Rain stops play and causes more problems on Ravensdale

Wet and windy weather heralds the return of the "typical British summer"

I hate rain!

Yes, I know we need it, but it gets very depressing when it falls out of the sky almost constantly, which is what it feels like we’ve had here in Maryport, Cumbria, UK, over the past week.

The persistent precipitation has meant the hosepipe ban that was due to come into force here on Sunday has been lifted.

But, for us, it has meant more leaks to fix and the frequent downpours, coupled with high winds, have stopped us taking Ravensdale out on the water ☹

Phil inspecting the wastewater pump

Our Neptunus 133 motor cruiser had been watertight since we moved onboard in November 2016.

But the long, hot, dry spell during May, June and the first few weeks of July followed by heavy rain seems to have resulted in one leak after another.

And, that wasn’t the only way water has caused problems for us this week.

The wastewater pump under the floor in the aft cabin became blocked and stopped working, which meant the water from the washbasin in the en suite heads was pouring into the bilges.

On a brighter note, the bad weather has meant that – after a long break – I’ve been getting on with my first attempt at writing a fictional novel and have very nearly finished the first draft.

More leaks! 

Just when we thought we’d sorted the leaking windows on Ravensdale, another one developed a slight leak during the heavy rain overnight last Friday into Saturday.

I discovered water had dripped onto the top of my laptop which sits on the shelf behind the dining table under the window along the back of the dinette.

There wasn’t much water coming in, but any ingress of rain is too much so Phil ran transparent sealer around the top of the window and we’ve had no further water getting in at that point since then.

Phil sealing along the top of the leaking window

Phil drilling a new drainage hole

However, yesterday (Thursday) morning, we discovered water on the floor of the en-suite shower in the aft cabin when it hadn’t been used for months because we use the showers in the marina’s toilet and shower block.

Initially, we thought it had come up through the drain hole when the waste water pump stopped working, but Phil discovered it was running down the wall beneath the steps that lead up to the door on the aft deck.

There was no obvious cause, but he thought it could be due to water building up in the channel in which the heavy metal door slides.

The door is fitted at an angle but looks as though it was designed to be installed upright as the drainage holes in the bottom of the channel are in the middle of what would be the bottom if it were vertical.

As it has been installed at an angle, water can sit in the channel below the drainage holes.

One of the new drainage holes 

When it actually stopped raining yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, Phil drilled drainage holes at the lowest point in the channel at each end of the door and in the middle.

He also cleaned out the channel and, when it dries out, he’s going to try applying sealant along the back, where it meets the frame, in case water is getting in that way.

Oh well, there are worse places for water to be coming in.

At least, there’s nothing for it to spoil or damage in the shower and it will just run away down the drain.

Wally the whale gulper

I heard a strange sound when I pulled the plug out of the wash basin in the en suite heads in the aft cabin on Tuesday morning.

It sounded as though water was going straight into the bilges, so I suggested that Phil might like to take a look.

We then realised that we hadn’t heard Wally working for a while. Wally is my name for the whale gulper 220 water pump that clears the waste water from the wash basin and shower at that end of the boat 😊

Phil lifted the inspection panel in the floor at the foot of the bed to discover that the pump had stopped working and the tank had overflowed into the bilges.

The whale gulper wastewater pump

He found the pump to be clogged up so cleaned it out and pumped out the water that was in the bilges.

He then ran a hose pipe into the water tank, which Wally emptied several times without any problems before Phil cleaned and dried the bilges.

Another job done and all before coffee time 😊

"No fishing allowed"

We’ve been unable to take Ravensdale out fishing this week due to high winds, but probably wouldn’t have wanted to do so anyway when it was raining.

When we’re using diesel to go out on the water, it helps if it’s also fun and fishing in the rain has no appeal for me – Phil may disagree 😊

Meanwhile, it’s so frustrating to see lots of large grey mullet swimming around in the marina and not being able to catch them.

One of the grey mullet in the marina

There’s a “no fishing” rule in the marina and, when we asked why this was, we were told it was due to fears that lost fishing line could become tangled around boat props.

Curtain hooks

Our bedroom curtains were still letting in too much light despite me replacing the existing thin lining material that was on the back of them with blackout fabric.

