Rouse’s reign of terror – the aftermath

This week Maid of Mettle is sponsored by bleach…

Tough on even the most stubborn vermin

It was unfortunate really that we only met Anna and Mark (and their kids) a couple of days after we had laid the poison down for the animal rampaging through the boat.  They had a humane rat trap that they kindly lent us to try having visited their house a little way up the river.  We were somewhat worried actually when we rowed there, parked up at their pontoon and went up the path to be met by a huge dog who turned out to be very friendly (if a little soppy!).  It’s hard to know with some of the dogs around here, especially the ones on chains that bark a lot at you.  Our first clue that we had the right house and that the dog was safe should have been it’s lack of chain I suppose.  Anyway, we had a nice chat with them and came back with the trap, hoping to have caught a live rat by morning.

Unfortunately the morning brought nothing, despite having baited the trap with tomato – our unwanted pet’s favourite food.  It was soon after that we started to notice a nasty smell developing and a little time after that when we finally found it in the deepest part of the bilge at the back of the boat.  The poison had done its job.  Although sad that we couldn’t have avoided getting rid of it in this way we were glad that we could finally get on with putting the boat together.  What did turn out to be a rat was quite large, grey in colour, (and dare I say) quite cute in a way.  It would have never been caught in the mouse traps we bought up the road in Spain.  For any weird people who are interested in seeing it, below is a picture of what we found, some may not wish to see…

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Artist's impression

No, sorry, couldn’t help that.  Of course I wouldn’t put a photo of a dead animal here…There is a photo but you will have to ask for it separately if you really want to see it, or if you don’t believe us.

What with Rouse having been found in the bottom of the back bilge we had some serious cleaning up to do.  For a start how do you remove something like that from one of the only bits of the boat that you can’t get into?  We had to improvise with cardboard and a boat hook in order to give the animal the most dignity in its retrieval.  It actually worked very well even if it was a bit grim.

Keyhole Surgery

It had been wandering around everywhere under the floorboards and nibbling at all sorts.  The most damage had been done to the insulation foam which appeared to have been good nesting material though it had had a bit of a go at the cable that connects the depth sounder.  Fortunately it still works though.

The evidence - nibbled cable

Almost all our things had been put outside to avoid being nibbled and then would need to be cleaned before going back inside.

oh dear - not exactly ready for sea

So, out came the bleach to wash all the bilges, floor panels, lots of cupboards, tins of food and anything else that might have been walked on.  This clean up has taken the most part of a week and we are just about back to normal now.  One positive thing did come out of this…we have managed to stow the boat bits away much more effectively and have had chance to do some of jobs we hadn’t got round to yet.

Earlier in the week we celebrated Pete’s birthday with a picnic on the beach and a small surprise party.  It was quite fun organising and we managed to get quite a few people together from the many boats that are on the river.

Pete and his dinner

Happy birthday to you

Pete's Party

We did have some other visitors, who were more welcome. A mother duck (we call them the “Turkey Ducks”) and her 16! adorable ducklings came by to visit and were justly rewarded with bread in exchange for a photo shoot.

Proud Turkey Duck and her brood

Awwwhhhh

Rouse’s reign of terror – Part 2

We got it!

Rouse’s reign of terror

The creature living on the boat with us is either a mouse or a rat.  According to some people who live here the rats are pretty small and can swim and climb.  Also they can easily float down the river on bamboo rafts (sudden mental images of a rat with a paddle or pole singing ‘just one cornetto’)

First night...the mess at 1am

Having had pet rats I’d still prefer to think of our visitor as a mouse though whilst he was doing some work yesterday, Chris saw ‘the thing’ and reckoned it was bigger than a mouse.  Therefore I have decided to declare it a ‘rouse’, a super-mouse that has failed to leave or be caught despite our best efforts for quite a few days now.

The Spanish and Portugese don’t seem to go for humane traps so unfortunately we have had to opt for some more horrible options in an attempt to get rid of it and stop it burrowing into the insulation foam and eating our clothes and food.

A healthy appetite

This one likes its tea white then...

