Feeling blue – quite literally

All masked up while sanding the old antifoul paint

I have spent the past week feeling very blue, but not because I have been unhappy.

My face, hands, arms, neck and even my fringe really were blue from sanding the old antifoul paint on the part of the hull that is normally underwater.

I was working in a very confined space, which involved kneeling, crawling or shuffling along the gravel on my bottom (although that method of moving around proved rather too painful to do too often J)

And a lot of the time I was working above my head so the thick blue dust was falling all over me.

An old woolly hat protected all but any stray hair that managed to escape from under it and goggles and a mask saved my eyes and stopped me breathing the dust.

I spent the best part of two days underneath the boat and was really pleased to get to the end of that task, as the cramped conditions left me with aches and pains in places I had no idea you could even get them.

Phil sanding one of the rudders

Meanwhile, Phil used an angle grinder to clean up the propellers and the rudders.

He also rubbed down the painted blue lines around the hull ready for repainting.

Phil rebuilds the winch mechanism on one of the davits

And he has been working on the davits, which are used for lifting and supporting the inflatable tender at the stern. They had obviously not been used for years and were all rusty and had seized up.

Prop shaft - before and after

I scraped and sanded the two prop shafts, chipping off years of crusty deposits and barnacles before sanding them with various grades of sandpaper until they were gleaming.

And Phil undercoated the propellers.

He also finished off the work to repair the damaged exhaust manifold, which is now back in place on the starboard side of the hull.

Phil sanding his repair to one of the exhaust manifolds

We were working flat out all day every day while the weather was fine promising ourselves a day off on the first wet day – but it didn’t rain.

Eventually, we became so tired that we just had to take a day off so we decided to have a “day of rest” on Sunday (it seemed an appropriate day to choose J)

And, as if to justify our lazy day, the rain started later in the day.

We used our day off to take a trip to Whitehaven to pick up our generator, which had been in for a service. It needed attention because, although it was running OK, it wasn’t generating any power, which is a pretty serious problem for a generator – the clue is in the name J

The rest of the day was spent buying a few more things we needed for Ravensdale from Maiden Marine Chandlery at Whitehaven and having a relaxing meal out before heading home to chill out on the boat.

But we were back hard at it on Monday morning feeling a bit better for our break.

Phil has been attempting to get the trim tabs working properly. The starboard trim tab moved slightly, but the one on the port side was refusing to move at all.

He removed one of the hydraulic rams on the jammed trim tab and released it because it was all seized up inside. It can now be moved manually, but is still not working when the switch is operated. So more work is required here.

Silver patches of primer applied to prepare the hull for antifouling painting

I painted antifoul primer on the areas of the hull where there were gaps in the previous coat of antifoul, mainly where my sanding had gone right through to the gelcoat.

This left the underwater area covered with silver patches.

I also spent some time stripping black paint of the stainless steel windscreen wiper arms and polishing them up ready to be fitted with new blades and put back in place.

By Monday afternoon, it became clear that we had reached the stage where we could apply the antifoul paint the following day.

Alex applying antifoul paint to Ravensdale's starboard side

A friend who was visiting us that day volunteered his services and turned up early on Tuesday morning ready to help. Alex has done this many times before so he was really useful to have around.

Using four inch rollers on long handles, Alex painted the port side and Phil did the starboard side, while I crawled around under the boat with a brush touching up any difficult to reach areas or bits that had been missed by the rollers. I also painted the rudders.

This was a big day for us – at long last we were putting paint back on rather than taking it off and preparing for repainting. It finally felt as though we were actually getting somewhere.

Phil painting the boot top line

We have since painted the boot top line – a line of darker blue, harder antifoul along the water line.

Removing the tape

We collected the new boat logo and black vinyl tape, which we are hoping to apply very soon. The tape lines will be applied after the blue lines around the top of the hull and the top of the superstructure have been painted.

We considered paying the firm that made the Neptunus trident logo to apply it the bow, but it would cost more than the logo and they assured us that it is very simple to do. Guess we’ll soon find out whether they are right about this.

And, if it doesn’t go right the first time, we have a spare. When we went to collect it, they told us that they were able to cut two out of the same piece of vinyl so they gave us two for the price of one.

Scrubbing the deck of the fly bridge as part of its spring clean

Yesterday was spent cleaning up the fly bridge using Chine Shine, which did a fantastic job again.

It started out looking very sorry for itself and ended up quite literally shining.

I’m really looking forward to being able to go up there in the sunshine while at sea.

