[Rhodes22-list] 3rd use for the table top

[Graham Stewart]

Bob:

You don't have to be at the dock to be visited by racoons. Years ago I was
anchored in a small bay in Georgian Bay. I was about 300' from shore and
thought that it would be safe to leave a bag of garbage in the cockpit over
night. In the middle of the night I was awaken from a deep sleep by the
sound of water rushing into the boat. "We are sinking" I shouted as I jumped
out of my bunk expecting to find myself standing in water. Nope. Dry as a
bone. Assuming, logically,  that we had washed ashore and the sound was tree
branches in the rigging I then shouted "We have lost the anchor and are in
the trees". Meanwhile, my family were all awake and in a somewhat elevated
state of alarm. I looked out into the cockpit and there staring back at me
in a similar state of alarm was a racoon standing over the garbage bag. At
this point the racoon decided that there was too much excitement on the boat
for his liking and casually climbed down the boarding ladder and swam away. 

The moral of the story is don't leave the boarding ladder down when at
anchor, don't assume racoons don't swim, don't leave anything a racoon might
think is food in the cockpit and if you think you are sinking or washed
ashore, don't say anything until you have checked for racoons in the
cockpit. Your family will never let you live it down and will regale people
with the story any time you try to impress them with stories of your
exceptional seamanship.


Graham Stewart
Agile. R22, 1976
Kingston Ontario Canada




-----Original Message-----
From: Rhodes22-list [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of
rweiss
Sent: September 14, 2016 12:09 PM
To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] 3rd use for the table top

Thought I would share my experience with staying on the boat at the marina a
couple weeks ago. The evening was a little warm and I was in my slip with
shore power and my pop-top enclosure on, with the windows up so I could
enjoy a little breeze through the screens. I left my Bimini up to protect
the cockpit and because there was a very slight chance of rain in the night,
I decided to take my table top off the cockpit pole and put it on the floor
of the cockpit -- just to keep it out of direct rain. (Since I was staying
by myself, I did not need it for the double bunk in the cabin.) About 3 am,
I heard a "clunk" in the cockpit that woke me up. I stood up in the cabin
and looked out the port screen in the enclosure and was face-to-face with a
raccoon -- less than a few inches from my face. He jumped back onto the dock
and retreated to a safe distance. Evidently, he had jumped into the cockpit
looking for food and landed on the table top that essentially was a 360
degree teeter totter because of the pole receptacle in the center of the
underside. So, you can now also consider the table top a "Critter Alarm" if
needed. Not sure what would have happened if I had not left the top there,
as I'm sure he would have come right into the cabin! I put my hatch cover in
place for the rest of the night and will probably do so in the future to
ensure I don't have any uninvited guests while sleeping at the dock.



-----
Bob Weiss
Beach Spring
1998 Rhodes 22 Recycled in 2014
--
View this message in context:
http://rhodes-22.1065344.n5.nabble.com/3rd-use-for-the-table-top-tp52592.htm
l
Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
__________________________________________________
To subscribe/unsubscribe go to
http://www.rhodes22.org/mailman/listinfo/rhodes22-list

For the list Charter and help with using the mailing list and archives go to
http://www.rhodes22.org/list
__________________________________________________