This entry should not be read by close family members and anyone of a sensitive disposition. It deals with a cruiser problem that we have heard about but had so far been lucky enough to avoid.
Sitting in Golfe Pero, we acknowledged that we had been boarded - we had a mouse. The short version of this story is that we caught it, it's now dead and the boat is extremely clean. And that the mouse was actually a rat.
The long version was a week of very hard work and several important lessons.
Rodents on board are very bad news. Quite apart from their inherent horridness, especially so close up, they eat electric cable. This can destroy your kit, and most frightening of all, cause fires. We started scrubbing in the food areas and gradually worked our way through the boat everywhere we saw droppings and - yes - chewed cable. We scrubbed with bleach and detergent, followed up with ammonia. Some experts seem to say that the ammonia deterrent is a myth, but it cheered us up. Over the next few days we dramatically reduced the scope of activity but it was still there. By now, though, we reckoned it was one animal, which was some comfort given the breeding rates of mice.
We christened our invader the alliterative Maurice, not least because we could think of several unpleasant people we've met by that name. At this point, we were chasing a mouse, remember. That idea was breaking our sleep and making us very unhappy, so we didn't get into worse scenarios.
On Tuesday, once the weather was good, we took off for Olbia, a real town where we could buy poison and traps. By Friday night we had scrubbed everywhere we had seen droppings and had laid 14 traps. That night we got him, in the humane trap, which was the only one big enough to hold him. He'd enjoyed the cheese and peanut butter offerings on the mouse traps, and let one off to our consternation. But the humane cage on top of the diesel tank had worked.
We drowned him, very thoroughly. (Put the trap, with rat in, in a weighted bucket and put it over the side. Do not try and let a live rat out of the trap!)
Now, we are still cleaning, monitoring very closely and setting five traps. But we hope that we're clear.
Lessons learned: (1) Act immediately on any signs of droppings or chewing. We both blamed Ross (most unfair!) and decided to spare each other our worst suspicions. We lost two or three days that way. (2) however unpleasant, assume the worst. Our mouse traps were laughably undersized for the actual animal. (3) keep traps aboard and fresh. We had some rat glue, which didn't work at all. (4) find the cabling it's munching on, and do everything you can to make it unattractive to eat. Monitor those areas particularly closely. (5) It's really important to do the cleaning. We've heard the argument that you're only moving the problem, but it's not only hygienic - you also learn where the b----r is moving and nesting. (6) We had a cat visit us (Spook of Margeurite) three times, but she didn't help. Maybe a rat was too big, or Maurice claimed eminent domain. (7) Kill it. We know of one cruising yacht who released a rat over a mile away, and it got back to their boat before they did.
And persistence eventually pays off.
Just after we realised our problem, Sarah's brother Jim postedthis ad on Facebook. We are glad to say the Corsican cheese is obviously stronger than cheddar.