Ravensdale is stuck in the marina again – this time due to an inner ear problem

Ravensdale (the white cruiser just left of centre) at Maryport Marina this week

We’ve been unable to take Ravensdale out on the water this week because Phil developed a medical problem that made it very unwise.

He started having strange dizzy spells and keeled over when he bent forward so he made a doctor’s appointment and was told it was an inner ear condition.

This has been happening on and off for much of this week.

We also had some fairly windy weather for the first part of the week and the rocking of the boat has affected him a lot more than usual so taking her out onto the Solway Firth here in Cumbria, UK, would definitely not have been a good idea.

Meanwhile, Ruby is having to wear an inflatable collar for a few days until a wound on her ear heals.


Phil’s dizzy spells

Phil relaxing at sea on a recent fishing trip

Vertigo that can cause you to keel over when you bend forwards is not a great thing to suffer from when you live on a boat.

The rocking motion caused by wind and swell becomes exaggerated and disorientating - there were times when Phil thought the boat was rocking quite violently when it was hardly moving at all.

There’s always a chance that you could fall forward into the water or fall and hit your head on something that could knock you out.

And that’s when the boat is safely moored up in the marina so taking her out onto the water would not be a great idea.

Some time ago Phil had some strange vertigo-like incidents and went to the doctor about them.

At that time, he was on medication that the doctor thought may have been causing these symptoms, so he stopped taking it and the problem cleared.

He hasn’t taken it since but started having the strange dizzy spells again this week and, on one occasion, he bent over to stroke Ruby in Ravensdale’s saloon and ended up sprawled on the floor.

That was the point at which he called the doctor, who said that, when he’d seen Phil previously, he thought it could have been Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) – an inner ear problem where specific head movement cause vertigo.

He was told to see if it went away on its own again. If not, there’s a manoeuvre they can do that will hopefully cure it, at least for the time being.

Since then, he’s had a few less serious occurrences so we’re hoping it’s not going to be a recurring problem.

He's been trying not to bend forward as that is what causes him problems, but keeps forgetting and, on one occasion, he was about to lean forward over the water to adjust a mooring rope. I spotted him just in time and shouted at him to stop and I would adjust it.

As it happened, there was only one day this week that would’ve been almost calm enough for us to consider taking Ravensdale out on the water, but it was out of the question anyway while Phil was suffering from dizzy spells.

Once they settle down, we'll be able to go out fishing again.


Ruby of Ravensdale

Ruby happy to be back on the beach again

Ruby has been enjoying being able to go out for proper walks again this week, now she is no longer in season and therefore able to be around other dogs again.

She has been to the beach most days and had the opportunity to meet and play with other dogs.

She still refuses to go in water and, when her ball ended up in a small pool on the beach, she ran around the pool until Phil went and got it for her.

Phil had to push Ruby's ball closer to her when she refused to get wet

She got very mucky on the beach on Monday. Usually, she comes home covered in sand, which drops off when we dry her.

However, on Monday, her legs and belly were covered in mud and she had to be hosed down on the pontoons before we dried her, which was pretty annoying given that she'd had a shower the previous day.

Ruby with very muddy legs

We bought her a new toothbrush toy that has a central reservoir for dog toothpaste and rubber bristles that are supposed to clean her teeth when she chews it.

Ruby's new toothbrush toy that she has already bitten chunks off the base

However, it hasn’t proved to be much use as she started biting chunks off it within five minutes of being given it for the first time.

Ruby sitting on Ravensdale's aft deck

My latest attempt at a selfie with Ruby 😊

Last week, we took her to the vet because she was chewing her paws and she was given antibiotics for a nail bed infection.

The infection cleared up, but she keeps scratching her left ear until it bleeds.

The vet checked her ears when we took her back after the course of antibiotics and said there was nothing wrong with them.

The vet suggested putting Ruby on Piriton (chlorphenamine maleate) in case it was an allergy but that didn’t seem to help either as she scratched her ear until it was bleeding again.

