High winds stop play, stunning skies and our new lobster pot

Ravensdale moored up at Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK

High winds for most of the past week have meant we’ve been unable to take Ravensdale out to play on the water.

However, the forecast is looking better for Sunday and the start of next week. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’s correct, so we can get back out on the Solway Firth in search of the smooth-hound that got away – other fish are available😊

The wind has been well into double figures, with considerably higher gusts, for most of the week, which means Ravensdale has been stuck in the marina.

On the up side, it has given us a chance to do other things, one of which involved adding another string to our bow on the fishing front and hopefully this one will actually provide us with edible catches.

We’ve acquired a small lobster pot that we’re planning to take out and drop in the Solway Firth very soon in the hope of catching some juicy lobsters for our supper.

Meanwhile, we had an influx of visitors at Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK, last weekend for the marina’s open day.

The world is our lobster 😊

Phil with our new-to-us lobster pot and flag pole

Much as we enjoy our fishing trips on Ravensdale, it’s been a bit of a disappointment that we don’t get to eat many of the fish we catch.

Many of them are too small to keep and the tope have to go back because they’re a protected species.

We ate a couple of decent-sized cod we caught in the winter and very nice they were too 😊

We’ve yet to catch a thornback ray that’s big enough to keep and eat.

We haven’t tried eating dogfish as they’re a total pain to prepare and not considered particularly good eaters anyway so really not worth the hassle. 

Hopefully we’ll get to try smooth-hound soon as the fillets from the one we kept from our fishing trip on Saturday June 9 are still in the freezer.

We read that they needed to be frozen for a fortnight before eating to get rid of the ammonia in them, so they should be ready this weekend.

But lobster, now that’s a totally different kettle of fish 😊

Any that are big enough to keep will definitely be going in the cooking pot.

Phil has applied to the North Western Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for a permit to catch lobster, crab and whelk.

Phil testing the flag pole floats

Meanwhile, Phil has tied an old fender onto the flag pole that came with the lobster pot to make it float. We now need to make or buy a flag for it.

We also need to get a small buoy and a length of rope to attach the flag to the pot.

Once that lot’s sorted, all that remains to be done is to decide on the best bait, find a good location in which to drop our pot and then go back and check it on a regular basis.

I probably shouldn’t mention this, but it made me laugh when Phil first told me he needed to find a small boy. Yes, that’s what I thought too 😊

Thankfully I’d taken his comment out of context and what he really meant was that he needed a “small buoy” 😊 Phew! He had me worried there for a minute 😊

(For readers in the US - we pronounce “buoy” and “boy” the same in the UK. I can now see why your pronunciation makes so much more sense 😊)

Double figure fish

Phil with the big tope he caught on a recent fishing trip on Ravensale

It looks as though we need to get new scales for weighing the fish Phil catches (no pun intended 😊)

The biggest tope he caught on a recent fishing trip weighed in at just over 4lb on our fishing scales.

However, last weekend, we showed Glyn Dixon, who operates a charter fishing boat out of Maryport Harbour, the above photo of Phil holding his catch and Glyn said it was definitely a double figure fish.

We’d been surprised it hadn’t weighed more so will have to look at upgrading our scales.

High water alarm

Leaking stern gland on Ravensdale's port prop shaft

The horrible experience of discovering a rising water level in our engine room bilges when we had a leaking stern gland earlier this year led us to install an automatic bilge pump.

And we have this week ordered a high-water alarm.

It was pure luck that we discovered the stern gland leak, which caused a significant amount of water to collect in our bilges, before the situation became considerably worse.

The stern gland on the port prop shaft was fixed and we haven't had any further problems with it since.

Phil went down into the engine room that day because he found water in the forward bilges while doing a totally unrelated job.

He then discovered that the water level in the engine room was higher than the metal grating over the walkway between Ravensdale’s two 300hp Volvo Penta engines.

The high water alarm will hopefully make sure this – or worse - can never happen again.

Links to my previous blog posts about the stern gland leak are below -

Winter cruising joys and the misery caused by flooding bilges

Sleeping more soundly thanks to our new automatic bilge pump

New look marina

Maryport Marina looking ship-shape with its new paint job

When work began on painting the marina a couple of weeks ago, I really wasn’t sure about the shade of blue that had been chosen.

