shark.

We experienced our first sunset at sea and it was our first attempt at mooring Ravensdale totally without assistance.

An incident that occurred in the marina at around 10.30pm on Saturday evening was equally memorable, but not in a good way.

We had the shock of our lives when we heard someone banging on the side of Ravensdale’s hull and looked out to see a man in the water.

Meanwhile, I was delighted to see the swans return to the Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK, yesterday (Thursday) with their cygnets.

13 hours of pure heaven

We’ve been out on three fishing trips this week on Sunday, Tuesday and yesterday (Thursday).

But the highlight of the week was Tuesday’s outing when we were out on the Solway Firth for almost 13 hours in glorious sunshine.

The weather forecast for Tuesday was hot, sunny and calm so it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Phil driving Ravensdale to our fishing spot

We took Ravensdale out onto the Solway Firth at 9.15am planning to return on the same tide, which meant being back in Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK, before the gate was due to close at 1.50pm.

However, we were enjoying ourselves so much that we decided to stay out on the Solway Firth until the gate opened for the next tide, which was going to be close to sunset.

Initially, Phil was doing the fishing and I was doing my usual thing, which involved wielding the landing net to bring his catches aboard then photographing them before they were returned to the sea.

This time, Phil persuaded me to have a go at fishing myself and I was delighted to land two medium-sized smooth-hounds and a small tope.

The biggest smooth-hound I caught on this trip

Me with the first fish I caught from Ravensdale - a small tope

I also hooked what felt like a larger smooth-hound that got away and lots of dogfish that I wished had got away.

Phil spent a lot of time trying to teach me to cast properly. I never really got the hang of it, but still managed to get my bait out there somehow. I guess practice makes perfect 😊

Phil caught a good-sized smooth-hound and five medium-sized smooth-hounds.

Phil with one of the smooth-hounds he caught

He was also plagued by dogfish until we swapped our bait from shrimps or squid to hard-backed crabs, which are only supposed to attract smooth-hounds.

We saw lots of jellyfish passing the boat as the tide went in, then out, then in again.

I saw a large barrel jellyfish – Rhizostoma stoma - while fishing and would definitely have attempted to take a photo of it if I hadn’t been reeling in a fish at the time.

I managed to get a few shots of some of the other jellyfish that passed, the most prolific being moon jellyfish – Aurelia aurita.

A lion's mane jellyfish that swam past Ravensdale while we were fishing

I also saw a good number of the appropriately named lion’s mane jellyfish – Cyanea capillata. Apparently, they’re the most venomous species in UK waters and are larger than usual this year, so I am very glad I wasn’t in the water with them.

When we decided not to return on the same tide, we called the marina on the VHF radio to let the staff know.

Soon afterwards, a fisherman in one of the smaller fishing boats in the marina turned up near Ravensdale and called out to ask if we’d like the rest of his bait as he had to go back.

Bait delivery - a local fisherman gives us his leftover bait before heading home

We accepted his generous offer, so he pulled up alongside us and put a bucket containing bait into our landing net for which we were very grateful.

I liked the idea of getting a bait delivery while out on the water and it was exciting checking the contents of the bucket to find out what Santa had brought us 😊

As we were staying out all day, we put the generator on from time to time to keep the freezer cold and I took advantage of the electricity to make us a cappuccino with the coffee maker.

We also put it on to cook our evening meal and, just out of interest, we switched the TV on and found reception was every bit as good as in the marina.

One funny moment during this trip was when I became convinced my mobile phone had died as the screen was totally black.

I tried turning it off and on again but could get nothing on the screen at all.

It wasn’t until I tried it again inside the boat, when I had taken off my polaroid sunglasses that I realised that it was fine. I just couldn’t see it with my sunglasses on. I felt a bit of prat 😊

The marina gate was due to open around 9.10pm, but we were in no rush to get back, so we waited long enough to be travelling home at sunset as I wanted to get some photos.

We'd almost reached the two piers at the entrance to Maryport basin before sunset, so Phil throttled back and let Ravensdale drift for a while to give me a chance to get the photos I wanted.

Ravensdale heading home to Maryport at sunset

The sun setting over Scotland as we travelled back to the marina

It was so beautiful being out there on the calm water watching the sun set over Scotland and the clouds over Maryport being lit up by the setting sun.

