Of Bats and Bananas
06 February 2010 | Young Island, St Vincent
Alan
Since I have been down here, I have not needed to put the companionway screen in. The wind rarely goes below 10 knots at night, most times much higher. So I figure the wind is too high for the bugs to be out flying. So far the strategy has worked (FOR BUGS!)
Last night we were anchored in Salt Whistle Bay. The last time we were in there, it was very crowded and could only anchor far from the beach where it was very rolly. We could not wait to get the heck out of there. Yesterday when we pulled in we were able to pull right up to the beach in 8 ft of water.
All was well, Beckie went snorkeling, I scrubbed barnicles from the bottom of the keel. We had a nice Lobster Bar-b-que on the beach.
In the middle of the night, Beckie awoke and discovered that there were BATS..... alot of them.... flying in and out of the boat.
Surprisingly enough she did not freak, I guess it must be the farm upbringing...
Turning on the lights we discovered 6-8 bats flying around trying to get out... I dont think they like lights. The inside of the boat was littered with bat sh*t. Floors, walls, cushions, her suitcase.... all over. It took about 45 minutes to clean it all up.
Apparently they were fruit bats as we discovered all of the bananas that we had were half eaten. Actually they were not eaten as much as the fruit was sucked out of the skins.
So the question I have is, Did the bats come aboard because I had ripe bananas or was I too close to the beach?