Maryport Marina last winter before its facelift

It looked much too bright to me and I really couldn’t see how it was going to look good.

As work progressed, it started to grow on me and the addition of dark blue window frames and corner stones transformed the whole appearance of the building.

I now love it. It looks great whatever the weather.

The combination of blues is very appropriate for a maritime business and a vast improvement on the drab brown walls before it was painted.

Maryport Marina's new colour scheme

The painting contractors, who did a fantastic job and went out of their way to ensure they didn’t cause any inconvenience to marina customers, worked flat out to make sure it was completed in time for the open day on Saturday.

And the picnic bench that appeared on the paved area in front of the marina facilities overlooking the pontoons a few weeks back has apparently been breeding as there are now three of them 😊

New picnic benches on the paving overlooking the pontoons

Maryport Marina open day

Boat trips in the rain at Maryport Marina Open Day

After more than five weeks of wall-to-wall sunshine, it was so sad that it poured with rain through most of Maryport Marina Open Day on Saturday.

Passengers disembarking after their boat trip

A few hardy folk turned out during the wettest parts of the event, with more arriving when it started to clear up a bit during the afternoon.

I can only think the bad weather put some people off coming, but those who braved the rain appeared to be having a good time.

The most popular attraction seemed to be the free boat trips offered by Glyn Dixon, who owns the local Venture West charter boat.

He took four trips of up to 10 passengers out of the marina into the basin and around into the harbour.

I believe at least one trip also involved heading out between Maryport’s two piers into the Solway Firth, but high winds prevented him from doing so on the other outings.

Maryport Inshore Rescue volunteers at Maryport Marina

Maryport Inshore Rescue brought their rescue boat into the marina for the event and the local Sea Cadets had a stand to let people know about their activities.

Visitors were also offered guided tours of the pontoons and a look on board Solway Adventurer, a Bavaria 38 yacht owned by a charity that provides sailing trips for elderly and disabled people and disadvantaged children.

Two young children enjoying a ride on the roundabout

Other attractions included a children’s fairground ride, a free raffle and the chance to buy food and cups of tea and coffee and to meet the marina customers.

Houseplants or boat plants?

Our new spider plant (right) and a plant we brought with us when we moved on board

If you keep houseplants on a boat, I presume they’re no longer called houseplants 😊

We brought a couple of plants with us when we sold our house and moved onto our 43ft Neptunus 133 motor cruiser in November 2016. And they're still alive – just!

But it’s obvious that neither the peace lily (Spathiphyllum – also known as the white sail plant) or the other plant, the name of which I can’t remember, are thriving.

I don’t know whether it’s the dramatic changes in temperature onboard or too much sunlight scorching them, but I seem to spend a lot of time cutting off dead and discoloured leaves. So much so, that the peace lily is destined for the bin very soon. I just haven’t had the heart to do it yet.

We bought a tiny cactus garden in Lidl supermarket a couple of months ago and that seems to be doing well.

Our miniature cactus garden

And we’ve just bought a spider plant - Chlorophytum comosum variegatum - to replace the very sad-looking peace lily so we’ll see how that fares on Ravensdale.

I haven’t had one of these for years but, if I remember rightly, they were pretty much indestructible. Guess I’ll soon find out if that’s true 😊

Marina wildlife

One of the pigeons that has taken up residence by the marina ramp

A couple of pigeons seem to have taken up residence at the bottom of the ramp from the pontoons to the marina facilities at Maryport Marina.

And they seem totally unconcerned about people walking within a couple of feet of them.

We think they’re young pigeons that have been kicked out of their nest, possibly because their parents have another brood.

I guess they’ve been left to fend for themselves now and one thing they really need to learn is a healthy fear of people or they may not last very long.

A heron on the rocks by the marina slipway

The heron taking a rest from fishing

Meanwhile, the heron has been back hunting from the bottom of the marina slipway on a number of occasions this week.

He also likes to perch on the rocks down the side of the slipway for a rest and can often be seen standing there with his head tucked under a wing.