We’re now trying an inflatable collar to give the wound a chance to heal as it could be the soreness and healing process that’s causing it to itch and creating a vicious circle.

She's being so good about wearing it. She didn't object to having it fitted and has just carried on with her life as if it's not there.

The only things we've had to change is moving her food and water bowls away from the wall because she couldn't get to them and giving her a helping hand up steps on the boat as the edge of her collar catches on the treads.

Amusingly, some people have mistaken it for a swimming ring and asked if we're teaching her to swim 😊

Hopefully, she'll only need to wear it for a few days until her ear heals up, then we're hoping she won’t scratch it and make it sore again.

Ruby in her new inflatable collar

Photography

I haven’t been out taking photos very much this week as I haven’t wanted to leave Phil on his own while he was having regular dizzy spells.

But I did get around to processing some of the photos I took on Friday of last week that I hadn’t had a chance to look at it before last week’s blog.

Maryport lighthouse at low tide

Silver Fern in Maryport Harbour

Colourful fishing boats in Maryport Harbour at high tide

A fishing boat and rusty trawler winch at Maryport Harbour

More fishing boats at high tide

Looking across Maryport Harbour at high tide

The view from Shipping Brow, Maryport, looking out towards the Solway Firth

Looking across the River Ellen towards Shipping Brow at Maryport

A sculpture of fishermen on the River Ellen at Marport

I’ve also taken a few photos while out walking Ruby on the beach.

Maryport beach with Maryport pier and the Scottish hills in the distance

Another view of Maryport beach

Clouds reflected in puddles on the shore in Maryport

Looking along Maryport shore towards Iggesund Paperboard mill

Fluffy clouds over Maryport beach

And I took photos of Maryport marina and across the basin on Sunday.

Christ Church at Maryport from across the basin

Another view across the basin at Maryport

Shipping Brow at Maryport from the other side of the basin

A calm evening at Maryport Marina

A wider view of Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK

Weather watch

It’s been a cool and fairly windy week with temperatures ranging from 11C-15C (52F-59F) and wind gusting up to 41mph.

Calm conditions at Maryport Marina last Friday evening

We had heavy rain overnight Friday into Saturday and it was fairly windy with average wind speeds up to 25mph, gusting 36mph.

There was light rain first thing on Saturday, which dried up fairly quickly. It was cloudy for the rest of the day becoming brighter during the afternoon.

The top temperature was 13C (55F) and the top average wind speed at St Bees Head – our nearest weather station - was 26mph, gusting 41mph, but it was definitely less than that here.

Sunday was dry, bright and breezy. It was cloudy in the morning with the sun coming out during the afternoon.

The temperature only reached 13C (55F) again and the top average wind speed was 16mph.

A sunny day on Maryport beach on Monday

Monday was dry, sunny and warm. It was fairly calm in the morning with the wind getting up late afternoon.

The top temperature was 15C (59F) and the top average wind speed was 13mph. 

Tuesday started sunny then clouded over but it stayed dry and windy throughout the day, brightening up again during the evening.

Golden light on Maryport Marina on Tuesday evening

The top temperature was 13C (55F) and the top average wind speed was 24mph, gusting 40mph.

It was pretty windy overnight Tuesday into Wednesday with the average wind speed reaching 23mph, gusting 34mph and the high winds continued throughout the day.

Grey cloud at Maryport Marina on Wednesday

Dry and overcast conditions in the morning gave way to light rain in the afternoon. The temperature reached 12C (54F) and the top wind speed was 26mph, gusting, 41mph.

Heavy rain overnight Wednesday into yesterday (Thursday) continued into yesterday morning.

The rain became lighter during the morning and it dried up late morning with a little light rain during the afternoon. The temperature only reached 11C (52F) and the top average wind speed was 19mph, gusting 33mph.

Maryport Marina yesterday (Thursday) evening

And, today (Friday) started wet but dried up to give a bright and breezy day. The top temperature was 13C (55F) and the top average wind speed was 15mph.