They were much better than before, but light was pouring in under the curtains and down the sides where they hung away from the walls.

Light shining out from under the bedroom curtains

One of the elastic loops on its hook

We didn’t fancy permanently attaching them at the bottom of the curtains, so I tried a simple idea that seems to have worked.

I sewed elastic loops level with the top of the hem on each curtain far enough in from the ends to pull them fairly tight when they’re stretched over hooks in the walls on either side.

The hooks were placed higher than the point at which the curtain hung when loose to pull them in under the portlights and the knobs that fasten them, which protrude into the room.

The loops are on the back of the curtains so are not visible when the curtains are open and the hooks are neat and unobtrusive.

The curtain hooked up blocking out the light

As I said, a very simple fix but it seems to have reduced the amount of light that comes in around them to a level which no longer wakes us at sunrise.

Rescuing our bikes

During a brief dry spell on Monday, Phil set about cleaning our bikes with oxcalic acid.

Phil painting his bike with oxcalic acid

All the time we were living in houses on dry land, our bikes have been safely stored in sheds or garages.

When we moved onto our boat, there was no way of storing them out of the weather and here we have the added problem of salt in the air.

Unfortunately, the marina’s bike shelter is open to the prevailing winds and both bikes had succumbed to quite a lot of rust.

Phil came to the conclusion that we either had to get them sorted or take them to the tip.

We’d already tried cleaning them with all sorts of products without success, so the oxcalic acid was a bit of a last resort.

It made a big improvement, but the gears on Phil’s bike refused to work so we’ve taken it in for a service.

The plan is to do the same with mine, then get out and use them more even if they don’t look as good as they did before.

Marina hoist breaks down

The marina’s boat hoist broke down while lifting our neighbour’s boat out of the water on Tuesday.

The MPM boat hoist comes to the rescue of the marina's hoist

MPM boat yard’s hoist was brought in to help. Fortunately, the boatyard is right next to the maina, at the top of the slipway, so it didn't have far to come.

The problem occurred just weeks after the marina hoist had been out of action for its annual service.

Reg, the marina foreman, later explained that it was due to a broken hose, which they were able to get fixed the same day.

Feeding time at Ravensdale

The swans arrived for food again when the marina gate opened on Monday morning and returned to the boat for a couple of feeds again while they were here.

However, they forgot to leave before the gate closed again as the tide was going out, which meant they were stuck in the marina for at least another seven hours.

The swan family feeding by Ravensdale's bow

When night time fell, they went over and laid on the marina slipway until the gate opened again and they could make good their escape.

I looked out to see them on the slipway on several occasions and one of the adults always appeared to be on sentry duty while the rest of the family slept.

One adult swan stays awake while the others sleep on the marina slipway

They paid us regular visits over the next few days but were unable to get in when the gate was kept closed on a couple of occasions due to a big swell.

They were back looking for food when the gate opened yesterday (Thursday) afternoon.

One of the cygnets

And it looks as though I’m going to have to mug up on the life cycle and habits of the mute swan as passers-by, who see me feeding them, frequently ask questions to which I don’t know the answer, or at least not yet…

Missing our garden…or maybe not 😊

One of the things I thought we would really miss when we decided on a life afloat was having a garden.

Gardening had always been a big hobby for both of us and we’ve landscaped many gardens, but never stayed in the houses long enough to see them come to fruition.

Weed seeds near the marina

However, when I see all the weed seeds that are flying around here at this time of year, I’m very glad that none of them will be settling in our garden, giving us hours of back-breaking weeding ahead.

Also, the long, dry spell we’ve had in recent months has had gardeners tearing their hair out and praying for rain for their precious lawns and plants.

We had no such worries as the only plants we have to look after are our houseplants (or rather boatplants), which demand very little care and attention.

I’m pretty sure Phil doesn’t miss cutting the grass, especially as some of the gardens we’ve had in the past were a good size and therefore pretty time-consuming on the mowing front.

And, as he always says: “We may not have a garden, but we’ve got a blooming great pond.” 😊

Ravensdale sitting on our lovely big pond

Me deadheading the flowers in the marina's planters

Meanwhile, we got a chance to brush up on our gardening skills yesterday (Thursday) when we offered to deadhead the bedding plants in the pots outside the marina facilities to keep them flowering for longer.