Therefore many of our belongings have been outside in the cockpit and all over the deck for the last 3 days and nights since we first heard it, including the liferaft, kayak and quite a lot of food.  The thing (whatever it is) has kept us awake at night with it’s pattering about and nibbling sounds.  Things have been literally disappearing at night.  We lost some cheese but fortunately no bacon as we didn’t have any but it seemed to be a bit quieter last night.

We all had the best night’s sleep in a while last night…mostly because it was quieter and we were tired from lying awake listening to it.  There are very few things left in the boat for it to eat now and it seems to have stopped trying to eat things like paint thinners which was one of it’s first meals!  In fact the main way we found it was by smelling the thinners wafting back from the front of the boat.

Our lives seem to have been taken over by the animal on the boat so it has felt a bit like that is all that is happening at the moment.  Add to that, the extremely hot weather and you can imagine it is easy for tempers to flare.  We have been doing ok mostly especially if we remember to try and cool off in the river and not do too much work during the hottest part of the day though there are still a few jobs that need doing before we can leave for Madeira.   Mending the toilet is just one of them.

mending the toilet...this needs finishing

We seem to have got most of the jobs we needed to do done even if it does get excruciatingly hot inside the boat whilst doing them.  We now have new lights on our lifejackets, newly re-attached doghouse windows (back two windows of cabin), some new storage at the front and a way to stop all the drawers coming out whilst at sea.  The broken tricolour light at the top of the mast is falso fixed and the solar panels have been re-wired.

Other news.  Yesterday a lady arrived in a wooden boat with baskets of fresh vegetables announcing herself by saying “Hello, I’m the vegetable lady”.  As veg is quite hard to get hold of we bought some and were amazed to only pay about £1.40 for quite a lot of food.

The Vegetable Lady

We went in search of the pego that was sign posted near to the beach in Alcoutim.  Not being too sure what it was we were none the wiser once we’d followed the walk.  It was a nice walk though along a river bank.

Pego? Stream, bamboo, pools? Who knows.

Our new crew member

Although I only just posted  I thought this would be worthy of another post…

We have a new crew member.  He or she is fairly quiet though does seem to have taken a liking to some strange foods including our pepper-corn, falafel and soya supplies.    Can you guess yet?

Toilet disasters and other amusement

After a few days waiting in Cartegena we left for our longest passage yet at about 41 hours. Having had a lovely meal (including accidentally ordered snails) at a Tapas bar we said our goodbyes to the crew of Elida and left in a strong wind that we hoped would get us a long way. It was sad saying goodbye as they had been so lovely during our short time there. We been treated to lunch on board including a big chocolate birthday cake and I even managed a mini music session on the electric drum kit which was really fun. We left about 10pm with 3 of the crew waving us off from the pontoon a la “Mamma Mia” (with flippers and snorkels) style…

Birthday girl

The mountains round Cartegena made the wind unpredictable and much stronger than we expected. It was quite rough with a lot of spray and leaving at night probably increased the worry about the gusts at the start. Every time a gust came the wind vane could not really cope sending the boat heeling over to the side quite quickly. This meant someone had to be on hand to sail by hand. Fortunately we soon reduced sails to only have one jib (front sail) up which made it a lot more comfortable and meant some of us were no longer wondering whether leaving had been a less than good idea…Chris had been blissfully unaware of the ‘excitement’ on deck, assuming the rolling was just normal sailing, not Pete and I frantically trying to overcome the horrible weather-helm!

Sailing into the night

 I can’t speak for the others but I could barely stay awake during watches on the first night. I’m not sure whether it was the newly aquired Biodramina (this time being trialed without caffeine because it gives you horrible headaches when you stop taking it) or the fact we’d had quite a busy day but I was so tired it made me feel a bit useless. In fact I (again) spent a lot of the watch falling asleep in the hatch but being rudely awoken by the boat rolling making me nearly fall over because I wasn’t ready for it. Fortunately Chris (who was still on the caffeine ones) stayed awake and very kindly kept his eyes open most of the shift. After a sleep for most of the following morning I felt so much better.

