Liveaboard storage wars - a place for everything and everything in it's place

Phil tears out his hair during our very own onboard storage wars

We have definitely got too much stuff for our liveaboard lifestyle.

I’m sure Ravensdale is now sitting lower in the water than when we moved on board at the beginning of November.

One of her big attractions was that she had a lot of storage space for a boat, but that just means we have more room for our junk and we have packed stuff into every wardrobe, cupboard and locker.

From day one, I started keeping lists of what was where.

Piles of stuff fill the boat during our big sort out

However, since then, extra stuff has been added and things have been moved from one location to another.

So much so that we’d reached a point where, every time we wPilanted to do something, we had to spend a good half hour searching for the tools or whatever was needed for the job and sometimes a good deal longer than that.

We set aside a day to tackle the problem and started early in the morning by pulling everything out of its hiding place. Tables, chairs and the floor were piled high with all our worldly possessions.

Then we set about the daunting task of sorting everything, getting rid of anything we really didn’t need and trying to establish some sort of order in the storage of the items that were staying.

And this time I recorded every item that went away and have typed up a “What’s Where” list that should make our lives a lot easier from here on – as long as things are always put backs in the right place...

One of our new fire extinguishers

We have also replaced our fire extinguishers on the boat as the existing ones were well past their use-by date and the directions for use were in Dutch. This meant we didn’t know what type of extinguishers we had and couldn’t read any of the instructions.

We’re guessing they were probably as old as the boat, which was built in Holland in 1984, so we decided there time was up.

And we have put plastic tubing over a couple of our new mooring ropes at the point where they pass through the cleats to prevent them from wearing too quickly.

I would have liked to have been able to get blue tubing to match the ropes, but a local firm gave us an off-cut of green tubing, which has worked a treat.

Meanwhile, I think Phil must have fancied a larger bedroom as he has attempted to water it on two separate occasions J

Phil tops up Ravensdale's water tank

Our cold water tank is under our bed and we have to be very careful when filling it not to let it overflow as the water pours in faster than it can overflow into the marina so it tends to spill over onto the floor under our bed.

Dex keeps a watchful eye on some passers by

We need to top it up every four to five days and thought we now knew roughly how long it took to fill, but we got chatting to someone who dropped in for a coffee and totally forgot the water was running in.

This resulted in the floor and the carpet being soaked so the carpet had to be lifted and towels were packed in around the base of the bed to soak up the excess water.

One of our dehumidifiers then had to work overtime for a couple of days to completely dry out the floor.

And, as if that wasn’t enough water in our bedroom, the next time we filled up the water tank Phil decided to hose down the hull without noticing that I had just opened all the windows in our bedroom to give it a good airing.

Needless to say the water poured in the windows and down the walls. It made puddles on the wooden surfaces and soaked the items sitting on them, including my handbag, which I had unfortunately left wide open.

So, once again, the dehumidifier was working flat out to dry out the bedroom and the soggy contents of my bag – so much for saving money on the electricity now we have a proper diesel heating system again L

The next thing on our “to do” list is to start studying for our VHF radio course next month.

Dex tries out one of our new cushions after a walk around the harbour. Another new fire extinguisher is just visible in the background

Maryport Harbour during one of our dog walks

The past week has been mainly about the three 'F's – fishing, photography and a fuel filter :-)

Fishing off Maryport Pier

At long last we have got around to doing something other than studying and working on the boat.

A few beautiful sunny days have tempted us to put aside the various jobs we had planned to do onboard in the past week and to do some of the other things we enjoy, such as fishing and photography.

Waiting for a bite

Maryport pier, which is only about half a mile from the marina, is a popular fishing spot so you have to get their early to get a good location.

Phil proudly presents his first catch

We haven’t managed to get there early enough for the end of the pier yet, so have been fishing off the side, without much success. The only consolation has been that none of the other fishermen seem to have caught much while we were there either.

On his first attempt last week, Phil caught a small flat fish and an even smaller whiting and today he caught two small whiting.

While he was fishing, I took my camera for a walk along the shore and thankfully got back in time to get a quick snap of him with the little flat fish just before he returned it to the sea.

Next time, I may set up a rod too as two rods have to give us a better chance of catching something.