We knew there would be no one to catch our ropes when we returned to the marina, so I made sure I had the docking sticks ready to moor up without assistance.

While I was sitting on the foredeck fixing the first docking stick on the boat hook, I was delighted to see photographer friend Jan Fialkowski taking photos of Ravensdale coming into the basin and then the marina.

He got some lovely shots with the sunset in the background.

I later discovered that a couple of other local people had taken photos of Ravensdale coming home that they posted on Facebook.

Ravensdale in Maryport Basin at sunset by Ronnie Bell

Sunset was 9.55pm and we were back in the marina at 10.10pm.

Entering the gateway to Maryport Marina

Phil drove in very slowly and carefully and I had no trouble at all hooking the ropes over the cleats on the pontoon using the docking sticks.

And there was a real sense of achievement knowing that we'd brought her in totally unaided.

Me standing on Ravensdale's foredeck with the docking stick ready to moor her up. Photo by Jan Fialkowski

When I used the docking sticks on previous occasions, people had turned up to catch our ropes, but I asked them to let me try using it on the bow rope before throwing someone the stern rope.

They really are a fantastic and very necessary piece of kit as Ravensdale is too high for me to jump off onto the pontoon with a rope.

Early morning fishing trip

Last Sunday, the wind dropped sufficiently for us to head out fishing on Ravensdale.

But the forecast wasn’t good enough for us to consider a full day at sea as the wind was due to increase during the afternoon.

Going out for a single tide meant an early start so I packed away everything we didn’t need overnight for a quick getaway in the morning.

We were ready to go when the marina gate opened at around 7.30am and set off out onto the Solway Firth on a beautiful sunny morning.

Ravensdale heading out of the marina early on Sunday morning

It was flat calm when we left the marina and when we anchored up at our usual fishing ground, but the wind increased a bit while we were out there.

Average wind speeds recorded locally were 2-5mph while we were out on the water, but it seemed higher than that where we were.

The fishing was pretty good in that Phil was getting lots of bites.

He caught three medium-sized smoothies, three small smoothies, a small tope, a tiny whiting and lots of dogfish.

Phil with one of his smooth-hounds

But he still hasn’t managed to hook the giant smoothie that got away.

The shrimps we had collected in the marina proved to be the best bait again.

This time, we were out for four hours 25 minutes.

It was the longest we’ve managed so far on a single tide, but we only just got back to the marina in time.

When Phil called the marina on the VHF radio to get clearance to enter the marina, he was told he’d have to hurry as they were about to close the gate.

Thankfully, we made it in time, although it wouldn’t really have mattered if not as we could have stayed out until the gate opened for the next tide.

The entrance to Maryport Basin

The forecast was for higher wind speeds than we would’ve chosen, but not high enough to have been a problem.

An unsuccessful mackerel hunt

We really hadn’t intended to go fishing again yesterday (Thursday) but the weather was fabulous, so we made a spur of the moment decision to go.

We now know we can get sorted to leave our mooring in next to no time.

And, this time, I packed all the stuff we can do without in a crate that can be left stowed away while the good weather continues so we are always ready for a quick getaway.

Another reason we decided to go fishing yesterday was because one of the fishermen here came back with mackerel the previous day, so we wanted to see if we could find them.

He told us where he’d been fishing when he caught them. It was a bit further from Maryport than we usually go and further out from the shore.

I took the opportunity to drive us a good bit of the way out, trying to follow the route Phil had plotted for us before we left and I’m getting better at following a route now.

Phil fishing for mackerel

We were having no luck at all on the mackerel front, so we put out our usual rods as well in the hope of hooking a smooth-hound or a tope, but all we got were dogfish.

The fisherman who had recommended the location and another local fisherman were also out there yesterday. One of them caught mackerel and the other hooked some herring.

The fishermen checking out each other's catches

Although we didn’t catch a single mackerel, it was still a very enjoyable outing and we will definitely be going out to try for mackerel again asap now we know they’ve arrived here.

And I was pleased to get a photo, albeit a poor quality one, of a barrel jellyfish that swam passed our boat.

A barrel jellyfish in the Solway Firth

We were out for three hours 40 minutes and moored up without assistance again by using our docking sticks.

