Cobwebs.

[capnsensible]

For various reasons, a friend of mine with a yacht here hasn't used it for a while. So my cousin, who is staying aboard, and I gave the boat a good run through of pre sea checks last week when the weather was manky and finally got out today. Very pleasant to check out engine, sails, vhf, autopilot yadda yadda and get things moving again.

Enjoyable too getting my cousin refreshed in boat handling.

Sometimes, I reckon these short trips can be very pleasurable in getting the boat moving and looking for possible future defects. Having nice sunshine, warmth and light airs helps!

 

[veshengro]

I had a berth in Marina Rubicon for nearly 3 months once. Arrived early October and lay in there until mid December before sailing to the Caribbean. Nearly time to leave and I started doing all the usual checks, took the main sail cover off and one of those Geckos ran out from under the canvas, along the Boom and up my arm !!...I nearly died of fright..
I'd only ever seen plastic ones in the Tourist st shops or stuck on the walls in bars and cafes etc:

 

[Stemar]

I had a berth in Marina Rubicon for nearly 3 months once. Arrived early October and lay in there until mid December before sailing to the Caribbean. Nearly time to leave and I started doing all the usual checks, took the main sail cover off and one of those Geckos ran out from under the canvas, along the Boom and up my arm !!...I nearly died of fright..
I'd only ever seen plastic ones in the Tourist st shops or stuck on the walls in bars and cafes etc:

I arrived at my old boat after dark one evening, and started to lift the cockpit cover. A squirrel launched itself from within and shot off towards the bow. That was a bit of a surprise, too, especially as my mooring was about 200 yards from the shore, water at HT, soft gloopy mud at LT.

I put some water out for it, and a bit of muesli, being the closest thing I had to squirrel food. Next morning I tried to catch it, but it abandoned ship, and was last seen swimming boldly towards the other side of the harbour, a good half mile away.

 

[lustyd]

Having nice sunshine, warmth and light airs helps!

Ain't that the truth. I've done more jobs this year in France than the whole of last year in Scotland. Even cleaning the deck is a pleasure in the right weather

 

[capnsensible]

Ain't that the truth. I've done more jobs this year in France than the whole of last year in Scotland. Even cleaning the deck is a pleasure in the right weather

Gets even better when you find a marina with a swimming pool!!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I’d imagined this was going to be literally about spiders. We are plagued with them. They drop the exoskeletons of their prey all over the boat.

 

[wonkywinch]

I arrived at my old boat after dark one evening, and started to lift the cockpit cover. A squirrel launched itself from within and shot off towards the bow. That was a bit of a surprise, too, especially as my mooring was about 200 yards from the shore, water at HT, soft gloopy mud at LT.

I put some water out for it, and a bit of muesli, being the closest thing I had to squirrel food. Next morning I tried to catch it, but it abandoned ship, and was last seen swimming boldly towards the other side of the harbour, a good half mile away.

If it was a grey squirrel, it's basically a rat with a big tail.

 

[Stemar]

Unfortunately, that's the only kind there are in Hampshire.

Some years ago, we saw a gun shop in Newport (IoW), and I remembered, that I wanted some air gun pellets. To give me the right ones, they asked what I wanted them for. "Squirrels", I said. A cold silence ensued until I realised why, and explained that it was for use against grey tree rats on the mainland, not the Island, where there are still red squirrels.