We haven’t seen the swans that used to be regular visitors to the marina since they arrived with their cygnets while we were heading out of the gate on Ravensdale on Monday of last week.

I’m told they returned, again with their young, last Friday while we were out shopping.

I was so sad to have missed them as I want to start feeding them in the hope they will become regular visitors again.

We've also seen a couple of young pied wagtails sitting on the pontoons over the last couple of days, but I couldn't get near enough to get a decent photo of them. In fact, when I attempted it one flew away. The photo below was the best I could get.

A young pied wagtail sitting on a pontoon at Maryport Marina

Spectacular skies

Interesting cloud formations over Maryport Marina on Wednesday evening

Sunset and sunrises tend to be particularly popular with photographers, but I often think unusual cloud formations at other times of the day can be just us interesting.

We were sitting watching TV on Wednesday evening when we caught sight of some great clouds out of the window.

If I’d spotted them sooner, I might have tried to get to a better location but there was no guarantee they would last so I took a few shots (OK, quite a few shots 😊) from Ravensdale and the pontoon on which she's moored.

Unusual clouds over Ravensdale (at the far end of the pontoon)

Another view of the clouds over the marina

Light-coloured clouds standing out against the dark sky

Another view of the clouds over the marina building

I didn’t get up for sunrise at all this week, but Phil happened to wake up at the relevant time on Saturday morning and took this photo from Ravensdale’s aft deck.

Phil's sunrise photo from Saturday morning

Summer has arrived!

Yesterday (Thursday) was the Summer Solstice – the official start of summer in the northern hemisphere.

So, we will be expecting good weather from now all the way through to the official end of summer on Sunday September 23.

Sadly, the chances of that happening are less than nil ☹

Summer got off to a good start yesterday, but the rest of the past week was decidedly unsummery.

Clouds gathering over Maryport Marina on Friday afternoon

It rained overnight Friday into Saturday. It continued to do so on and off until about 3pm, with heavy downpours at times, but the rain cleared up and the sun came out in the evening. The top daytime temperature was 13.3C(56F) and the top average wind speed was 21mph, gusting to 31mph.

Marina open day visitors wrapped up against the weather on Saturday

Sunday started dull and it was spitting with rain. The rain never really came to anything but the sky remained overcast with dampness in the air. The highest daytime temperature recorded locally was 13.8C (56F) with southerly winds averaging up to 21mph.

Monday was overcast and windy, with a top temperature of 14.8C (59F) and average wind speeds of up to 19mph, gusting 31mph.

This was followed by a fairly windy night with a top average wind speed of 19mph, gusting up to 29mph.

It was bright first thing of Tuesday but clouded over with a few spits of rain late morning. It started raining properly during the afternoon and kept it up throughout the evening. The top daytime temperature was 13.4C (56F) with average wind speeds of 10-13mph.

A grey day at Maryport Marina

Tuesday night into Wednesday was a very windy night. Wind speeds were considerably lower than during Storm Hector the previous week, but Ravensdale seemed to be rocking around more.

We could hear the wind howling around Ravensdale. She was rolling around, the ropes were creaking and the fenders were complaining as they were squashed against the pontoon.

The top average wind speed overnight was 26mph, gusting to 38mph.

Wednesday started overcast and the high winds continued throughout the day, with average wind speeds peaking at 23mph and gusts of up to 36mph.

The sun came out during the afternoon giving a top day time temperature of 14.4C (58F).

Maryport lighthouse on Wednesday evening

Wednesday night and the early hours of yesterday (Thursday) continued windy giving us another noisy and rocky night on board. The highest average wind speed recorded was 30mph, with gusts up to 43mph.

We awoke to a lovely sunny morning yesterday, but it was still pretty windy. The top daytime temperature was 14.7C (58F) and the highest average wind speed recorded locally was 23mph, gusting to 31mph.

Fluffy white clouds in a blue sky herald the start of summer yesterday (Thursday)

And today (Friday) is a proper summers day. It's calm and sunny with very little wind. So far, the highest temperature has been 12.7C (55F) but I have a feeling that will increase as the day goes on.