My first foray into fiction

Writing a fictional novel is a lot harder than I ever imagined it would be.

I’ve spent all of my adult life, except for the time I spent at home caring for my children when they were small, writing for a living as a journalist and as a communications officer with a health board.

I spent many years working from home and have never had a problem with being distracted from my work – admittedly that was before I lived on a boat and there seem to be more distractions here than there were in a house 😊

Me trying to finish the first draft of my book on yet another wet day

Anyway, I really thought my background would make writing a book a doddle.

I relished the idea of being able to make it up as I went along, rather than having to stick to the facts (and, yes, this journalist really did stick to the facts 😊)

But it has proved to be so much harder than I expected.

I had what I thought was a good idea for the plot of a psychological thriller and thoroughly enjoyed the research involved and the satisfaction of finishing another chapter.

I set off at a good pace and got more than three-quarters of the way through it before I ran out of steam.

This was partly due to the glorious sunshine that made it very hard to want to stay inside writing when I really didn’t have to, but mainly due to realising how difficult it is to write an ending.

I now have five possible endings and I think I’m going to have to write them all before I decide which one works best.

And, if that doesn’t work, I'll go back to the beginning and read it all again in the hope it will become obvious which ending I should use. 

Or I may do that while working on the next draft. 

Sunsets and dramatic skies

I took my camera out for a walk along the shore and around the marina just before the rain started on Friday evening.

Wildflowers on the coastal path at Maryport

Sun breaking through the clouds over the Solway Firth

The light on the ground wasn’t great, but I managed to get a few shots of some dramatic clouds and the last rays of sunshine breaking through between them.

And, on Monday night, I popped out with my camera when I saw the sky start to colour up a bit in the hope of getting some nice sunset photos.

What I got was a very different sunset to those we've seen during the long spell of warm, dry weather we've had here in Maryport this summer.

The Solway Firth is well known for its colourful sunsets, which can be truly stunning.

Tuesday night's sunset was considerably less colourful but, what it lacked in colour, it made up for with dramatic cloud formations.

And the heavy rain over the previous few days left a number of large puddles that provided some good reflections.

Reflections in a puddle on Maryport pier at sunset

Another view of Monday night's sunset at Maryport

Wet and windy weather

I think we were totally spoilt by the beautiful weather we’ve been enjoying at Maryport in Cumbria for most of the summer.

We should be used to wet and windy weather at this time of year, but the warm, sunny days and equally balmy nights had lulled us into a false sense of security and duped us into believing we were living in a much more temperate climate.

So, the wind and rain over the past week was something of a rude awakening.

Maryport last Friday - the last day of fine weather before the rain arrived

We had heavy rain overnight Friday into Saturday and it was still tipping it down, albeit very calm, when we got up. The rain stopped and the wind blew up during the morning, but it was pouring again by lunchtime and the rest of the day was punctuated by heavy showers.

The highest temperature was 17C (63F) at 7am and the top average wind speed was 31mph, gusting 46mph, at 1pm.

Soggy Sunday at Maryport Marina

We had more rain overnight and throughout the day on Sunday when the top temperature was 16.1C (61F) and the highest average wind speed was 28mph, gusting 41mph.

Monday started wet before changing to a mixture of sunshine and showers, but it remained very windy until the evening with a top average wind speed of 21mph, gusting 30mph. The highest temperature recorded locally was 17.3C (63F).

A brief period of calm weather on Monday evening

It looked as though Tuesday was going to buck the trend when we woke up to dry and fairly bright conditions, but the cloud soon started to build and it remained overcast throughout the afternoon.

The top temperature was 17C (63F) and the top average wind speed reached 26mph, gusting 37mph.

The marina gate was left closed at lunchtime on Tuesday due to the weather and a big swell, but Ravensdale was still rocking well during the afternoon.

Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday continued windy with lots of creaking from our mooring ropes. The top night-time wind speed was 23mph, gusting 34mph.

Wednesday started dry and fairly bright, but it soon clouded over and started raining mid-afternoon. The high winds continued all day with a top average speed of 19mph, gusting 33mph, and the highest daytime temperature recorded locally was 16.5C (62F).

