MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY - CHARLY ALPHA TANGO OVERBOARD!

10:43
MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY - CHARLY ALPHA TANGO OVERBOARD!
ALL SHIPS ALL SHIPS ALL SHIPS
THIS IS SAILING SHIP SALTYPAWS SALTYPAWS SALTYPAWS
CAT OVERBOARD IN PARADISE BAY OFF MALTA
ALL SHIPS IN THE VICINITY PLEASE JOIN THE SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATION
SALTYPAWS OUT

We both thought that Tux Tuxington would be the first cat to make intimate acquaintance with the Drink. And we where right.... Tux likes to hang out on the swimming platform, and he likes to watch the fish from there. Whenever something steers, he jerks as if he wants to jump after, but rethinks this mind the last moment. This time, he lurched a bit more than before, and he slipped overboard. He desperately tried to climb back on board, but the platform was just too high for him. After he found this out, he started his "help me" mow, and despite the high pitched screeching, he managed to make it sound very urgent.  After first using the fishnet, this effort proved to be fruitless. As Tux was hanging off the rear fender, I could just manually pick him up out of the water. I have never felt a cat's heartbeat banging this fast! After the retrieval, we quickly rinsed Tux of with the outdoor shower, and packed him in towels. We new he was ok, when he hungrily ate the offered cat food. After some more drying, Tuxy started his revenge by initiating a massive shedding campaign. We brushed him many times, and each time we had a rich harvest... Coffee filters anyone? I tied old rags at the back of our boat, in the hope that next time, Tux will be able to rescue himself.

10:45
CANCEL MAYDAY CANCEL MAYDAY CANCEL MAYDAY
ALL SHIPS ALL SHIPS ALL SHIPS
THIS IS SAILING SHIP SALTYPAWS SALTYPAWS SALTYPAWS
CHARLEY ALPHA TANGO HAS BEEN RECOVERED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE. MAYDAY CANCELLED.
SALTYPAWS OUT

A boating pedigree...

My love for boats has been inherited from my family. Already in 1939, my grandparents had a boat. They upgraded from rowboat to motorboat in 1954. If they had kept the motorboat, today it would have been worth a fortune. Via very special channels we received the pictures below:

1939 - My Grandmother in my grandparents rowing boat

1939 - My grandparents posing on a wooden fishing boat "Botter BU 198".

1954 My Mother Rita, and Aunt Norma and Uncle John in the family motorboat

Selinunte

Today we visited the ancient site of Selinunte on Scilly. The Jupiter temple was very impressive. When the site was picked,  the people knew what they were doing,  as it is sited just above an amazing white beach. But what was perhaps more amazing for me were all the wild flowers that really livened the site up. I have visited many Greek and roman sites before,  but mostly in high summer,  in the scorching heat. Other than the Jupiter temple the site is mostly a pile of scatted stones,  but with the wild flowers,  it made for a very interesting hike. I can really recommend a visit to this site to anyone.

Cagliari - Sardinia

Cagliari

The first impression of Cagliari was excellent. We had a port captain pilot us into the marina, and had excellent assistance when docking the boat. The water front, reminds me of the Malecon in Cuba, as are the colored buildings with the small and well shaped balconies. Because Cagliari is on a hill, we get a good workout getting from A to B on our bicycles. The food is excellent over here, and I can recommend the local pasta (the size of pies) to anyone. No pizza so far, but I image that is in the near future as we will stay in Italy a bit longer. I am happy to report the local gelatti is of excellent quality. As I am typing this, we are enjoying a setting sun, and we just saw a flock of flamingos fly by. These birds are at home at the salt flats just next to the city.

Looking out over the Cagliary Harbour

Building on Mainstreet in Cagliari

Elizabeth looking pretty  and Clam Spagetti

When the perfect anchorage meets the perfect storm….a perspective from the first mate

When the perfect anchorage meets the perfect storm

We arrived to Sardinia near Porto Pino after midnight from our pleasant sail from the Balearics.  We found the perfect anchorage sheltered from any of the wind we had during the day.  It was silent enough for us to enjoy some sleep.  The next day we had our coffee on the deck while Luna was catching some sun and rolling about on the solar panels.  Around 10Am in the morning, a fresh breeze started to pick up.  We thought finally we can go kite surfing!  We took out our gear but Tux decided he wanted to take a nap on my wetsuit.  We enjoyed a perfect afternoon of kiting when the wind got just a little too strong for us to continue.  In fact it kept gaining in strength and the waves started to pick up.  The wind speed went over 35knts reaching gale force…in our protected bay.  We were on careful anchor watch to see if the anchor would hold in a gale, and sure enough it held for over 12 hours of constant pounding.  In hind sight we are very happy with our selection of a 40kg Rocna anchor with 100 meters of high strength anchor chain.  I don’t think any crew would look back and wish they had any less.  When it comes to anchors, bigger is better.  We thought we would stay in our perfect anchorage and wait out the storm and we made it until around midnight when the wind and waves suddenly turned our perfect anchorage into a LEE SHORE!!  It was time to take a big deep breath and pull up anchor against force 7 wind (notice our max wind speed of 47 knts).  That was a first for me but the windlass was strong and we maneuvered away from danger and set sail towards Cagliari in Sardinia.  After a night of shift on shift we arrived in port against the gale to seek shelter.  We got a big plate of pasta and some rest after all the excitement and toured the capital of Sardinia.

