Ruby’s first dinghy ride and a successful fishing trip

Ruby in our dinghy with Phil at Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK

Our nine-month-old staffie puppy Ruby is a proper boat dog now 😊

Phil took her for a ride around our marina at Maryport in Cumbria, UK, in our dinghy at the weekend and she took to it like a duck to water.

On Thursday, we were also able to take Ravensdale – our Neptunus 133 motor cruiser – out on the Solway Firth for the first time in more than a fortnight.

We went out on our boat again yesterday (Friday) and this time Phil caught our supper 😊


Ruby’s first ride in our dinghy

Ruby about to set off on her first dinghy ride

Phil got the dinghy out on Sunday and took Ruby for a paddle around the marina.

She was a bit unsure about getting in but allowed me to lift her in using the handle on the back of her lifejacket.

Phil then placed her between his feet on the floor of the dinghy and tied her lead around his waist to stop her escaping, but she made no attempt to get out of the dinghy.

I guess this wasn’t really surprising as Ruby doesn’t like water 😊

But she seemed to enjoy her little trip around the marina.

At one point, she tried to make her way forward to look over the bow of the dinghy at the water.

But, most of the time, she just sat up looking around as Phil rowed her up and down the rows of boats.

She was really calm and never made any attempt to get out, even when Phil stopped to chat to fellow liveaboards whose cat was sleeping on the pontoon by their boat 😊

Ruby in our dinghy with Phil

We’d been meaning to see whether Ruby was happy in the dinghy since our trip to Kirkcudbright in May.

Before we went up the river to Kirkcudbright, we spent a day at anchor off Little Ross Island.

We were only a short distance from the shore and watched another couple, whose yacht was anchored nearby, put their dog in their dinghy and take it over to the beach for a walk.

The beach on Little Ross Island where we could've taken Ruby ashore

We would've loved to have done the same with Ruby, but we had just discovered she had outgrown her lifejacket and the new, larger one I’d ordered for her hadn’t arrived when we left Maryport.

Also, she’d never been in our dinghy so we didn’t know how she would react.

For both reasons, we decided we just couldn’t risk trying to take her ashore.

Her new lifejacket arrived soon after we got home and we’re now trying to get her used to the dinghy in the marina before taking her in it on open water.

And, from what we’ve seen so far, it looks as though she’s going to be fine 😊

Phil making a fuss of Ruby after her first dinghy ride

Thursday’s fishing trip

Ravensdale leaving Maryport on Thursday  morning

We managed to get out fishing for the first time in over two week on Thursday.

At long last, single-figure wind speeds coincided with the times when the marina’s sea gate was open, which is about two and a half hours either side of high water.

We grabbed a quick breakfast before preparing for the off.

I then packed up everything inside the boat that could fly around if it gets bumpy when we’re out on the water while Phil popped around to the pier to check the sea state and visited the Aquarium on the harbourside to pick up some more bait.

Ravensdale heading towards the sea gate before I saw the message about the car window

We set off at about 10.20am but had only got as far as turning Ravensdale around to leave the marina and heading out towards the gate when I spotted a Facebook message on my phone saying he’d left one of the car windows wide open.

So, we turned around again at the other end of the marina and headed back to our mooring.

As the marina wasn’t expecting us back quite so soon, there was no one to catch our ropes so I had to moor Ravensdale up using our docking sticks, which was good practice as I haven’t needed to use them for a while.

He quickly closed the car window, then we set off again at 10.35am so a little bit later than we’d hoped but we still had plenty of time to make it worthwhile going.

Ravensdale heading out of the marina for the second time

We headed up to Allonby Bay and, on the way, we passed a flock of seagulls that appeared to be drawn to a certain area of the water and wondered if it meant there were mackerel around.

Some of the flock of seagulls that we went to investigate

Phil went a bit closer to them to see if we could work out why they were there, but none appeared to be fishing so we went on to the mark where he’s had some good cod recently and dropped anchor there.

Phil fishing in Allonby Bay

He pulled in one dogfish after another which was getting really annoying as we don’t keep them to eat because they are too much trouble to skin.

One of the many dogfish Phil caught on this trip

He eventually caught two small gurnard – the bigger of the two measured 25cm, which was technically big enough to keep but it wouldn’t have made a meal for us, so we threw it back.