Moving Ravensdale to improve our Wi-Fi signal and fitting Ruby’s new lifejacket

Ruby modelling her new lifejacket on Ravensdale

Our broadband speed – both on the marina Wi-Fi and Vodafone mobile Wi-Fi - became a real problem this week so we started looking for possible causes.

Phil pointed out that it seemed to coincide with our friend’s motorsailer being moored alongside us last week as it’s higher than any boat that’s been moored there previously.

So, we decided to move Ravensdale further along the hammerhead in the hope that we could improve our Wi-Fi connection and it seems to have worked.

Ravensdale moved back by about 12 feet to improve our Wi-Fi connection

Meanwhile, Ruby’s new lifejacket has arrived so she’s all set for our next trip out on the water.

And Phil has been preparing some stronger fishing tackle in the hope he can catch one of the big tope - members of the shark family - that have arrived in the Solway Firth.

All we need now is some good weather to go out looking for them.


Broadband problems

Speed test on the marina Wi-Fi on Saturday evening

We’ve had real problems with our Wi-Fi connections here at Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK, this week.

We’ve both had to switch to our Vodafone mobile Wi-Fi on a number of occasions due to a really poor connection on the marina network and often there was no signal at all.

And, at times, we found that the Vodafone Wi-Fi wasn’t working as well as usual either.

I carried out an internet speed test on the marina Wi-Fi on Saturday evening and it was too low to register.

We weren’t sure whether the poor connection was because all 10 pitches on the harbourside caravan site were full for the Bank Holiday weekend so there may have been more people trying to use the marina Wi-Fi or whether the signal was particularly low at that time.

As our Vodafone Wi-Fi was also worse than it had been, we wondered if our connection problems could be due to Margarita being moored alongside us as they started around the same time as she arrived.

Ravensdale in her original position with Margarita moored alongside her

We thought this could be a possibility as the Nauticat is a much higher boat than the yacht that was previously moored in that position and she blocks the line of sight between Ravensdale's dinette, where I use my laptop, and the marina's Wi-Fi aerial on the end wall of the customer lounge.

And we thought she could also be blocking the Vodafone signal.

So, we tried moving Ravensdale back along the pontoon about 12 feet in the hope it would improve our Wi-Fi connections.

Ravensdale moved back along the hammerhead in an attempt to improve the Wi-Fi

Speed test after we moved Ravensdale

I then carried out another broadband speed test on the marina connection and found I had a better signal.

Both the marina Wi-Fi and our mobile Wi-Fi have been working better since we moved.

And subsequent tests on the marina connection have been much the same as they were before the arrival of Margarita so we’re staying in our new location, at least for the time being.

However, we still don’t know if this will be affected by the number of people using the marina Wi-Fi at the same time so we've decided to leave Ravensdale in the new position until we’ve checked the connection speed over a period of time as the caravan site has not been full since we moved.








The “ones that got away”

Phil making wire traces in Ravensdale's saloon with the seat cushions tipped up

Three times on our most recent fishing trips, Phil has hooked what appeared to be very large fish and every time they bit through the line and got away.

Another local fishing boat had a similar experience and we were all convinced that there were big tope out in the Solway Firth that were managing to escape being caught.

And we were right as some large tope have been caught in this area this week.

An angler on Venture West charter boat caught a tope weighing over 28lb on Tuesday and one of the angling club members on Sunrise caught one weighing 23lb the same evening. 

So, Phil has been making wire traces to make sure the next big fish he catches won’t be able to bite through the line.

Phil with one of his finished wire traces

All we need now is some good weather so we can go out on a big fish hunt.

We were planning to go on Tuesday evening as the forecast was for single figure wind.

However, as the time our marina’s sea gate was due to open just before 6pm approached, the wind was showing no signs of dropping so we decided not to bother.

Although we missed out on the big tope caught by fishermen on Venture West and Sunrise, we were still glad we hadn’t gone as they said it was a lot bumpier than the forecast had promised.

