philip17
New member
No, this is not the name of a new horror movie but an actual event. I have just returned from 2 months sailing on a friends boat in the Far East; a week ago we were making our way up the coast of the Philippines to Manila Bay, it was dark, the sea was confused and the wind on the nose so the passage was wet and all hatches were shut. Having prepared and served dinner a female crew member was washing up when she screamed and jumped up onto the galley worktop - no mean feat as she was still strapped into the cooker holding strap as we were well healed over at the time. Imagine our horror to see below the galley a 1 metre long Blue Lipped Sea Krait exactly where her bare feet had been seconds before. The Skipper reacted quickly and pinned the snake with a broom while the girl's husband chopped off it's head with a knife.
The question - now unanswered is how did it get onboard and how long had it been there?
We had been sailing/motoring for 48 hours in very calm seas apart from the 2 hours before the snake was discovered. If the snake had been thrown onto the boat by a large wave (like flying fish) then it would have to make it's way along the side deck into the cockpit and down the companionway to the galley which is extremely unlikely and if so - why not back into the water from whence it came?
Prior to our 48 hour passage we had spent 3 days on anchor at El Nido and I suspect that the snake had come aboard there via the bathing ladder and platform which is pretty scary to think that we had spent at least 48 hours sharing a boat with a Sea Krait whose venom is 10 times more potent than a King Cobra!!!
Has anybody heard of a similar experience or (hopefully) is this a one-off event? Why would a snake deliberately come onboard? in search of food?
BTW we dismissed the idea that the snake had entered the boat through a skin fitting as due to its size it would have had to enter the toilet system and this would have meant negotiating 2 holding tanks (in series) and then the Joker Valve (the wrong way)
The question - now unanswered is how did it get onboard and how long had it been there?
We had been sailing/motoring for 48 hours in very calm seas apart from the 2 hours before the snake was discovered. If the snake had been thrown onto the boat by a large wave (like flying fish) then it would have to make it's way along the side deck into the cockpit and down the companionway to the galley which is extremely unlikely and if so - why not back into the water from whence it came?
Prior to our 48 hour passage we had spent 3 days on anchor at El Nido and I suspect that the snake had come aboard there via the bathing ladder and platform which is pretty scary to think that we had spent at least 48 hours sharing a boat with a Sea Krait whose venom is 10 times more potent than a King Cobra!!!
Has anybody heard of a similar experience or (hopefully) is this a one-off event? Why would a snake deliberately come onboard? in search of food?
BTW we dismissed the idea that the snake had entered the boat through a skin fitting as due to its size it would have had to enter the toilet system and this would have meant negotiating 2 holding tanks (in series) and then the Joker Valve (the wrong way)