Night shifts are really difficult. We have all struggled with the waking up in the middle of the night bit…it’s horrible waking up after a nice sleep in a warm sleeping bag when it’s dark and cold and possibly raining outside. The rude awakening by the alarm, forgetting momentarily why you’re even waking up at 4am, getting out of the bunk (which by now has a lee-cloth that has been hugging you nicely to stop you falling out of bed) and getting dressed into waterproofs, hat, gloves, shoes and lifejacket is challenging to say the least when your whole world is unpredictably rolling about without warning. If you’re unlucky a big wave catches the boat and you are sent flying whilst standing on one foot putting your waterproof trousers on landing on some bit of the boat or other. We are slowly learning that you need to wedge yourself or expect to move about quite a lot. Also it is inadvisable to wear only socks on our nice varnished floor if you don’t want to do an impression of a dog on a tiled kitchen floor – legs and arms everywhere. Yes, now we seem to have overcome sea-sickness in the cabin with the use of drugs, now we need to overcome doing anything other than lying down whilst in there.

However, the best part about being out at night is the glowing phospherescence that looks like green jewels or little glow worms in any water disturbed by the boat, that and the prospect of a lovely sun-rise in the morning.

watch system for rainy days

Crossing the Cabo de Gato (something about an 80nm wide cat) we tried to stay fairly close to shore because it looked to be where we would be most sheltered. The waves on the way to our destination of Velez were the biggest we’ve seen so far (maybe between 2-3 metres) but actually quite fun because they were behind us and made the boat go nice and fast with a much less rolly motion than we’ve had before. Chris liked the waves so much he even let one in the hatch during one of his watches.

Some of you may recall Chris’ enthusiasm for “Nature’s Head”…our, up until now, ever faithful toilet. Let’s just say it’s lucky that someone noticed that a heeling boat and our composting loo may not go all that well together. Fortunately any major disaster was narrowly averted but only just. I’ll spare the details…

Probably be in Velez for a little while to wait for the sea to calm down a bit…Pesky wind!

Oops

Cruas has a lot to see…A nice castle and medieval village, lovely views over the hills and a hidden island underwater.  We spent a bit too much time at the underwater island the other day…

We drove into a nice marina in a little place called Cruas the other evening in the dark, being very careful to avoid the relevant bollards and bouys.  It was all very nice and we even spotted one of these…maybe…We didn’t take this photo though.  It was dark and we didn’t have a camera on us at the time.

Was it a beaver or was it a coypu?

The next morning we did an early start to get to Avignon by dusk…or so we thought.  The engine was started and casting off went well.  We left only 5 minutes before we had intended which was a bit of a result.  Having talked through the leaving bit the night before we head off with the advice from our previous conversation still fresh…”Just make sure you keep the bouy to your right and stay to the left of the big red pole”.  Ok, sorted so out we went.

So, we followed the plan avoiding the yellow bouy (keeping it firmly to the right) and stayed to the right of the big pole and headed at an angle towards the channel.  The depth seemed quite low but remembering that it had been quite shallow on the way in it was not a worry.
Suddenly….BANG (The kind of metalic bang that makes you feel a bit sick), big lurch forward and then whoosh as we turn swiftly, heeling over to the right.  ‘This is not good’ I am thinking.  I actually thought the boat was going to roll over and we would lose the mast and ourselves into the river which was running pretty fast, taking two of our petrol cans away with it.  The boat was now heeling such that the white toe-rail was nearly touching the water! I climbed over to rescue our last remaining petrol can except for the one attached to the motor (which thankfully I’d refilled before leaving).  Not that the motor was going to get much use that day after all.

boat on side

So now we’re stuck and looking like there’s no immediate chance of being able to drive off whatever we just hit and the current is pinning us there.  The others checked for water and thankfully there was none visible inside the boat or out of the bilge pump so we were hopeful that the situation couldn’t get much worse by the boat threatening to sink or anything so what now?!  Our world had been shifted and it was a bit confusing.