The weather data for our nearest weather station at St Bees Head showed the wind speed to have been up to 21mph, gusting 29mph, while we would have been out on the water so definitely too high for our liking! 😊


Ruby of Ravensdale

Ruby giving me a grumpy look for pointing a camera at her again 😊 

Ruby is now seven months old and already weighs 18.2kg so she’s definitely going to be more than the 14-15kg the vet told us to expect as her adult weight when we took her for her “new puppy check” at eight weeks 😊

She has fully recovered from her tummy upset but is still in season, which means we’re still having to be very careful to avoid other dogs when we take her out for walks.

It also means we’re still living in a shed as the saloon carpet won’t be going back down and the seat cushions will stay tipped up until after her season. However, we've covered one of the seats in the dinette so she can still sit or lay between us in comfort.

Ruby has a really cute way of begging for food or attracting my attention if she thinks I’ve spent too long on my laptop.

Ruby watching Phil eat a sandwich

If we’re sat at the table and Phil’s eating something she wants and I’m using my laptop, she always puts her paw on top of my mouse hand, which is so funny given that she’s trying to attract Phil’s attention, not mine.

She also does this when she wants me to stop typing and play with her, but then she looks at me, of course 😊

Ruby with her paw on my mouse hand

I’m afraid the photos aren’t great quality. I had to use my phone as I couldn’t get up and get my camera without taking my hand away and spoiling the pose 😊

She has also started giving us a paw in the hope it will get her a treat 😊

Ruby giving Phil her paw

And she becomes very focused on which toy she wants from her toy box, carefully sorting through it until she finds what she's looking for. If she can't find it, we're expected to go and help her out.

Ruby sorting through her toy box

Ruby asking for help when she can't find the toy she wants

Meanwhile, Ruby’s new lifejacket arrived this week and she was so good when I tried it on her. It was totally different to my first attempt at putting her first lifejacket on her when she was just three months old.

Archive photo of Ruby in her first lifejacket at three months old

Then she fought my efforts to do it up and tried to bite it, then made it very clear that she was not impressed once she was wearing it.

This time, she stayed calm while I slid it over her head and stood still while I did up the straps under her stomach and then adjusted the straps to fit her properly.

Ruby wearing her new lifejacket

She's not very keen on wearing it yet but will soon get used to it and at least we know she’ll be safe next time we go out on the water.

Ruby has become a lot calmer lately, but we don’t know whether it’s a temporary thing while she’s in season or if it’s just because she’s getting a bit older now.

Ruby having a laugh 😊

Ruby fast asleep on her blanket on the seating in the dinette

And she still loves lots of cuddles, which is fine by me because I love cuddling her too 😊


Prawn hunt

Phil fishing for prawns in the marina

Phil and I went on a prawn hunt around the marina on Tuesday afternoon in preparation for our planned fishing trip on Tuesday evening.

Phil carries the blue kiddie fishing net while I hold the bucket and I’m sure we must look hilarious wandering around the marina fishing for prawns to use as bait 😊

He runs the net up through the weed growing on the sides of the pontoon floats then transfers any prawns he catches into the bucket.

Some of the prawns caught on our prawn hunt

And we caught many more this time than on our last attempt a couple of months ago.

As we didn’t go fishing on Tuesday evening, we let them go again.

A couple of tiny prawns that I put into a glass of seawater to photograph them

Wildlife

The swan and cygnet feeding by Ravensdale

The lone swan that appeared to have teamed up with one of the three local cygnets arrived in the marina on Friday afternoon.

They were here again on Saturday and Sunday, or maybe they stayed in the marina during this period, but they didn’t visit Ravensdale looking for food until Sunday.

I wondered if it was the cygnet that was taken to the local animal sanctuary after it was found injured in the marina a few weeks ago so I contacted the sanctuary asking if it had been released.

A closer view of the cygnet

I received a reply saying it definitely wasn’t that cygnet as she’d settled down with the swans at the sanctuary, so I’m guessing she won’t be coming back to the marina again.