The first gurnard Phil caught on this trip

The larger of the two gurnard Phil caught on this trip

They’re always fun to catch as they’re really weird-looking fish.

They almost look like some sort of scary creature out of a sci-fi movie 😊

The second gurnard smiling for the camera

We headed back in good time to return before the marina gate closed, getting back at around 2pm, about four hours after we initially set off for our fishing trip.

Me enjoying the sunshine on Ravensdale's aft deck on the way home

Ravensdale heading home to Maryport

Yesterday’s fishing trip

As we’d left all the stuff I stow away inside Ravensdale packed up after Thursday’s trip out on the water ready to go out for Maryport Trawler Race today (Saturday), we decided to have another go at fishing yesterday (Friday)

And we were very glad we did as this time we brought home our supper.

Ravensdale heading towards the sea gate at Maryport Marina

Looking back across Maryort Marina from Ravensdale's fore deck

We left the marina at about 11.20am. The plan was to look for a mark Phil had put on our chart plotter that looked to be a deep area between the rocks as he hoped it might fish well.

On the way out of Maryport, we saw a couple of trawlers heading our way and a friend’s yacht that I wanted to photograph so Phil took a bit of a detour to enable me to get some photos.

A trawler heading for Marport

Bonnie Lass heading for Maryport

Another view of Bonnie Lass on her way into Maryport

Yacht Freya sailing on the Solway Firth

We then headed up to Allonby Bay to look for his mark.

When we arrived at the right area, he began studying the fishfinder for fish before deciding where to drop anchor.

Phil checking the fishfinder to see if there were any fish around

As there appeared to be fish around, we decided to stay put and we were delighted when he caught two cod that were big enough to keep.

Phil with the first cod he cuaght on this trip

We almost lost the second one to a hungry tope that chased the cod that Phil had hooked but, unlike our last fishing trip, he managed to land the cod before the tope had eaten half of it.

Phil the cod that the tope tried to take from us

The cod's tail showing the damage caused by the tope

The wind started to pick up a bit while we were out, so we decided to pack up a bit earlier than planned as we’d had a good session and caught our supper.

On the way back, we followed a friend’s boat into the marina. He had come over the Solway Firth from Scotland ready for tomorrow’s trawler race.

We were back in the marina at around 3.10pm after almost four hours out on the water.



Lobster supper 😊

Our lobster on the bench in the galley waiting to be cooked

Soon after we returned from our fishing trip yesterday (Thursday), a friend offered us a lobster, for which we were very grateful.

We’d never cooked a lobster before, so Phil looked it up online to find out how long it needed to boil it for and followed the instructions.

I knew they changed colour when cooked, but I was still amazed at just how different they look raw and cooked.

The cooked lobster

And he must have cooked it right because it was delicious 😊


Pros and cons – then and now

Ravensdale out on the Solway Firth

This week I looked back at the list of pros and cons I wrote about 18 months ago and compared it with the list I wrote last week to see how my view of the good and bad aspects on life afloat has changed.

And it seems that they haven’t changed very much at all.

Totally coincidentally, there were the same number of pros as my first list and, although worded differently, they were very similar to the things I liked most about boat life in December 2017 – just over a year after we moved on board.

I came up with more cons this time, the main ones being missing having a garden and a garage/garden shed to work in.

And, apparently, I no longer consider using the marina toilet facilities most of the time, not very comfortable seating and the maintenance costs associated with a boat to be a problem – or at least not enough of a problem to include them in my list of cons.

Dealing with high humidity and the challenges of finding sufficient storage space on a boat appeared on both lists.



Ruby of Ravensdale

Ruby relaxing in her lifejacket during yesterday's fishing trip

Poor Ruby has another ear infection.

Ruby hiding when I tried to take a selfie with her

Last time, it was in her left ear and this time it’s her right ear.

But, thankfully, it isn’t as bad as last time, so the vet is trying to treat it with drops twice a day rather than the injection she gave her last time.

The big problem here is that Ruby totally hates having drops put in her ears and runs away if she sees either of us even reach for the drops container, so we have to be really sneaky.