Despite the lack of a decent catch, both fishing trips were very enjoyable. There’s nothing like being outside doing something I want to do at a time when I would previously have been chained to my desk slaving over a hot keyboard.

Hope this fishing boat had more luck than we did

We have also taken our cameras for a walk around the harbour and, when I don’t have my camera with me, I take copious photos on my phone, some of which have come out much better than I had expected.

Dusk over Maryport Harbour

Another image of the harbour taken between heavy showers

But it has not been all play.

Phil disappears down into the engine room to change the oil filter on the heater

The new fuel filter is fitted in place

When the new heater was fitted, Gary, of Autolec in Carlisle, discovered the fuel filter was very dirty, but did not have a new one with him so his company sent out a new one that Phil fitted yesterday.

The heating system is now working really well. We are lovely and warm and it is so much quieter and cleaner than the old one was before it broke down.

We also did a couple of small jobs outside while the sun was shining and it was great to be able to sit outside for a coffee break.

Time for a well-earned break in the winter sunshine

And Dex loves being outside with us while we’re working.

Dex keeps a lookout for seagulls and passers-by

He spends his time watching sea gulls, running around the decks and greeting everyone that passes by on the pontoon or the promenade above the harbour when we are outside at high tide.

The last couple of days of fabulous weather have given us a taste of just how wonderful our new life will be in the spring and summer when it will hopefully be considerably warmer out there.

Another chore that was considerably less fun, but will save us money was the latest battle in our own personal storage war.

We initially rented a 75sqft unit at Box Clever, near Cockermouth.  After much effort, we managed to downsize to a 50sqft unit and we have now moved into the smallest size unit available, which is just 25sqft.

The aim is to get rid of it altogether in the next few months and we will achieve it. Just wish we had been more ruthless before we moved as it was considerably easier sorting through our stuff and deciding what to keep, sell, rehome or throw away when we had a house to do it in.

The best advice I could give to anyone considering moving from a house to a boat is that you need much, much less than you think you will.

At long last we have heat!!!

Gary from Caldew Autolec in Carlisle installs our new heater.

After more than a month without a proper heating system on Ravensdale, our new heater was installed today and it’s working J

Gary from Caldew Autolec in Carlisle turned up with our Webasto 5 before 9am this morning and once again our main saloon was turned into a building site.

The heater fits into a small space between one of the engines and the hull

We lifted the carpet and the section of flooring covering one of the engines and the area where the old heater used to be before it broke down, never to go again.

We had high hopes that installation would go smoothly, as we had sent the company photos of the space where the old heater had been to show the position, access, mountings, fittings and exhaust.

However, we did not know if they had provided all the information required to make all the parts needed to make the new heater work in this location.

But Gary did a great job and by the time he left the new heating system was working well and it is really, really quiet in comparison with the old one.

The new controls are fitted in the instrument panel at the helm

We are making the most of it tonight and have turned it up warmer than we would usually have our heating as a special treat after weeks of wrapping up in thermal underwear and blankets to keep warm.

And, for once, we were pleased to see a forecast of low temperatures overnight and for the next few days as we will really feel the benefit of our lovely new heater.

Dex waits patiently while I take photos on the beach

Poor old Dex had to spend a few hours in the car while the work was being carried out as we didn’t want him to fall down the hole into the engine room, but I took him for a good walk on Maryport Beach before putting him in the car and wrapped him up in a warm blanket in the boot, even though it wasn’t very cold today. He was not impressed!

However, when we took him back to the boat after the work was finished, he was delighted to discover warm air coming out of the heat outlets and stood at the foot of the steps down from the saloon into the galley for sometime soaking up the heat from the outlet at the foot of the stairs.

He is now curled up fast asleep on the seating in the dining area in a temperature of 24.5C – a vast improvement on the 7C we recorded in the same area earlier this week.

All in all, it has been a very good day and we popped out this afternoon to buy some bait for the planned fishing trip tomorrow morning.

A groyne on Maryport Beach

Three months into our new liveaboard life and we’re still smiling

The sun sets over Maryport Marina.

We now have our Yachtmaster Offshore certificates and are booked for the VHF radio course early next month.

Our Yachtmaster Offshore certificates

The Yachtmaster theory course was pretty full on, but at least doing it that way has enabled us to finish it before we are ready to go to sea, in the spring/summer, which was all part of the plan when we decided to move onto a boat at the start of the winter.

