Second anniversary of buying Ravensdale and the start of our third winter afloat

Ravensdale at Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK

It seems impossible to believe that last Saturday marked two years since we sold our house in the Scottish Highlands and bought Ravensdale.

It’s difficult to describe how it felt to no longer have an address on dry land having owned our own homes for as long as either of us could remember.

To say it was scary would be an understatement, but I was also super excited about our lovely new-to-us floating home - a 43ft Neptunus motor cruiser at Maryport in Cumbria, UK.

However, she was out of the water on the hard standing at the marina having some work carried out for the first fortnight, so we stayed in holiday cottages nearby.

We moved on board when she went back in the water on November 4, 2016, and that’s the date we consider to be our liveaboard anniversary.

This week, we’ve been stuck in the marina due to high winds, so we’ve used the time to get a few jobs done on board.

And it looks as though we could get our first taste of winter any day now with snow forecast for parts of the UK this weekend.

Too windy for fishing

Our most recent fishing trip on Ravensdale

High winds have meant Ravensdale has been stuck in the marina this week, but I guess we can’t really complain when we managed to get out fishing five times in the previous fortnight.

I regularly check the forecast looking for a possible opportunity to take our boat out on the water given that we like to stick to our single figure rule.

This means we only leave the marina if the average wind speed is forecast to be 9mph or lower and it’s served us well so far.

It’s not a problem travelling at higher wind speeds, but it makes fishing at anchor pretty uncomfortable.

It initially looked as though the wind was going to drop a bit from Sunday onwards and Sunday, Monday or Tuesday may have been possibles if it had dropped a tiny bit more.

Sadly, as the week went on the forecast changed for the worse and the expected wind speeds increased instead of decreasing so there doesn’t look to be a suitable day for the foreseeable future ☹

Oh well, I guess it gives us more time to get on with all the stuff that needs doing on the boat...

Winter is coming

Snow is being forecast for parts of the UK this weekend as temperatures plummet.

Snow at Maryport Marina in February of this year

We’re not really likely to get any here as it's expected to fall on high ground, but it'-s still going to be very cold.

The clocks go back an hour at 2am on Sunday marking the end of British Summer Time.

Meteorological winter doesn’t start until December 1 and astrological winter begins on December 21, which is the winter solstice.

But it seems that no one has told the weather to hold off for at least another month as temperatures here are expected to fall to 0C (32F) - feels like -3C (26F) - in the early hours of Monday morning, which sounds pretty wintry to me 😊

Wally continues to cause problems

Wally the Whale Gulper pump in situ under the floor in our bedroom

Wally is my name for the Whale Gulper pump that empties the grey water tank from the wash basin in the ensuite heads and the shower (no good reason for the name except that I like a bit of alliteration 😊).

He has been a bit temperamental lately.

Most of the time, he works just fine but, from time to time, he fails to operate, which means the only place for the water to go is into the bilges.

I became quite good at noticing when I hadn’t heard him for a while, so we could lift the inspection cover in the floor at the foot of our bed and prod him into action.

Phil disconnecting the grey water tank

However, it became obvious that his reluctance to work was being caused by the float switch that operates the pump, so Phil took it apart on Wednesday to find out if it could be fixed.

Once he’d done this, we decided it would be best to put in a new float switch anyway as it wasn’t changed when we replaced the water pump, so we ordered a new one.

Phil also removed the grey water tank and gave it a good clean.

The new float switch arrived yesterday (Thursday) but couldn’t be fitted straight away as it required some minor adjustments to the grey water tank involving sealant that had to be left overnight to cure.

The new float switch fitted inside the grey water tank

Hopefully, Wally will be up and running again today (Friday).

Storage wars

Despite it being two years since we sold our house and bought a boat, I’m still struggling to part with some of the things I probably no longer need, and the changing seasons has made me take another look at our storage situation.

Sadly, I’ve had to accept that summer is well and truly over, and I won’t be needing my summer clothes again until next year.

Due to the lack of storage on board, we only keep the relevant season’s clothes on Ravensdale, along with a few items to cover the transition period.

So, I’ve been busy packing away my summer stuff until next spring and digging out warmer items.