Unwanted nocturnal visitor

Discovering there is someone in the water by your boat late at night is not a nice experience.

We were shocked to hear someone knocking on Ravensdale’s hull while we were watching TV at about 10.30pm on Saturday evening.

Ravensdale in Maryport Marina

We jumped up to see what was happening and saw a man in the water near our pontoon.

When you're in a marina with a gate operated by security fobs, you naturally assume someone in the water is in trouble, so Phil rushed out to help him, thinking he’d fallen in.

But it turned out to be a member of the public, who’d climbed down one of the escape ladders into the marina and swum across to our boat.

The escape ladder on the harbour wall that the man climbed down

For some unknown reason, he hammered on the side of Ravensdale’s hull, then swam around into the next mooring space, which was empty because our neighbour was away on a sailing trip.

The fenders the man used to climb out of the water

Phil called out to him, asking if he was OK.

He said he was fine and clambered out using the fenders attached to the pontoon.

He then cheekily asked Phil if he was alright before diving back into the water and swimming back across to the escape ladder while cheered on by a group of young people on the pavement above the marina.

We called the marina staff member who was on duty on the VHF radio and informed him of what had happened.

He said he would check the CCTV before coming down onto the pontoons and that was the last we heard of it that night.

The next day, we discovered the staff member had called the police when he saw the man strip off naked in front of the crowd on the roadway above us. The police arrived about 40 minutes later by which time the swimmer and his entourage were long gone.

I must confess it was more than a little worrying. I guess I knew it was possible but never though it would happen and really hope it doesn't happen again.

Fixing our fishfinder

The fishfinder we were given that Phil fitted last month had not been working properly so he set about sorting it this week.

It was trying to tell us there was 222 metres of water beneath Ravensdale in the marina, so we knew it was way off.

Also, the picture on the screen showing the profile of the sea bed was practically non-existent.

Phil had fixed the transducer to the inside of the hull with sealant, so he cut it off and did an experiment with a bag full of water and was able to get an accurate reading.

Testing the transducer on a plastic bag full of water

We knew it was right because it corresponded with our existing depth sounder.

He then set about finding a way to mount the transducer at the correct angel in oil, which enables a through hull transducer to work inside the hull.

We bought a plastic box with a lid. He then cut the bottom on an angle, so the top was level when he sealed it into the bilges.

The fishfinder transducer in the plastic container filled with vegetable oil

The transducer was mounted on pillars of sealant to make sure it was level and the box was filled with vegetable oil.

The fishfinder when it was working

It worked great. The depth sounder reading was accurate and there was a clear picture of the surface of the bottom of the marina beneath Ravensdale’s hull.

We were so pleased that we would be able to use it on Sunday’s fishing trip.

However, he switched the fishfinder on before we left the marina on Sunday morning, he discovered it was no longer working. It had reverted to giving us a depth of more than 200m.

On investigation, he found that the seal around the plastic box had been leaking and all the oil had drained out into the bilges because the silicone sealant wouldn't adhere to HDPE (high-density polyetylene plastic.

He is now working on another solution.

Catching shrimps and crabs

Phil catching shrimps

Shrimps have been our most successful bait on fishing trips, so we’ve been catching them in the marina with a child’s fishing net and storing them in our live bait bucket.

We decided on Saturday to go out fishing early on Sunday, so we went shrimping on Saturday afternoon.

There didn’t seem to be many shrimps around and we wondered whether it was due to the weather being cooler and quite windy while we were shrimping.

However, we still managed to catch a couple of dozen to use as bait on Sunday.

We went out shrimping twice on Monday and gathered a good bucketful for our next fishing trip the following day.

I really enjoy our shrimp hunts as they remind me of rock pooling as a child, especially when the sea gulls are squawking and wailing overhead 😊

Me with our haul of shrimps

And we’ve been collecting plenty of crabs in our prawn pot to use as bait for smooth-hounds.

We also found a dogfish in the pot on Monday.

The dogfish that was trapped in our prawn pot

Swans, grey mullet and sea-gooseberries

I was so pleased to see the swans and their young swim into the marina soon after we returned from our fishing trip yesterday (Thursday).

The only trouble was that I was at the opposite end of the marina to Ravensdale at the time and my camera was on board, so I walked back and got it and some floating duck and swan food as fast as I could.