Wet Wednesday at Maryport Marina

It was raining first thing yesterday (Thursday) and remained wet until around lunchtime when the rain stopped but it stayed overcast. The top daytime temperature was 16C (61F) with the average wind speed peaking at 16mph.

And, so far, today (Friday) the weather has been...yes, you guessed right - wet. It was spitting first thing and now it's pouring with rain ☹ 

High winds stop play, stunning skies and our new lobster pot

Ravensdale moored up at Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK

High winds for most of the past week have meant we’ve been unable to take Ravensdale out to play on the water.

However, the forecast is looking better for Sunday and the start of next week. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’s correct, so we can get back out on the Solway Firth in search of the smooth-hound that got away – other fish are available😊

The wind has been well into double figures, with considerably higher gusts, for most of the week, which means Ravensdale has been stuck in the marina.

On the up side, it has given us a chance to do other things, one of which involved adding another string to our bow on the fishing front and hopefully this one will actually provide us with edible catches.

We’ve acquired a small lobster pot that we’re planning to take out and drop in the Solway Firth very soon in the hope of catching some juicy lobsters for our supper.

Meanwhile, we had an influx of visitors at Maryport Marina in Cumbria, UK, last weekend for the marina’s open day.

The world is our lobster 😊

Phil with our new-to-us lobster pot and flag pole

Much as we enjoy our fishing trips on Ravensdale, it’s been a bit of a disappointment that we don’t get to eat many of the fish we catch.

Many of them are too small to keep and the tope have to go back because they’re a protected species.

We ate a couple of decent-sized cod we caught in the winter and very nice they were too 😊

We’ve yet to catch a thornback ray that’s big enough to keep and eat.

We haven’t tried eating dogfish as they’re a total pain to prepare and not considered particularly good eaters anyway so really not worth the hassle. 

Hopefully we’ll get to try smooth-hound soon as the fillets from the one we kept from our fishing trip on Saturday June 9 are still in the freezer.

We read that they needed to be frozen for a fortnight before eating to get rid of the ammonia in them, so they should be ready this weekend.

But lobster, now that’s a totally different kettle of fish 😊

Any that are big enough to keep will definitely be going in the cooking pot.

Phil has applied to the North Western Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for a permit to catch lobster, crab and whelk.

Phil testing the flag pole floats

Meanwhile, Phil has tied an old fender onto the flag pole that came with the lobster pot to make it float. We now need to make or buy a flag for it.

We also need to get a small buoy and a length of rope to attach the flag to the pot.

Once that lot’s sorted, all that remains to be done is to decide on the best bait, find a good location in which to drop our pot and then go back and check it on a regular basis.

I probably shouldn’t mention this, but it made me laugh when Phil first told me he needed to find a small boy. Yes, that’s what I thought too 😊

Thankfully I’d taken his comment out of context and what he really meant was that he needed a “small buoy” 😊 Phew! He had me worried there for a minute 😊

(For readers in the US - we pronounce “buoy” and “boy” the same in the UK. I can now see why your pronunciation makes so much more sense 😊)

Double figure fish

Phil with the big tope he caught on a recent fishing trip on Ravensale

It looks as though we need to get new scales for weighing the fish Phil catches (no pun intended 😊)

The biggest tope he caught on a recent fishing trip weighed in at just over 4lb on our fishing scales.

However, last weekend, we showed Glyn Dixon, who operates a charter fishing boat out of Maryport Harbour, the above photo of Phil holding his catch and Glyn said it was definitely a double figure fish.

We’d been surprised it hadn’t weighed more so will have to look at upgrading our scales.

High water alarm

Leaking stern gland on Ravensdale's port prop shaft

The horrible experience of discovering a rising water level in our engine room bilges when we had a leaking stern gland earlier this year led us to install an automatic bilge pump.

And we have this week ordered a high-water alarm.

It was pure luck that we discovered the stern gland leak, which caused a significant amount of water to collect in our bilges, before the situation became considerably worse.

The stern gland on the port prop shaft was fixed and we haven't had any further problems with it since.

Phil went down into the engine room that day because he found water in the forward bilges while doing a totally unrelated job.

He then discovered that the water level in the engine room was higher than the metal grating over the walkway between Ravensdale’s two 300hp Volvo Penta engines.