Definitely not part of the plan was being without heating for a month during the coldest part of the year.

Our heater, which kept us so warm during our first two months on board, packed up on January 5.

Initially, we hoped the existing Eberspacher 7 heater could be fixed, but we were told it was beyond repair as the parts were no longer available so we ordered a new Webasto 5 heater on January 11.

We were told the heater had to be ordered from Germany and would take about a week to arrive in the UK. However, a series of delays, including the courier losing the first one that was sent, mean we are still without heat more than a month later.

But we received a call today to say it is now in Carlisle and is due to be fitted tomorrow so hopefully this time tomorrow evening, we will be sitting in a nice warm boat.

Phil checks our electricity consumption

We’ve been very fortunate that the weather has been relatively mild for the time of year, but we have still spent a lot of extra money on electricity and gas in attempt to stop the temperature on board from dropping too low.

Most of the time we have succeeded in this, but we did get up one morning to find the temperature in the main saloon was just 7C.

Now our coursework is over we still have various projects to carry out on the boat, but we are also hoping to find time for more leisure pursuits, such as walking, cycling, fishing and exploring the Lake District.

So far the nearest we have come to fishing is watching other people fish off the pier at Maryport during a Sunday morning walk on the beach.

For once, I took my proper camera with me, rather than taking snaps on my phone, which is what I usually end up doing.

Fishing on the pier at Maryport

The weather wasn’t great for scenic photography, but it made for some moody skies that looked pretty impressive over Iggesund Paperboard’s Workington Mill and the wind turbines that surround it.

Workington Mill from Maryport Pier

We’ve managed to get a few jobs done on the boat in between our studies.

Phil replaces the anchor light

Phil spent hours balanced on a rail on the fly bridge while trying to change the anchor light on a pole on the radar arch.

It was freezing cold and I was feeling really guilty as I had suggested doing that particular task that day, unaware it would take so long because he couldn’t see into the light fitting and had to use a mirror to fit it and to do all the electrical connections.

I stayed on the aft deck to give him moral support, passing him tools and even got him a cushion to reduce the pressure on his chest while leaning against the radar arch, but there was little more I could do.

The funniest part was when a friend later pointed out that we could have dropped the radar arch to carry out the work so Phil’s balancing act was totally unnecessary, which thankfully he found really funny.

We also replaced two more ropes with new ones so we now have a full set of new navy mooring ropes.

And Phil ended up fishing for litter in the marina after bits of plastic and other rubbish started blowing into the water from the building site above us, where a new touring caravan park is under construction.  

Phil's fishing trip

Not quite the type of fishing he had been hoping for, but I’m sure we’ll make up for that very soon.

We had been planning to go tomorrow morning, but that will not be happening now as the heater is supposed to be arriving first thing.

Maybe we will get to go fishing on Thursday or Friday...

Lights and a tender - things are moving on...

Phil inflating our dinghy on Ravensdale's aft deck.

We’re still waiting for a date for our new heating system to be installed.

It’s now nearly three weeks since it broke down and it’s beginning to take its toll.

Phil, Dex and I are keeping warm enough, thanks to relatively mild weather, our gas cooker, small electric heaters and thermal underwear (the last bit applies to Phil and I – not Dex J)

However, Ravensdale is beginning to suffer as it’s getting more and more difficult to tackle the damp.

The gas stove doubles as our main heater

We know leaving the door of the gas stove open to heat the boat isn’t helping the condensation problem, but it makes a big difference to the temperature on board.

We’re still using our dehumidifiers, which are helping a lot, but we’re finding damp in places where there was previously no problem, but I’m sure it will all sort itself out once the new Webasto heating system is installed.

Meanwhile, the marina quickly repaired the gate that controls the water level in the marina after the cable snapped so we didn’t have to put up with the stinking mud at low tide for too long.

Despite the heating problems, we remain upbeat.

We’re getting on well with our yachtmaster course with Keith Morgans at Whitehaven Marina.

We also met Paul Crooks, who sells LED lights for boats, while he was visiting a friend who is a berth holder at Maryport Marina.

Paul, of JMG LED Lighting, brought along a couple of boxes of bulbs and found suitable LED lights for all the fittings on Ravensdale, which was not easy as just about every light has a different fitting.