Packing away my summer clothes

I dramatically reduced the amount of clothing I own when we sold our house and bought a boat and I know I should reduce it still further, so it could all stay on the boat.

However, I still find it difficult to part with some items I haven’t worn since we moved on board.

I know the chances of me wearing them ever again are remote, but I still tell myself that there may be a time when I want to do so.

Also, I’d rather dig out something I already own than have to buy something new when the clothes I’m wearing now wear out.

So, for now, I will carry on storing the stuff I’m not wearing at the moment.

Maybe I’ll get rid of some of it next year…😊

Aquarium postcards

Completely out of the blue, I received a Facebook message from the Aquarium on the harbourside here at Maryport complimenting my photos of the area and asking if they could use some of them on their postcards and greetings cards.

The Aquarium by the harbour in Maryport

I was told they would print my name on any cards bearing my photos and include a link to my blog, so you can’t say fairer than that 😊

I replied that I’d be delighted for them to do so and sent a selection of photos that I thought might be suitable.

The hardest part was choosing what to send.

Firstly, I didn’t really know what they wanted.

But by far the biggest headache was that I have literally tens of thousands of photos of this area now so looking through them to make my selection was pretty time-consuming.

And I can’t help thinking that the ones I’ve sent may not really be the best of them.

Some of the images I sent are below.

A fishing boat returning to Maryport

A cygnet hitching a ride on its Mum's back

Maryport lighthouse at sunset

I'm sure they must’ve asked lots of people to send photos for possible use, so I was delighted to hear that they wanted to use some of my images.

I’m going to be chuffed to bits to see postcards and greetings cards bearing my photos on sale when we go to the Aquarium for lunch, coffee or just to buy bait for our fishing trips.

I would’ve happily let them use them for nothing, so I was delighted when Phil and I were given a year’s membership as a thank you gesture.

I will definitely be heading over there once the busy school holiday period is over to take photos of some of the impressive sea creatures on display so watch this space… 😊

Slow cooking

I wasn’t really convinced that a slow cooker was a good idea when a friend offered us one that he no longer wanted.

My first concern was where we’d keep it, and, at the moment, it lives in the forecabin, which is more like a store cupboard than a bedroom.

I was also unsure as to how much it would get used but Phil, who’s head chef on Ravensdale, has already made us several delicious meals in it – a chicken tikka masala, a chilli con carne and a sausage casserole.

The latest addition to our galley - our new-to-us slow cooker

And he tells me the electricity it uses is roughly equivalent to a large light bulb, so it looks like it’s going to earn its place on our boat.

It’s too early for Christmas decorations!

Surely, I can’t be the only one who thinks mid-October is way too early to put up Christmas decorations.

I couldn’t believe it when we went to Dunmail Park Shopping Centre at Workington to do our weekly Asda shop last week to discover the roof of the mall covered in baubles and garlands.

Christmas decorations at Dunmail Park Shopping Centre

For goodness sake!

It’s not even Hallowe’en yet!

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and all the trimmings that go with it, but I can’t help feeling it waters down the special nature of the festive season when the decorations go up so far before the main event.

Swans reunited

The swans turned up looking for food as I was on my way up to the marina facilities for a shower on Monday morning. I was at the opposite end of the pontoon to our boat, so I told them I’d feed them when I got back if they were still around.

I couldn’t see them on my way back, but Phil later found a single cygnet hiding under the pontoon apparently left behind when the rest of the family left the marina.

The lone cygnet in the marina

I fed it then left it to its own devices in the hope it would head off out of the marina in search of the others before the marina gate closed.

Meanwhile, a local person posted a photo of the adult swans and other two cygnets in the harbour on a local Facebook group commenting that one appeared to be missing.

I said the other one was in the marina and posted a photo of it.

And, shortly afterwards, someone else posted a photo of the family reunited in the harbour.

Sadly, we haven’t seen them in the marina since so I'm hoping the experience hasn’t put them off visiting us ☹

Passers-by

Andy, who works at the marina, got his yacht Skipsea Witch back in the water on Monday after three years on the hard standing.