The high water alarm will hopefully make sure this – or worse - can never happen again.

Links to my previous blog posts about the stern gland leak are below -

Winter cruising joys and the misery caused by flooding bilges

Sleeping more soundly thanks to our new automatic bilge pump

New look marina

Maryport Marina looking ship-shape with its new paint job

When work began on painting the marina a couple of weeks ago, I really wasn’t sure about the shade of blue that had been chosen.

Maryport Marina last winter before its facelift

It looked much too bright to me and I really couldn’t see how it was going to look good.

As work progressed, it started to grow on me and the addition of dark blue window frames and corner stones transformed the whole appearance of the building.

I now love it. It looks great whatever the weather.

The combination of blues is very appropriate for a maritime business and a vast improvement on the drab brown walls before it was painted.

Maryport Marina's new colour scheme

The painting contractors, who did a fantastic job and went out of their way to ensure they didn’t cause any inconvenience to marina customers, worked flat out to make sure it was completed in time for the open day on Saturday.

And the picnic bench that appeared on the paved area in front of the marina facilities overlooking the pontoons a few weeks back has apparently been breeding as there are now three of them 😊

New picnic benches on the paving overlooking the pontoons

Maryport Marina open day

Boat trips in the rain at Maryport Marina Open Day

After more than five weeks of wall-to-wall sunshine, it was so sad that it poured with rain through most of Maryport Marina Open Day on Saturday.

Passengers disembarking after their boat trip

A few hardy folk turned out during the wettest parts of the event, with more arriving when it started to clear up a bit during the afternoon.

I can only think the bad weather put some people off coming, but those who braved the rain appeared to be having a good time.

The most popular attraction seemed to be the free boat trips offered by Glyn Dixon, who owns the local Venture West charter boat.

He took four trips of up to 10 passengers out of the marina into the basin and around into the harbour.

I believe at least one trip also involved heading out between Maryport’s two piers into the Solway Firth, but high winds prevented him from doing so on the other outings.

Maryport Inshore Rescue volunteers at Maryport Marina

Maryport Inshore Rescue brought their rescue boat into the marina for the event and the local Sea Cadets had a stand to let people know about their activities.

Visitors were also offered guided tours of the pontoons and a look on board Solway Adventurer, a Bavaria 38 yacht owned by a charity that provides sailing trips for elderly and disabled people and disadvantaged children.

Two young children enjoying a ride on the roundabout

Other attractions included a children’s fairground ride, a free raffle and the chance to buy food and cups of tea and coffee and to meet the marina customers.

Houseplants or boat plants?

Our new spider plant (right) and a plant we brought with us when we moved on board

If you keep houseplants on a boat, I presume they’re no longer called houseplants 😊

We brought a couple of plants with us when we sold our house and moved onto our 43ft Neptunus 133 motor cruiser in November 2016. And they're still alive – just!

But it’s obvious that neither the peace lily (Spathiphyllum – also known as the white sail plant) or the other plant, the name of which I can’t remember, are thriving.

I don’t know whether it’s the dramatic changes in temperature onboard or too much sunlight scorching them, but I seem to spend a lot of time cutting off dead and discoloured leaves. So much so, that the peace lily is destined for the bin very soon. I just haven’t had the heart to do it yet.

We bought a tiny cactus garden in Lidl supermarket a couple of months ago and that seems to be doing well.

Our miniature cactus garden

And we’ve just bought a spider plant - Chlorophytum comosum variegatum - to replace the very sad-looking peace lily so we’ll see how that fares on Ravensdale.

I haven’t had one of these for years but, if I remember rightly, they were pretty much indestructible. Guess I’ll soon find out if that’s true 😊

Marina wildlife

One of the pigeons that has taken up residence by the marina ramp

A couple of pigeons seem to have taken up residence at the bottom of the ramp from the pontoons to the marina facilities at Maryport Marina.

And they seem totally unconcerned about people walking within a couple of feet of them.

We think they’re young pigeons that have been kicked out of their nest, possibly because their parents have another brood.

I guess they’ve been left to fend for themselves now and one thing they really need to learn is a healthy fear of people or they may not last very long.

A heron on the rocks by the marina slipway

The heron taking a rest from fishing

Meanwhile, the heron has been back hunting from the bottom of the marina slipway on a number of occasions this week.

