Crunching ice, a frozen shipping channel and a mystery gift

A freezing cold sunrise at Maryport Marina

Plummeting temperatures earlier this week left Ravensdale surrounded by thick ice.

This was the first time since we moved onboard our 43ft seagoing cruiser at Maryport in Cumbria, UK, that we’ve seen most of the water in the marina freeze over.

Ravensdale is reflected in the ice at Maryport Marina

Jigsaw patterns on the ice by the marina slipway

The crazy paving effect on the solid surface of the water looked beautiful, even if it did mean the seabirds that came to visit that day got very cold feet.

A young seagull walking on the ice looking for food

Another seagull walking on the ice at Maryport Marina

Meanwhile, we were lovely and warm inside our boat, thanks to the Webasto diesel heater we had installed after the Eberspacher heater that was onboard when we bought the boat packed up in January leaving us without heat for a month.

The strangest thing during the cold snap was the noise made by the ice scraping and crunching against Ravensdale’s hull, especially when a fishing boat passed very close to her early on Monday morning on its way to the marina slipway.

We were still in bed at the time, which made the sound of the ice moving against the starboard side seem louder than ever as much of our cabin is closer to the water level than the rest of our living space.

Fortunately, I’d been speaking to one of the guys on the fishing boat the previous evening and he'd told me they would be passing us early the following morning so at least we knew what was happening.

With hindsight, I wish I’d got up earlier to see its hull breaking up the ice as it pushed through the frozen water.

Instead, I had to make do with seeing the after effects – a channel through the ice, running from the berth the fishing boat had been in the previous night, past the side of our boat and around to the slipway.

Shards of ice had been pushed under the frozen surface on either side of the channel and some jagged lumps had been pushed up on top of it.

The "shipping channel" created by the fishing boat pushing its way through the ice

The gap in the ice leading from the other end of the marina

Thankfully a local Maryport man, Ronnie Bell, was up earlier than me and took some lovely photos of Ravensdale at sunrise just after the fishing boat had passed by and of the marina, which he has kindly given me permission to use them on my blog.

Broken pieces of ice floating in the channel left by the fishing boat

A pair or swan taking an early morning swim at Maryport Marina

The pontoons became very slippery overnight on Sunday and Monday nights, but the marina salted them so we were still able to get to and from our boat safely.

The coldest temperature we saw on our outdoor thermometer before we went to bed that night was -1.9C, but we knew it had been much colder during the night. And, the following day, the Met Office website showed that it went down to -3.5C in this area in the early hours of Monday morning.

It was so cold that one of the other berth holders here had to climb out of his bow hatch after discovering the hatch at the top of his companionway had frozen shut.

Crazy paving patterns on the ice at Maryport Marina

Smaller patterns in the thicker ice

Until Sunday night, we’d been turning our heating off overnight, but we left it on the eco setting that night and have continued to do so ever since.

Overnight Monday/Tuesday was another very cold night with temperatures going down to -3C.

Since then, it's become much warmer, which inevitably brought rain L

Just before the cold snap, we went out and bought another set of 500 Christmas lights to give Ravensdale’s festive display some added drama and it seems to be proving popular.

We’ve seen lots of people taking photos of the boat from the road around the marina and one little lad was screaming with delight as he had his photo taken with the boat in the background.

I don’t think we’ve seen a single person walk by without stopping to look at the boat, but then our Christmas lights are rather in your face J

Ravensdale's colourful Christmas lights reflected in the still water

We had a lovely surprise when we returned to the boat after a shopping trip last weekend to find a large, square, plastic box in front of the door on our aft deck.

We took it in and opened it up to find a lovely home baked Christmas cake.

There was no note with it and we had no idea who it was from.

The only thing we knew was that it had to have been put there by someone with access to the marina as no one without a fob would be able to get in through the locked gate.

The Christmas cake that mysteriously appeared on our aft deck

We asked around and discovered that another berth holder had been seen heading in Ravensdale’s direction holding a container while we were out.

And shortly afterwards I received a Facebook message saying he hoped the “larl home baked festive treat” hadn’t “freaked” us out.

He explained that he'd been telling his wife, who likes baking for friends and family, about the limited cooking facilities on Ravensdale and, although she has never met us, she decided to bake us a Christmas cake.

We were very pleased and very grateful.

There’s nothing like being on the receiving end of a random act of kindness to restore your faith in human nature J

Meanwhile, we’ve had a new feathered visitor to the marina over the past week.

Phil lays on the pontoon to get a closer look at the unusual duck

A small black and white duck turned up a couple of times. We had no idea what type of duck it was so Phil looked it up and discovered it was a magpie duck.

Apparently, it's a domesticated breed so we were wondering whether it had escaped from somewhere when it disappeared again. We’re now hoping that it’s gone home as the other options aren't so good, especially at this time of year.

As usual, I've been out and about taking photos around the Maryport area.

