Hey there,
I obtained an abandoned
project boat in Rio de Janeiro and it had been used as the local "House of Ill Repute" so the first thing I had to clear out were all the used condoms, joint roaches and other umentionable stuff. But the boat also housed a thriving community of mice...
I think mice are cute and even kept them as
pets when I was a kid but I was
living aboard while fixing the yacht and everytime I heard them gnawing I wondered what exacly they were gnawing at; like my
wiring or even a hole through the
hull.
So reluctantly I bought some mousetraps and soon killed 8 but one was a born survivor and I swear it could eat the cheese off four mousetraps without springing one of them!
I then tried mouse poison that you buy in supermarkets here and I think it worked more like LSD because the mouse seemed hyperactive and even pooped psychadelic red tu_ds.
Well this went on for months and I even tried throwing a half full (half empty?) bottle of wine at it and all to no avail.
So eventually the big day came to launch the yacht and everything went without a hitch until I climbed on board and found the water was rising rapidly!! OMG I was sinking. So I beached the yacht (it had a swing keel) and it settled onto the sandy bottom in shallow water.
On climbing aboard to
survey the disaster, I saw the mouse floating face down in the water filled
cabin. I had developed a lot of respect for the little beast as it had made a complete fool of me for so long, so I tried CPR but it was too late. He had passed away. When I buried him I thought maybe I am burying the DNA of a super intelligent mammal and maybe I should send the body to a University.
Well as this is a cruising forum I guess some people are wondering what happened to the yacht? I decided I had two options: 1) walk away and try not to cry in public or 2) set fire to it, then walk away and try not to cry in public.
I was debating the merits of these options with my son when an old
salt arrived and started asking about the boat. I explained that I had just wasted nearly a year renovating the
hull and it had sunk in less than an hour. He said not to worry because wooden boats are like that and to leave it there for three days to let the
wood swell and then bail it out.
Well I followed his
advice and low and behold she was bobbing happily on top of the water with only a few trickles of water into the bilges. So that was the start of some great adventures living onboard and the end of a super smart little mouse.