Here, in Robert's Grove it's not all as peachy-keen as one would hope. We have one Guatemalan power boater who isn't smart enough to know he needs to slow down inside the marina. Going out, he went so fast that we slammed against the dock and damaged our toe rail. Coming in, today, he did the same speed. Ralph went down to speak to him but, of course, he said he couldn't speak English. For Ralph, that's not a problem so he spoke to him in Spanish. Again, no apology..."big motor, big waves, can't slow down any more...", you get the picture. He'd be the first to complain if someone else did that to HIS fancy boat!!
However, this has been the least of our issues here. We seem to have enticed a rat aboard with our smorgasbord of fresh fruit and taco chips. We found droppings in the cockpit, one morning, so I started looking for other signs. He'd had a "field day" in the tomatoes; he'd taken bites out of several apples and demolished the pears; he'd somehow gotten in the cupboard above the sink, in the V-berth, and stuffed himself on taco chips as well! At this point we were thinking/hoping for a mouse...a male mouse, but this was not the case. We put down small mouse traps and some sticky paper traps, the first night and hoped for the best.
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The small traps, alone, with the sticky paper did nothing as the rat seemed to avoid the sticky pads and could steal out of the little traps without setting them off. We then borrowed these box traps from the chartering company here in the marina. This set up didn't work for us either. We think the rat came out of the opening you see above, and got one toe on the sticky pads. In trying to get free, he set off the two mouse traps and probably scared the crap out of himself, so he gave up for the night. We think this is probable because both traps were sprung and we found one sticky pad inside the opening, and it had a few tiny markings in it.
This was our last set up but, by this time he/she had been aboard 4 days. That's just too creepy and upsetting!!! We bought a trap of our own and baited it along with the other two. We also bought the large rat-size sticky pads, so it would have been next to impossible to get out of the V-berth area without being trapped or stuck to a pad. We settled in for the night...thankfully at the opposite end of the boat!!
SUCCESS!!! At midnight, Ralph got up to check the traps and we were in luck...not so much the rat!! We were upset to see that it wasn't a mouse, but glad to have trapped it. I'm not really a hard person, and I do like most animals, but I didn't shed a tear for this one! Ralph hung the trap from the dock, overnight, so he/she could take a midnight " dip"! No tears shed aboard Fortuitous, for this critter!
The next night, we put out the traps and sticky pads, but no sign (THANKFULLY) of any more stowaways! Then we had to set about trying to find where it had been, or if it built a nest...and what did it chew up to do so. There's Ralph pulling apart the V-berth, but no luck there. So far, we haven't found any sign of the nest or what may have been used to make one. We keep the companionway doors closed at night, now, and are careful to throw out all garbage and leave nothing enticing in the cockpit.
It should be mentioned here that we had several sets of people wanting to join us, this season...good thing we didn't set anything up with all that has gone wrong so far...oh, and this would have been your cabin...sharing with the stowaway!!
So, are we having fun here??...not so much!!!
The small traps, alone, with the sticky paper did nothing as the rat seemed to avoid the sticky pads and could steal out of the little traps without setting them off. We then borrowed these box traps from the chartering company here in the marina. This set up didn't work for us either. We think the rat came out of the opening you see above, and got one toe on the sticky pads. In trying to get free, he set off the two mouse traps and probably scared the crap out of himself, so he gave up for the night. We think this is probable because both traps were sprung and we found one sticky pad inside the opening, and it had a few tiny markings in it.
This was our last set up but, by this time he/she had been aboard 4 days. That's just too creepy and upsetting!!! We bought a trap of our own and baited it along with the other two. We also bought the large rat-size sticky pads, so it would have been next to impossible to get out of the V-berth area without being trapped or stuck to a pad. We settled in for the night...thankfully at the opposite end of the boat!!
SUCCESS!!! At midnight, Ralph got up to check the traps and we were in luck...not so much the rat!! We were upset to see that it wasn't a mouse, but glad to have trapped it. I'm not really a hard person, and I do like most animals, but I didn't shed a tear for this one! Ralph hung the trap from the dock, overnight, so he/she could take a midnight " dip"! No tears shed aboard Fortuitous, for this critter!
The next night, we put out the traps and sticky pads, but no sign (THANKFULLY) of any more stowaways! Then we had to set about trying to find where it had been, or if it built a nest...and what did it chew up to do so. There's Ralph pulling apart the V-berth, but no luck there. So far, we haven't found any sign of the nest or what may have been used to make one. We keep the companionway doors closed at night, now, and are careful to throw out all garbage and leave nothing enticing in the cockpit.
It should be mentioned here that we had several sets of people wanting to join us, this season...good thing we didn't set anything up with all that has gone wrong so far...oh, and this would have been your cabin...sharing with the stowaway!!
So, are we having fun here??...not so much!!!
4 comments:
Oh dear god! Ain't cruising fun...so many "colorful" characters along the way. Glad it didn't lag on any longer for sure. This too shall pass, become a distant memory and hopefully you'll eventually be laughing about it :)BTW, love the Rat-a-Phooey!
Your cabin sole looks like our kitchen, a few weeks ago.
We only had a mouse. Didn't catch him/her (two live traps, a dozen assorted spring traps), but he's gone somewhere else (or got eaten by next-door cat).
. Charles & Sandra
Rats to that!
Carol
Oh yuck! We had a visitor in PV that turned out to be a mouse. There was evidence that she/he had been all over the boat. And it built a nest in my wet suit. I cleaned out every cabinet and washed all of our dishes too. We each initially thought the other was being careless with little shreds of tp.
Mary and Bill
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