The pair of adult swans on the River Ellen at Maryport

Meanwhile, I saw the pair of adult swans on the River Ellen and it definitely looks as though they have a nest there so maybe we’ll be seeing some new cygnets visiting the marina very soon.

I couldn’t get close enough to have a proper look for a nest, but that’s a good thing as it hopefully means no one else can get close enough to disturb them.

A pair of rock pipits have started paying regular visits to Ravensdale and frequently land on her guard rails, davits and bimini frame.

A rock pipit on one of Ravensdale's davits

Whenever we leave the boat, they follow us around the pontoons landing on boats and electricity bollards next to us making a lot of noise, but we have no idea what they want.

A rock pipit on an electricity bollard

And the pigeons, whose nest was washed out of the drainage hole in the harbour wall near Ravensdale on a number of occasions last year, are back there again.

The male pigeon sitting in the entrance to the drainage hole

The male is often sitting in the opening to the hole, but we haven’t seen the female for a while so we’re thinking she may have young in a nest in there.

There was water pouring out of the hole during the heavy rain yesterday (Thursday) so the chances are that their nest has been washed out again, which is really sad ☹


Photography

I noticed that there were some nice clouds in the sky just before sunset on Sunday evening, so I took a walk around to the beach expecting a spectacular Solway Firth sunset.

Light breaking through the clouds over the Solway Firth

A wider view of the sun setting over the Solway Firth

Golden-edged clouds over the Solway

Unfortunately, there was a lot of low cloud that I couldn’t see from the marina, so I didn’t get the sunset I’d been hoping for, but it was still worth the trip.

Reflections in Maryport Harbour

Colourful fishing boats at Maryport Harbour

Another view of Maryport Harbour

A wider view of the harbour

Reflections in Maryport Harbour

I also took my camera with me when I walked over to the local supermarket for some shopping on Tuesday and took photos around the harbour and along the River Ellen.

The blue bridge over the River Ellen at Maryport

The River Ellen and Mote Hill

Reflections in the River Ellen

Weather watch

We were very glad we decided to come back from Scotland in calm conditions on Monday of last week as the wind speed was higher than we would have liked out on the water for a good week after our return.

The past week has been windier and felt considerably cooler than the previous week.

Heavy rain on Saturday afternoon at Maryport Marina

There was a cloudy start to the day on Saturday and it started spitting with rain around midday with more persistent rain during the afternoon. The top temperature was 11C (52F) and the top average wind speed at St Bees Head – our nearest weather station - was 13mph, but it was windier in Maryport.

We had heavy rain overnight followed by an overcast and very blustery start to the day on Sunday. The weather brightened up, but it remained pretty windy throughout the day. The top temperature was 14C (57F) and the top average wind speed was 24mph.

Bank Holiday Monday evening at Maryport Marina

Bank Holiday Monday started dry, bright and breezy with a good bit of cloud around. There were light rain showers late afternoon which cleared up during the evening. The top temperature was 12C (54F) and the top average wind speed was 17mph, gusting 29mph.

Reflections in the calm water at Maryport Marina on Tuesday morning

Tuesday started dry, calm and cloudy. The wind got up during the afternoon, the cloud cleared and the sun came out as the day went on. The top temperature was 13C (55F) and the top average wind speed was 21mph.

It was overcast but dry when we got up on Wednesday morning with light showers and spitting from late morning. It started raining properly late afternoon and kept it up all evening. The top temperature was 11C (52F) and the top average wind speed was 25mph, gusting 33mph.

Rain yesterday (Thursday) afternoon at Maryport Marina

Yesterday (Thursday) we awoke to cloudy but dry weather. However, it didn’t stay dry for long. It started spitting at around 10am. This was followed by heavy rain by late morning which continued throughout the day and into the evening. The top temperature was 13C (55F) and the top wind speed was 19mph, gusting 31mph.

And, so far, today (Friday) the weather has been very wet and windy. The top temperature was 13C (55F) and the top average wind speed was 23mph, gusting 36mph.