The leaning tower

By some miracle, a man was sat at the entrance of the harbour fishing and probably saw it all.  By now we had resorted to the foghorn SOS blasts because we mistakenly thought there was a barge or small boat coming up the channel.  Turned out it was a pontoon where they shoot ducks from but you can really easily convince yourself otherwise when you’re stuck in a river.  Fortunately he had phoned for help for us and fairly shortly afterwards we saw a car with flashing lights and a man shouting something incomprehensible in French at us.  I tried waving the radio at him but we were probably too far away for him to see it and we didn’t really know the correct radio frequency to use on inland water.

Nice place for grounding

Though I didn’t see it, apparently half of the left-hand side of the boat’s contents flew onto the floor on impact so we spent a while picking all that up and putting it out of the way.

So eventually we see a boat being launched from Cruas marina and it turns out to be the Pompiers (French firemen) who tried their hardest to help us move the boat but are not allowed to tow people because of insurance…I couldn’t believe it when they said that.  They did however offer to dive in the icy water to check what damage we had and how we were stuck so that was useful and revealed that there wasn’t a whopping big hole in the boat.  One of them (who apparently was half man, half bear on account of his strength we were later to find out) even rescued a rope and some other random stuff (including a chunk of paint –ouch!) we had lost overboard so that was good.

The pompiers diving to assess damage

After they’d checked for damage they helped us lay an anchor to try and winch us off and back into some free water.  This was tried several times with varying amounts of bombing up and down to create waves in their boat before finally realising that this was not going to work and that we would probably have to wait for a tow.  Clearly wanting to help, they even had a go at pushing us in a last ditch attempt but that didn’t work either.  I must admit it was quite fun driving around with them in their boat acting as French speaking translator to the boat but the novelty wore off when I realised this was probably not going to work.

Trying to haul off the island via anchor and waves

Earlier, I had been taken round to the captain of the port on his boat had told me that they could give me a couple of numbers of people who “might” be able to help us that evening or the next day…”Might” is not what you want to hear when something like this happens but we had no choice.  Not being all that sure whether they were actually going to help us the next day (having originally thought they’d said someone would help at midday the same day) we were a tad worried…it all became a bit clearer later.

I rang about a million people trying to find someone to tow us away sooner than tomorrow but noone could help…The prospect of staying on the boat tilted far over for the rest of the day and the night in the hope that someone “might” help us at midday the next day was a bit stressful.  We rang one of the numbers, a Mr Reynaud who said “there is no pilot for the boat today” and that “someone will be with you tomorrow between 12 and 2”.  This was established after rather too many phone-calls to him and doubting my french another phonecall from Pete’s French friend just to make sure it was actually happening…

We saw the day and evening pass by with views of the power station.

Cruas power station

The night was not nice…we had to keep watches just in case by some miracle we got free and floated away.  The person on watch had to sit on a seat sloping the wrong way so you had to wedge yourself against the table for an hour and a half at a time.  We were also concerned that the wind might increase or it might start raining and make the water level in the river rise.

At about 12.10 the next day halfway through eating someone arrived, including Mr Pompier from the day before 🙂 yay.  To cut a long story short they tugged us off the thing after several attempts and more sickening bangs and scrapings and then through some more clear water followed by another bang and scrape and oooh dear, this is worse than the first time (well not quite) They towed us to the marina through the way we’d come when we’d arrived..  Incidentally it turned out that was not the correct way so we were very lucky not to hit anything on the way in.

When we got back and found out that our rescuers did it all voluntarily, that we were one of about 10 boats a year that have done that and that they didn’t expect any money for helping us.

Spent a really nice half day going “phew…” exploring Cruas and eating in the campsite restaurant where we were the only people there and our dinner was ready and waiting for us on the table having booked in a few hours before.

Chris in Cruas medieval town

Where's Pete?

View over Cruas

We then made the day trip we intended to Avignon, including getting through the largest lock in the Rhone (22m)

Big lock

Motoring down the Rhone -Just worked out how to put videos on

Off to Port St Louis soon…pretty much at the Med…