Andy passing Ravensdale on Skipsea Witch

We watched him launch it and motor past Ravensdale on his way to his mooring, just a bit further along the pontoon on which our boat is currently moored.

Phil went to catch his ropes when he arrived at the pontoon while I took photos for him.

Phil helping Andy to moor up Skipsea Witch

And here are a few passers-by that I didn’t get around to posting last week.

I had to finish off my blog in a bit of a rush last Friday after spending a full day out fishing on Thursday.

In so doing, I didn’t get around to including some of the boats that passed Ravensdale in Maryport Marina, Cumbria, UK, last week so here’s a bit of a catch-up.

Five small fishing boats headed out of the marina before us on Sunday, October 14 and, to do so, they have to pass Ravensdale on their way towards the gate.

As usual, I was standing on our aft deck to snap them as they passed. Some seemed happy to have their photographs taken while others seemed intent on hiding their faces 😊

A larger boat that passed Ravensdale last week was the Whitehaven-registered fishing boat Stjernen.

Stjernen on the MPM boat hoist

It arrived on Tuesday October 16 to go up on the MPM boat yard hoist for work and left yesterday (Thursday).

Stjernen passing Ravensdale yesterday (Thursday)

Photography

The lack of fishing trips on Ravensdale this week and very few visits from the swan family mean I haven’t taken quite as many photos as usual.

But it has also meant I’ve had more time to get out and about with my camera.

I took it for walks around the harbour and beach on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday.

Maryport beach on Saturday

Looking the other way along Maryport beach on Saturday

Golden light on Maryport Harbour on Sunday evening

Low tide at Maryport Harbour

The swan family heading under the bridge at Maryport Harbour

Fishing boats at Maryport Harbour on Wednesday

A seagull in Maryport Harbour

High tide at Maryport Harbour

A fishing boat manoeuvering in Maryport Harbour

And I went around to the beach to catch the sunset on Sunday evening to discover there was a fishing competition going on.

Sunset on the shore at Maryport

Another view of the sunset on Maryport beach

Fishermen taking part in a competition at Maryport

A wider view of the fishing competition on Maryport beach

Weather watch

The weather has been predominantly windy and overcast this week with drizzle at times and a few sunny intervals.

Saturday was grey, damp and fairly windy with drizzle from time to time during the day. The top average wind speed recorded locally was 18mph and the temperature reached 13.2C (56F).

A grey day at Maryport Marina on Saturday

Saturday night into Sunday was relatively warm with temperatures of 12.4-12.8C (54-55F).

Sunday continued the grey and damp theme with periods of heavy drizzle. The rain cleared up during the afternoon giving way to clouds and occasional sunny intervals which brought the temperature up to 12.9C (55F).

A sunny interval at Maryport Marina on Sunday

The highest average wind speed recorded during the day was 23mph, gusting 32mph, but the wind dropped considerably later in the day.

Monday was dry and bright first thing followed by cloud and sunny intervals with a little light drizzle mid-morning. The temperature only reached 10.9C (52F) and the top average wind speed was 21mph.

Heavy skies and sunshine at Maryport Marina on Monday

Monday night into Tuesday was a very windy night with a lot of rocking and creaking ropes. The top overnight wind speed was 26mph, gusting 38mph.

We had a grey start to the day on Tuesday but at least it was dry and fairly bright. The high winds continued throughout the day with a top average wind speed of 31mph, gusting 43mph. The highest temperature recorded locally was 11.4C (52.5F).

Another grey day at Maryport Marina on Tuesday

Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday was another pretty windy night with a top average wind speed of 25mph and gusts of up to 36mph causing a lot of noise from our mooring ropes again.

Wednesday morning was overcast but dry and it was still fairly windy first thing. The cloud thinned a bit during the morning allowing a bit of blue sky to show through. This was followed by varying degrees of cloud throughout the day. The top temperature was 11C (52F) but it felt cooler in the wind and the top average wind speed was 24mph, gusting 34mph.

Sun breaking through the clouds at Maryport harbour on Wednesday

Despite Phil washing our ropes and soaking them in fabric softener they still made a good bit of noise on Wednesday night. We think it must be down to the wind direction, which was mainly west-north-westerly overnight.

