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A huge jellyfish swims past a boat in the marina |
The weather has been amazing for the past week and, on
one of the hottest days, a massive jellyfish found its way into the marina.
I was on my way from Ravensdale up to the marina
facilities when I spotted the monster, which was the size of a dustbin lid, lurking
between the pontoon and another boat.
I was amazed by its size and dashed back to our boat to
get Phil as I knew he would want to see it.
By the time we got back it had gone, but I spotted it
again a little later and we spent much of Tuesday watching it swim around the
marina while taking lots of photos.
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The jellyfish is clearly visible just below the surface of the water |
It really was an incredible sight. It was pale pink, with
a black lacy looking rim, and measured about 18ins in diameter and around 2ft
6ins in length.
We have since looked it up online to discover it was a Rhizostoma pulmo, commonly
known as the barrel jellyfish, the dustbin-lid jellyfish or the frilly-mouthed
jellyfish.
It is found in the Atlantic, the Adriatic and
Mediterranean Sea. It is also common in the Irish Sea.
It usually measures around 16ins in diameter, but can
reach up to 35ins, making it the largest jellyfish in British waters.
Apparently it is a favourite food of the Leatherback Sea Turtle, but as we don’t have too many of them around here it should be safe enough J
Apparently it is a favourite food of the Leatherback Sea Turtle, but as we don’t have too many of them around here it should be safe enough J
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Enjoying the sunshine on Ravensdale's fore deck |
It has been almost too hot to do anything much other than
soaking up the sun and watching the wildlife, including the heron that spends a
lot of time around the marina, but work on the boat has continued.
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A heron posing for photos on a nearby boat |
Phil replaced the damaged black caulking in the aft deck
before cleaning, brightening and sealing it.
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Cleaning the aft deck |
Only trouble was that we didn’t think to shut the windows
in the aft cabin, the heads and shower before he started work on the deck above
it.
Needless to say that once again the water poured in
soaking everything along both sides of our bedroom, the towel hanging on the
towel rail in the bathroom and the loo roll was totally sodden.
And this time was even worse than the last time this
happened when Phil was just hosing down the boat with clean water.
This time the water was filthy where the specialist
cleaning product had lifted all the dirt and algae from the teak deck.
An extra load of washing had to be done and all the
surfaces had to be washed down, but we now have a lovely clean room – until the
next time J
As it is the only way in and out of the boat, we had to
stay inside for an hour after the sealant was applied to allow it to dry,
although we had worked out that we could probably have climbed out of a window
if necessary.
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Applying the deck sealant |
Meanwhile, I have been cleaning the upholstery.
When we
moved onto Ravensdale we decided to keep our carpet and upholstery cleaner
despite it being rather large to store on a boat and we are very glad we did as
it's been worth its weight in gold.
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Cleaning the upholstery in the main saloon |
However, I was becoming very frustrated that I couldn’t
seem to get the grey upholstery on the seating in the saloon to look clean. Try
as I might it still looked a murky brown colour.
I'd almost finished cleaning the cushions and putting
them out on the fore deck to dry when I discovered why I couldn’t get them to
look clean on the boat.
The window alongside the seating was open and as the sun
came around to the starboard side I could see what was happening.
The upholstery lit up by the light from the open window
looked grey whereas the area that was being struck by light coming through the
window was a dirty-looking brownish grey.
And it was at that point that we realised we had tinted
windows. I felt a total prat, but at least I knew that I could stop trying to
clean the cushions as I was never going to wash away the shading caused by the
tinted glass.
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The upholstery looking discoloured due to tinted glass |
Polishing and waxing the boat and chrome cleaning has
continued. It seems Ravensdale is a bit like the Forth Bridge – a never-ending
task.
And we took the canvas covers off the flybridge, the windscreen
and the windows in the fore cabin and scrubbed them to remove the green algae
that had accumulated on them over the winter.
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Scrubbing the flybridge cover in the sunshine |
MPM engineering firm next to the marina has also
completed the work to our black water (toilet) holding tank.
They installed the skin fitting while Ravensdale was out
of the water and completed the internal work yesterday so we will now be able
to discharge the holding tank while at sea.
We have also cleaned up our bikes and Phil gave them a
bit of a service to make sure they will be ready when we want to take them out
for a spin, which will hopefully be one day very soon.
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Phil carrying out bike checks |
One other discovery this week was that we’ve been cooking
everything in far too hot an oven.
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The oven that has been burning everything until now |
We've been using the gas marks given in recipes and
wondering why everything was getting burnt, particularly at the back of the
oven.
At long last, we actually got the instruction booklet out
and discovered that the settings are totally different.
We only have six settings instead of eight, for example gas
mark 4 on this oven is 200C whereas it would normally be 180C and gas mark 6 is
240C compared to 200C.
Also there’s a tray in the bottom of the oven with holes
on three sides.
We thought they should be along the back and sides to allow the heat from
the flames to pass through them, but the instructions said they should be at the
front to disperse the heat more evenly.
So hopefully our meals and my attempts at baking will be
a bit better from now on. I'll let you know...
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