Thankfully, the swans were still there when I returned and I was able to take lots of photos of them.

Swans with their cygnets in Maryport Marina

They later turned up at our end of the marina, so I coaxed them back to Ravensdale with food in the hope that they would come here next time they decide to visit the marina.

The cygnets eating the food I gave them

The swans feeding near Ravensdale

While collecting shrimps, Phil also netted some strange, almost transparent, spherical creatures.

I’d never seen them before but thought they could be the sea gooseberries one of the other berth holders here had previously mentioned to us.

I wouldn’t let Phil throw them back until I’d got a photo of them, so I put them in a glass of marina water.

I then attempted to get a decent shot of them, which wasn’t easy given that they were see-through creatures in see-through water in a see-through glass 😊

I wasn’t particularly happy with the results, but it did enable me to look them up online.

As I suspected, they were sea-gooseberries, aka comb-jellies. The real name of these marine invertebrates is Pluerobrachia pileus and they apparently refract light creating a multi-coloured shimmer. Now, that I would like to see.

Sea-gooseberries suspended in a glass of water

Another image of the sea-gooseberries

I’d released the tiny creatures before I read this so, next time we catch them, I will have to see if I can make them glow in the dark (although I have a feeling photographing that would be even more difficult).

Meanwhile, grey mullet have been very obvious in the marina this week and they’re considerably bigger than the ones we saw mid-May.

Grey mullet at Maryport Marina

The warm weather seems to have brought them to the surface and the calm weather we’ve had this week made it much easier to watch them through the flat surface of the water.

Passers-by

A couple of vessels from the Maryport fishing fleet have passed Ravensdale on their way to or from the MPM boat yard next to the marina this week.

Chelaris left the marina on Wednesday morning looking like a new boat after her facelift and Sincerity was pulled up the slipway soon afterwards to have her “bottom done”.

Chelaris passing Ravensdale

Sincerity arriving at Maryport Marina

And she was back in the water earlier today (Friday) in time for Maryport Trawler Race tomorrow (Saturday).

Solway Firth Sunsets

We get some amazing sunsets here - probably something to do with being on the west coast.

And we've had fabulous displays just about every evening for the past week.

Maryport lighthouse at sunset on Monday evening

Maryport Marina at sunset on Monday

Returning to Maryport just after sunset on Tuesday

Sunset over the Solway Firth on Tuesday evening

Summers like they used to be

We’ve had amazing weather in Maryport again this week after slightly cooler and windier conditions last Saturday.

I really can’t remember such long, unbroken periods of sunshine since I was a child, but I’m certainly not complaining 😊 

A sunny day on Maryport beach on Friday

Last Friday was a lovely sunny day with a top temperature of 15.1C (59F). We had a calm start to the day, but the wind got up as the day went on reaching a top wind speed of 17mph.

Sunny intervals on Saturday morning were followed by an overcast afternoon with a cool wind. The top temperature was 13.5C (56F) with the average wind speed peaking at 16mph.

Sunday started sunny and calm. It stayed sunny all day, but the wind got up a bit during the afternoon. The highest temperature recorded locally was 17.3C (63F). The average wind speed while we were out on the Solway Firth was 2-5mph, with a top wind speed during the afternoon of 10mph.

A sunny start to the day on Sunday

Monday was warm, sunny and calm from the get-go with a top temperature of 21.1C (70F). The average wind speed in the morning was 2-3mph, increasing to 8mph as the day went on.

Sunshine on Monday at Maryport Marina

We had an even warmer day on Tuesday when we enjoyed wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures of up to 23.9C (75F). The average wind speed was just 2-7mph making it a lovely day to be out on the water.

Sunset at the end of a calm, sunny day on Tuesday

It was hot, sunny and calm again on Wednesday with the mercury rising to 23C (73F). The top daytime wind speed was 9mph but it was considerably lower for most of the day.

Yesterday (Thursday) was yet another warm, sunny day with very little wind. The top temperature was 22.8C (73F). The highest average wind speed recorded locally was 9mph, but it was considerably lower while we were out on the Solway Firth.

A calm, sunny day on the Solway Firth yesterday (Thursday)

And, so far, today (Friday) the hot sunny spell continues with a top temperature of 21.4C (70F) and a top wind speed of 8mph.