And the best bit is that the seats on either side of the driving seat convert into sun beds, not that I’m planning to do any sunbathing. I just think they’re pretty cool J

Greetings from Ravensdale! – at long last we have wifi on the boat

Dex helping me write my blog

Some of our main bugbears since we moved onto the boat six weeks ago have been the lack of wifi on board, problems with the TV reception and a very hard and uncomfortable bed - all of which have been resolved in the last few days.

So for the first time, I am able to write my blog on Ravensdale with Dex by my side. He’s being a big help, as you can see J

The marina has put in a new wifi system and it seems to be working, even at low water when we disappear down behind the wall to the marina basin.



Phil has also put in a new co-ax cable for the TV and we can now get all the channels on Freeview regardless of the water level, even though at low tide the TV aerial points straight into the wall. We have no idea how we're getting such good TV reception at low water, but we're very happy that we are J

Dex was unimpressed by both these improvements.

However, he seemed a lot more interested when our new mattress from customsizebeds.co.uk arrived on Friday - http://customsizebeds.co.uk/made-to-measure-mattresses/replacement-boat-mattresses/

The hard, old mattress

It is made of CoolBlue Memory Foam, which is supposed to overcome the overheating problems normally associated with memory foam.

The foam was cut to size using a template we supplied of our island bed, which is the width of a standard double bed at the top but tapers away on both sides to a narrower curve at the bottom end. The foam was then encased in a custom-made zip-off quilted cover.




The thick, new mattress that is oh so comfy

It came rolled up in a box, which enabled us to get it on the boat and down into the master cabin.

When it was released, we were amazed to discover it was a perfect fit and it quickly swelled up to the eight inch thickness we had ordered.

The old mattress was very thin (no more than about four inches) and very hard so the new one is pure luxury.

Dex would love to try it out, but he is not going to get the chance. The bedroom is the one part of the boat from which he is banned.

Meanwhile, we have been experiencing intermittent problems with our Eberspacher heating system. Most of the time it worked fine and kept the boat lovely and warm, but it suddenly started cutting out and refusing to go.

Phil inspected the heater, which is behind one of the two 300hp engines in the engine room, and we made a few inquiries about the likely cause of this problem. Those who know more about these things than we do thought it could be caused by one of the concertina heat outlet pipes having been squashed at some stage.



Phil repairing the heating system

There was insufficient room to get around the engine to reach the heater so Phil lifted the carpet and floor in the main cabin and went in from above. He disconnected the relevant pipe, pushed his arm into it to open it up and reconnected it.

It has been working fine ever since, so fingers crossed that was the problem and the heating won’t cut out on us again - especially over Christmas.

So all in all, there have been some massive improvements on the boat this week.

However, with all these things going on, together with regular dog walks, etc., we have not yet had time to put up the rest of the Christmas decorations so that’s my plan for tomorrow...

Happiness is a warm, dry bed!

Water definitely belongs on the outside of a boat

Much as I like living on the water, I really don’t want to sleep in it.

One of the main problems we discovered soon after moving on-board Ravensdale was a damp bed (not what you’re thinking J – unless you’ve spent any time on a boat, in which case it’s probably exactly what you’re thinking)

We found that the cold water tank beneath the bed was causing terrible condensation under the mattress, which was getting soaking wet so we had to strip the bed, tip the mattress on its side and put the dehumidifier on full power every day to dry it. This also meant we were using more electricity than planned.

An off-cut of the Dry-Mat that is now under the mattress

Fiona at Maiden Marine chandlery in Whitehaven recommended a product called Dry-Mat. We were told that this anti-condensation underlay, which is only about 1cm thick, allows air to circulate under the mattress, thus preventing damp, mould and mildew.

We ordered some, cut it to fit and the result has been amazing – so much so that we checked it every day for the first few days expecting to find it hadn’t worked. Thankfully it has worked brilliantly.

The bed in the main cabin

And putting the dehumidifier on in the bedroom for an hour or so each day seems to keep the rest of the moisture at bay.

Our Christmas present to ourselves is going to be a new mattress. The one on the boat is probably as old as the boat itself and is so hard that it’s like sleeping on the floor. Anyone who has ever slept on a cheap sofa bed, marked “for occasional use only” will know what I mean here.

Anyway, we made a template of the bed, which is double bed width at the top and slopes away on each side making it narrower at the bottom, and we have now ordered a custom-made mattress.

The company has said it will pull out all the stops to get it to us before December 25 so we will have it in time for our first Christmas on the boat.

And if that’s all I get for Christmas this year I will be very happy (Just hope Phil doesn’t read this bit J)