Maryport lighthouse at low tide

  

Maryport Christmas lights

Fishing boats in Maryport Harbour at low tide

Another fishing boat in Maryport Harbour

  

Midwinter - the very worst time for a liveaboard boat’s heating system to pack up!

When is a heater not a heater? – when it packs up and refuses to work despite being given a good slap J

And that is exactly what happened less than an hour after I posted my last blog on Thursday evening saying that the “slap treatment” was still working. I  obviously spoke too soon...

After a few attempts at persuading it to restart, we had to accept that there was no point in waiting until Monday to take the heater out and take it to the agent in Carlisle, as planned. It might as well come out straight away.

Phil disconnects the heater to take it for servicing

First thing yesterday, we lifted the carpet in the main cabin and the panel of flooring covering the engine room and Phil went down to attempt disconnecting the heater himself to save us having to pay an engineer to do it.

Dex was fascinated by all the activity and offered his assistance, but was told that he was not needed on this occasion, nor was I so I took him for a walk to get him out of the way.

On our return, we found the heater out of the engine room with Phil sitting proudly beside it. Apparently, although he had been working in a very tight space, he had managed to undo all the leads and pipes and was feeling very pleased with himself.

We immediately drove it to the Eberspacher agents at Carlisle so they could get on with the service asap on Monday.

The heater removed and ready to go

They promised to make it a priority as we live on board and would be without heat in the middle of winter. We were told they would make a start on it on Monday and it would take “a few days” unless they needed to order any parts – no time estimate could be put on this scenario so we are keeping everything crossed that they will have any parts that are required.

Happy that we had done all we could, we stopped for lunch before setting off home from Carlisle. However, while eating we received a phone call asking if we had left the control unit for the heater in the car.

The answer was that it was still fitted in the engine room on the boat, which was 28 miles away in Maryport. So much for saving time by taking the heater to Carlisle yesterday and saving money by doing it ourselves. We can only presume that an engineer would have realised that the agent would need the control unit to run the diagnostic tests.

On returning to Maryport, we took the floor up again and Phil unclipped the control unit. We set off to Carlisle with it again this morning.

The company doesn’t open at weekends, but one of the employees kindly agreed to meet us to take the unit so they would have it ready for an early start on Monday.

The only problem now is that we have no proper heating on board. Except that it doesn’t seem to be proving much of a problem.

So far, we’ve been lucky that the weather has been particularly mild for the time of year. Since Thursday morning when there was ice on the surface of the water in the marina. It thawed quite rapidly during the day and has since stayed at around 6-9C so not too cold at all. 

Water pouring through the marina gate pushing the thin ice into a pile on Thursday morning

We had a small convector heater that we have had for years and never used. We almost got rid of it before we moved onto the boat, but fortunately brought it with us “just in case” and a friend lent us an oil-filled electric radiator.

Phil helps a friend run up a sail

We had both on very low heat settings overnight last night.

Since we got back from Carlisle today, the convector heater has not been used and the oil-filled radiator is on low. The temperature on the boat at the moment is 20C so it doesn’t look as though we are going to freeze just yet.

We are however expecting to use a bit more electricity until we get our diesel heater back. Just hoping the temperature doesn’t drop too much in the meantime or it could get expensive...

On Thursday afternoon, before we discovered our heating disaster, Phil helped a friend run up one of the sails on his yacht and I have a feeling he is now suffering from sail envy J

Wet and windy outside - warm and dry inside



A different view of our new home before the weather changed

It’s been freezing cold the last couple of mornings. Yesterday morning the pontoons were really slippery first thing, but the marina staff kindly salted them to make them safe to use and they had done it before we even got up this morning.

It was so cold this morning that the water in the marina froze over in places, so I was very thankful that the thermal base layer I bought for the mountains in Lochaber was in the last lot of stuff we retrieved from storage.

The thermal undies, two further layers, a woolly hat and a waterproof jacket have kept me warm and dry while out and about today. In fact, the only part of me that was cold was my hands when we swapped old worn ropes for the new ones we collected from the chandlery at Whitehaven at the weekend and doubled up some of the ropes ready for the strong winds expected overnight and into tomorrow.

And the best bit is that the boat is always cosy and warm. The heating system is incredibly efficient so once tucked up inside, it really doesn’t matter what the weather is doing outside, except for the crazy rocking in high winds, but that’s all part of the fun.

Thought you might like to see the inside of our new home so I've pasted a selection of interior shots below. 


The previous owners had obviously taken good care of Ravensdale (or Candlelight as she was then called) and that was a big part of our decision to buy her.


However, the pale grey colour scheme is a bit cold-looking for my liking now we’re living on board so I’m planning to introduce a bit of colour very soon...

 



The main cabin looking towards the entrance and master cabin

 



The galley with gas cooker, microwave, fridge and freezer

Circular dining table with semi-circular seating area that turns into a double bed

Another view of the galley

Dexter looking guilty at the foot of the steps from the galley to the main cabin

Dog-free zone - the master cabin with ensuite bathroom and separate shower