He also likes to perch on the rocks down the side of the slipway for a rest and can often be seen standing there with his head tucked under a wing.

We haven’t seen the swans that used to be regular visitors to the marina since they arrived with their cygnets while we were heading out of the gate on Ravensdale on Monday of last week.

I’m told they returned, again with their young, last Friday while we were out shopping.

I was so sad to have missed them as I want to start feeding them in the hope they will become regular visitors again.

We've also seen a couple of young pied wagtails sitting on the pontoons over the last couple of days, but I couldn't get near enough to get a decent photo of them. In fact, when I attempted it one flew away. The photo below was the best I could get.

A young pied wagtail sitting on a pontoon at Maryport Marina

Spectacular skies

Interesting cloud formations over Maryport Marina on Wednesday evening

Sunset and sunrises tend to be particularly popular with photographers, but I often think unusual cloud formations at other times of the day can be just us interesting.

We were sitting watching TV on Wednesday evening when we caught sight of some great clouds out of the window.

If I’d spotted them sooner, I might have tried to get to a better location but there was no guarantee they would last so I took a few shots (OK, quite a few shots 😊) from Ravensdale and the pontoon on which she's moored.

Unusual clouds over Ravensdale (at the far end of the pontoon)

Another view of the clouds over the marina

Light-coloured clouds standing out against the dark sky

Another view of the clouds over the marina building

I didn’t get up for sunrise at all this week, but Phil happened to wake up at the relevant time on Saturday morning and took this photo from Ravensdale’s aft deck.

Phil's sunrise photo from Saturday morning

Summer has arrived!

Yesterday (Thursday) was the Summer Solstice – the official start of summer in the northern hemisphere.

So, we will be expecting good weather from now all the way through to the official end of summer on Sunday September 23.

Sadly, the chances of that happening are less than nil ☹

Summer got off to a good start yesterday, but the rest of the past week was decidedly unsummery.

Clouds gathering over Maryport Marina on Friday afternoon

It rained overnight Friday into Saturday. It continued to do so on and off until about 3pm, with heavy downpours at times, but the rain cleared up and the sun came out in the evening. The top daytime temperature was 13.3C(56F) and the top average wind speed was 21mph, gusting to 31mph.

Marina open day visitors wrapped up against the weather on Saturday

Sunday started dull and it was spitting with rain. The rain never really came to anything but the sky remained overcast with dampness in the air. The highest daytime temperature recorded locally was 13.8C (56F) with southerly winds averaging up to 21mph.

Monday was overcast and windy, with a top temperature of 14.8C (59F) and average wind speeds of up to 19mph, gusting 31mph.

This was followed by a fairly windy night with a top average wind speed of 19mph, gusting up to 29mph.

It was bright first thing of Tuesday but clouded over with a few spits of rain late morning. It started raining properly during the afternoon and kept it up throughout the evening. The top daytime temperature was 13.4C (56F) with average wind speeds of 10-13mph.

A grey day at Maryport Marina

Tuesday night into Wednesday was a very windy night. Wind speeds were considerably lower than during Storm Hector the previous week, but Ravensdale seemed to be rocking around more.

We could hear the wind howling around Ravensdale. She was rolling around, the ropes were creaking and the fenders were complaining as they were squashed against the pontoon.

The top average wind speed overnight was 26mph, gusting to 38mph.

Wednesday started overcast and the high winds continued throughout the day, with average wind speeds peaking at 23mph and gusts of up to 36mph.

The sun came out during the afternoon giving a top day time temperature of 14.4C (58F).

Maryport lighthouse on Wednesday evening

Wednesday night and the early hours of yesterday (Thursday) continued windy giving us another noisy and rocky night on board. The highest average wind speed recorded was 30mph, with gusts up to 43mph.

We awoke to a lovely sunny morning yesterday, but it was still pretty windy. The top daytime temperature was 14.7C (58F) and the highest average wind speed recorded locally was 23mph, gusting to 31mph.

Fluffy white clouds in a blue sky herald the start of summer yesterday (Thursday)

And today (Friday) is a proper summers day. It's calm and sunny with very little wind. So far, the highest temperature has been 12.7C (55F) but I have a feeling that will increase as the day goes on.