How many men does it take to change a lightbulb? Phil and Paul try out different wattage bulbs

This week, we also checked out the tender that was on board when we bought the boat to discover it was in good condition, which is great.

So that’s one less thing we need to buy before we can set off on our travels. But we still need to get an outboard motor for it or we will have to row ashore if we decide to tie up to a swinging mooring.

A bracing walk in the wind on Maryport Beach

And the highlight of the week for me was Phil actually managing to get a video of Dex singing along to the Coronation Street theme tune. I’ve been trying to capture him doing that for so long, but without success.

I love that video, it’s so funny! Just wish I could work out how to post it on here, but I can’t so anyone wanting to see it should be able to see it on YouTube here

I'm still enjoying taking Dex out for walks, whatever the weather, but he doesn't always enjoy walks with me if Phil isn't with us as I sometimes tie him up so I can take photos like the image below of Maryport.

One of the many photos I've taken of Maryport while out walking Dex

Still loving the place, but really looking forward to getting out to sea on Ravensdale.

Our heater is dead... and the marina has problems of its own

Dex snuggled up under his blanket

More than 10 days after the heater broke down on our boat, we are still without a proper heating system.

And we have no real idea when normal service will be resumed.

Our powerful Eberspacher heater, which kept us so warm for the first couple of months living onboard Ravensdale, packed up on Thursday January 5 and we took it to the agent in Carlisle for a service the following day.

On Wednesday of last week, we got a call from the agent to tell us our heater could not be repaired as it was obsolete so the parts were no longer available – not what we wanted to hear L

Dex claims the seat nearest the heater

This left us with no choice but to buy a new heating system, which would cost us thousands of pounds that we had not reckoned on spending. However, we have since decided that it was probably the best thing that could have happened as, once our new Webasto heater is installed (hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks), we will have a new, more efficient system that should last us for many years to come.

We have been very fortunate that the weather has been relatively mild for the time of year, but we have had a couple of nights when we have been cooler than was really comfortable and we ended up watching TV wrapped in blankets to keep warm.

While we wait for our new heating system, we were using two portable electric heaters and the heat supplied by dehumidifiers, which we worked out cost us about £30 for the first week.

The cooker doubles as our main heat source while we wait for our new heating system

We are now leaving the gas cooker on and door open when we are cold and it has definitely reduced the electricity consumption, but will obviously mean we will have to buy more gas sooner than would otherwise have been the case.

Dex seems to be happy enough, despite the cooler temperatures on board as long as we wrap him up in a cosy blanket when we put him to bed at night.

Just hoping we will get a delivery date for our new heater soon, preferably before temperatures start to fall again.

Sunset at Whitehaven Marina

Plotting a passage for homework

Meanwhile, we are spending three hours a day, three days a week on Keith Morgans’ much warmer boat in Whitehaven Marina for our yachtmaster course.

This week, we have mostly been learning about navigation and plotting a passage using marine charts. It certainly seems strange being set homework again after all these years :-) 

Very low water at Maryport Marina on Monday morning

The most dramatic occurrence this week was waking yesterday morning to discover the water level in the marina was considerably lower than usual.

The lower section of the harbour wall that would normally have been underwater was covered in stinking mud and the access ramp from the marina facilities to the pontoons was extremely steep.

The steep climb up out of the marina

We soon discovered the reason for this – a cable in the gate that controls the water level in the marina had snapped so the water drained out down to the level of the sill between the marina and the outer harbour.

Thankfully there was still enough water in the marina for Ravensdale to remain afloat and amazingly we still have a TV signal even at low tide, despite being much lower down behind the wall than usual. We have no idea how this is even possible, but we're not complaining :-)

The swans attempt to find their way into the marina

Yesterday morning, two swans that spend a lot of time in the marina appeared to be confused by the situation and were sitting on the outer side of the sill trying to work out how to get in.

One swan solves the puzzle

After swimming up and down their side of the sill several times, one discovered that, with a few flaps of its wings, it could get up onto the sill and off the other side. The other then followed suit. Presumably they left again when the tide came in sufficiently to cover the sill again.

Work to repair the cable began yesterday and was continuing as we set off for Whitehaven for our course today.

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