Yesterday (Thursday) started dry, bright and still fairly breezy. This was followed by a generally overcast day with a top temperature of 10.9C (52F) and an average wind speed of up to 19mph.

And today (Friday) the weather has so far been dry, bright and windy. The highest average wind speed recorded locally was 24mph, gusting 36mph, and the temperature has only reached 8.9C (45F).

Towels being blown around in the wind on Ravensdale's aft deck today (Friday)

Engine problems threaten to turn our liveaboard dream into a nightmare

Ravensdale's troublesome heat exchanger is lifted out onto the saloon floor

The past week probably rates as the most worrying since we moved on board our 43ft seagoing cruiser almost 15 months ago.

For a short while, it looked as though one of Ravensdale’s engines had a very serious problem. So much so that a local man with extensive experience of keeping fishing boats running told us he had no idea what the problem could be.

After working on her starboard engine for the best part of two days, he sat in our saloon on Tuesday afternoon looking down at the engine, shaking his head and basically giving us the impression that it was done.

Phil watches Norman disconnect the intercooler

As if that wasn’t bad enough, our Webasto diesel heating system packed up on Tuesday evening.

I couldn’t help thinking that I’d somehow tempted fate when I wrote last week’s blog about our super-efficient heating system on Ravensdale.

We had to resort to heating the boat with the gas oven and a dehumidifier until Phil could have a proper look at it the following morning.  

We then discovered that the lights dimmed every time we used anything else on the 24V system.

We had no heating Tuesday evening, overnight and Wednesday morning.

Phil started investigating the cause of the problem the following morning to discover that the battery charger wasn’t working.

He couldn’t identify the cause of the problem so we called in a marine electrician, who’d previously carried out work on Ravensdale.

He turned up a couple of hours later to discover that the switch by the mains input that takes 240V to the charger for the 24V system was off.

Phil was kicking himself for not checking the switch, but we never touch it and had no reason to even think it might have been turned off.

We can only think that it happened accidentally during the work being carried out in the engine room.

Thankfully, the electrician could see the funny side of the situation, but we’ve definitely learnt a lesson – always check something is switched on before calling in the experts J

Ravensdale’s overheating problem

The last time we took Ravensdale out to sea, she had a problem with her starboard engine overheating at speed.

She has two 300hp Volvo Penta engines.

The port engine was running just fine whatever speed she was doing.

But the temperature of her starboard engine showed a marked increase if we took her over about 12 knots and on one occasion, before we noticed this problem, the warning light on the temperature gauge came on and the alarm started going off.

Reducing the engine speed very quickly brought the temperature back down again.

Ravensdale out on the Solway Firth

Some people suggested this was easily remedied by keeping to 12 knots and below, but we weren’t happy to do this as we felt the overheating must be indicative of an underlying problem.

After asking around at our marina at Maryport in Cumbria, UK, Norman, who’s been keeping his family’s fishing boats running for years, agreed to come and see if he could get to the root of it.

Christmas and New Year, followed by bad weather and his other workload meant he hadn’t got around to us yet.

Phil had said he wanted the problem rectified before taking Ravensdale out again and, up until last weekend, it hadn’t mattered that we were still waiting for the work to be done.

However, on Saturday, the weather was fine and bright and there was very little wind. The tide times also meant the marina gate was open for almost five daylight hours.

It was an opportunity we would almost certainly have taken advantage of under normal circumstances, but we decided against for two reasons – I still wasn’t really feeling 100% after the flu bug and we really wanted Ravensdale’s overheating problem sorted before taking her out again.

So, when I saw Norman go down to his boat on Sunday, I went along to see when he might be able to fit us in and he said he’d be with us at 8am the following morning.

This meant a bit of an early start for us as we needed to dismantle the seating on the starboard side of the saloon and lift the floor to provide access to the engine before he arrived.

However, we considered it well worth getting up early if it solved Ravensdale’s overheating problem.

Trying to trace the cause of the problem

Norman started by examining the pipes and the jubilee clips on the system and discovered a perished hose and old jubilee clips that needed replacing.