There’s no way to get the container anywhere near here so one of us puts the dose on our finger and rubs it inside her ear.

However, even this is getting more difficult as she’s worked out when we’re likely to do it and gets out of our way and I think she probably smells it on our fingers.

We’re now varying the time or rather the point in our daily routine that we apply the drops and are still managing to get them in there at the moment, but I’m not sure that we’re going to be able to get away with it for the required 10-day period.

Thankfully, she doesn’t seem too worried by the infection and she hasn’t been scratching it enough to warrant putting her inflatable collar on her.

Meanwhile, she’s still enjoying life on Ravensdale and is equally happy whether we're in the marina or out on the water.

Ruby out on deck while we were out on the Solway Firth

Ruby sunbathing on the aft deck

When we're out, she likes to come up on deck to lick Phil's fishing box and the deck clean of any fish juice. She also likes to sunbathe for a while, then goes back indoors to relax in the saloon.

Ruby chilling out in Ravensdale's saloon

When we're in the marina, she likes to sit out on deck watching the world go by and particularly likes to sit out and watch the sun go down after her evening meal.

Ruby playing with her ball on the aft deck

She also likes playing ball on deck, which is pretty risky but she hasn't lost a ball yet 😊

Phil playing ball with Ruby on Ravensdale's aft deck

And she likes going for walks in the meadow by the shore and around the harbour, where she gets to meet lots of people and dogs.


Photography

Most of my photos this week were taken while out on the Solway Firth on Thursday and yesterday (Friday).

Maryport from the Solway Firth

Market Steps at Maryport from the Solway Firth

Trees on the skyline from the Solway Firth

Maryport pier with the Iggesund paperboard factory in the background

The entrance to Maryport Basin from the Solway Firth

Another view of Maryport from the Solway Firth

I also took photos of the marina last Friday evening and while trying my hand at low light photography late on Wednesday evening.

Reflections at Maryport Marina

More reflections at Maryport Marina

Maryport Marina

Evening lights at Maryport Marina

Another low light photo at Maryport Marina

And I took a few photos of the meadows while out walking Ruby on Monday.

View across the Solway Firth from the meadows at Maryport

Grasslot shore at Maryport

Weather watch

Although we’ve had some dry, sunny weather here in Maryport, there’s been an awful lot of rain for the time of year.

It was wet overnight Friday into Saturday then it dried up for a while during Saturday morning, then the heavy rain arrived and kept it up for the rest of the day.

Rain pouring down Ravensdale's windows on Saturday afternoon

The top temperature was 16C (61F) and the top average wind speed was 10mph. It was fairly calm while the marina gate was open so we might have considered going out on the water if it hadn’t been so wet.

Sunday was dry and bright with a top temperature of 19C (66F) and a top average wind speed of 14mph.

Sun breaking through the clouds at Maryport Marina on Sunday

We had rain overnight which continued until about mid-morning on Monday. It then dried up and the sun came out during the afternoon.

The top temperature was 17C (63F) and the top average wind speed was 11mph.

Annoyingly, the weather was horrible while the gate was open and really nice after it closed ☹

Blue sky and fluffy white clouds at Maryport Marina on Monday afternoon

Tuesday started wet then dried up and the sun came out for a while. However, it clouded over again late afternoon and we had heavy rain and thunder and lightning. There were only three flashes of lightning, but the rain continued into the evening.

Heavy rain viewed through Ravensdale's windscreen on Tuesday afternoon

The top temperature was 20C (68F) and the top average wind speed was 16mph.

Wednesday was cloudy with showers on and off during the morning and heavy rain and a thunderstorm during the afternoon.

The top temperature was 21C (70F) and the top average wind speed was 15mph.

Thursday was dry, bright and calm feeling warm in the sunshine when the clouds cleared.

Blue sky with a few clouds over Maryport Marina sea gate onThursday morning

The temperature reached 20C (68F) and the average wind speed peaked at 13mph late afternoon, but it was only 6-8mph while we were out on the Solway Firth.

Bright sunshine at Maryport Marina yesterday (Friday)

And yesterday (Friday) the weather was dry, warm, sunny and fairly calm. The top temperature was 20C (68F and the top wind speed was 8mph.