He also found that there was no gasket on the water pump and asked me to cut one out of an old cereal packet as we didn't have any gasket paper on board.

Norman fitting the cereal packet gasket

He then set about removing the intercooler, which proved more difficult than he had expected due to the way it was designed and because it had apparently not been removed since the boat was built in 1984.

Norman eventually managed to prise it free and took it away to clean it with a compressor.

Phil and Norman inspect the intercooler

Meanwhile, he sent us to a nearby motor parts store to buy gasket paper and RTV silicone instant gasket.

He said he would return at around 8am on Tuesday morning, which meant another early start, but we didn’t mind at all as we just wanted to get the job done.

Norman replaced the intercooler and checked the thermostats, both of which seemed to be working.

Norman checking the thermostats

Phil passed him the tools he needed and held a torch to shed light on the area on which he was working.

My job was to cut some new gaskets for the intercooler from the filter paper we’d bought the previous day.

Me punching holes in the gaskets I had cut

Norman connected everything back up, then realised that there was no seawater in the cooling system because the filter was partially above sea level and the water in the system had drained down.

He got Phil to start the engine in the hope that the pump would suck the water in, but this did not happen so he had to top up the filter to provide sufficient water to get it circulating again.

The engine sounded fine. However, when they checked the water outlet, they discovered that there was only a trickle of water coming through and steam started coming out at about 1,000 revs.

 It was at this point that things were not looking good for Ravensdale.

After much soul-searching during a coffee break, Norman decided that the only thing he could try now was to take off the heat exchanger and take that away and clean it too.

He hadn’t thought this would be necessary as he was convinced that any blockage would be in the intercooler, but he decided it was worth trying as a last resort.

The heat exchanger was much bigger than the intercooler and even more difficult to remove. When he eventually managed to remove it, he discovered that it was full of sludge.

Phil helps Norman with the troublesome heat exchanger

Phil gave Norman a lift home with the heat exchanger so he could clean it up and he returned the following morning to say he hadn’t been able to clean it with a pressure washer or a compressor so he had it soaking in caustic soda.

He said he’d let us know when it was ready to go back on.

And yesterday (Thursday) morning we got a call to say we could collect it from his home.

We brought Norman back with the heat exchanger and, after making new gaskets for it, he connected it up.

Then came the moment of truth...

Water coming out of the outlet for Ravensdale's starboard engine

Phil started up the engine and we were all delighted to see that the water was flowing through it properly again. He ran it up to 1,000 revs without any sign of steam.

The final test will be taking Ravensdale out to sea when a suitable weather window coincides with the marina gate being open at a reasonable time of day, but it certainly looks as though the problem has been sorted.

Severe weather warnings

The Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" warning for snow and ice for much of the UK for Sunday.

The area covered by the warning came within eight miles of Maryport and, although the snow we had here was too wet to settle, it was falling fairly heavily for a while on Sunday morning.

The snowy view from Ravensdale's aft deck

Snow falling at Maryport Marina in Cumbria

And we didn’t get much sleep overnight Tuesday into Wednesday as Storm Georgina lashed the west coast with 45mph southerly winds, gusting up to 59mph.

This caused some fairly dramatic rocking and the water splashing against the hull seemed to be particularly noisy.

The high winds continued throughout much of the day on Wednesday.

The dreaded lurgy

I am almost fully recovered from the flu bug that made me so unwell for the best part of a fortnight.

It’s now almost three weeks since the symptoms started and all that’s left is a persistent cough.

I’m hoping it will disappear fairly soon, although I know of people who’ve been back at work for three weeks after suffering this bug who’ve still not managed to shake off the cough.

We thought Phil was getting it a few times as he had headaches and felt generally under the weather, but he’s still managing to fight it off.

Cooking with gas

Ravensdale's gas stove and hob

I recently realised I hadn’t worked out how much we spend on gas for our cooker, which is also used to boil water for cups of tea.

Well, we now know...

We started using a 13kg propane cylinder on November 15 and it ran out on Tuesday of this week, which means it lasted one day short of 9 weeks.

A 13kg cylinder costs £28, which means we’re spending just over £3 per week on gas.