So How are the cats doing? Cats on Board a skippers perspective

Cats on Board

If you are reading this blog, in preparation of your own cruising experience, and you wonder whether to bring your cat, I can only answer with an heart felt : "YES!". 

Life on board brings its own set of challenges, and we get many questions about how we do this or that on board. But the most asked question, is without a doubt: “So, how are the cats doing?” Quite good actually. Both cats have lived up to their role as pest controller, and have caught and disposed of bugs.

This brings us to the second most asked question: “Do cats get seasick?” This is an easy one, myth confirmed. Cats do get seasick. We have found, that they especially do not like it when the waves are on the bow and over about a meter and a half. But they are also adjusting. The worst bout of seasickness was experienced when we just left La Rochelle, and the cats experienced living on a rocky boat for the first time in their life. After that, they only became seasick twice, both times we where motoring against some nasty waves. However, even this they are adjusting to. Yesterday, both cats had their dinner when we motored against waves of about a meter.

Tuxington is getting used to life on board fastest, which is not surprising since:

1. He is the youngest cat, with only a year and a half and
2. he grew up up as a street cat, geared for survival, next to an ICA supermarket in Norway. He is always hungry, and will eat what is served.

Our biggest concerns around the cats are: The cats falling overboard, running away, the cats not eating or drinking. The first concern is addressed by keeping them inside when we are under way (unless posing for pictures or movies) and only letting them outside when we are on anchor or moored and on the deck, ready to scoop them up when they fall overboard/ catch them when they try to explore the outside world. Because SaltyPaws had quite a high free board, they can only get off at the swimming step, and this area is easy to monitor. The drinking water concern is addressed, by making sure there is a bowl of fresh water in all areas, and by adding some water to their dry food. At this point Luna's star like qualities become apparent. We have been feeding her wet food, as she did not like to eat dry food on the initial sailing legs. However, true to a Hollywood star, she has now become quite pretentious about the food she is being served. When served dry food (the very same dry food she was happily eating in Norway) she will test a bit, chew a couple of times, and then spits it out again, while making a face saying: “This is NOT the food that I ordered!”. So she is on a diet of wet-food now. We are now slowly trying to get her back on dry food.

Our preparation had clearly paid off. We have been taking the cats for a drive in the car in Norway many times, and we also brought them on the winter sport holiday (3x a 5 hour drive). I think this is a good test, to see how adaptable your cat is for the adventurous lifestyle. I haven't had the heart to throw them overboard, to teach them how to get back in the boat, but as the water is getting warmer, this is more and more likely to happen.

We created some cat-napping stations, by putting blankets and other soft items of clothing in several occasions. They also very much enjoy the cat scratchers, kindly donated by my Norwegian colleges. We keep their nails clipped, and they only scratch the placed where they are allowed to scratch. NB for those of you who are considering declawing the cat, so the boat remains intact: DONT. Not only is declawing inhumane, and illegal in many countries, it also prevents your cat from being able to climb back on board after it has fallen over.

If you are not interested in the cat's toilet situation, the post ends here...

Ok so you are interested in this subject after all. As for the cat head, back in Norway we have tried to get them used to a doormat, instead of kitty litter, with the idea that we could just tow the doormat on a line, to get it clean again. While for some cats this can clearly be a successful approach, our cats did not get used to this new way, and started to get creative with where they thought the cat head was. Also, we have tried to make them use the toilet, which can be successful, as clearly shown by a number of you tube videos. Also, our cats did not like this option either. In hindsight, this would not be a very good idea on a boat, since the toilet seat is quite slippery, and the boat is usually rocking in some kind of motion. In the end we just settled for a traditional litter tray, which is completely covered, and has got a door. This has worked quite well, both in transporting the cats in the car, and on the boat. We have put a towel in front of the cat head, to prevent kitty litter to spread throughout the boat.

Isla Fromentera – Spain’s little Caribbean

Perspective from the first mate:

After a day and night sail after pulling up anchor in Mar Menor, we dropped anchor next to a beautiful island of Isla Fromentera which is a wildlife and nature reserve in the Balieric islands of Spain.  This was our favorite anchorage so far that we stayed for 3 nights….and perhaps overstayed our welcome….  The island has historic salt flats which attract birds of all sorts.  We weren’t the only ones as we were surrounded by several other yachts making a day sail from Ibiza to see the wildlife.  After relaxing a bit after our crossing from the mainland we took the dinghy to shore with our bikes and toured the island.  We left the cats on board thinking we would spare the birds stopping to rest on the island.  The little port even had a veterinarian!  Not even the human doctor had such a prized location on the docs where the ferries unloaded.  We stocked up on our queso Manchego and enjoyed some beautiful relaxing evenings on the boat.  While lounging on the deck on one of those evenings we spotted a sinister looking dark vessel with too many protruding antennae to be one of the leisurely sort.  It started to come for us.  Just as I was telling my husband that we were being stalked by a war ship, when I saw “aduana” which means customs.  Three men hopped onto a dinghy and boarded the Salty Paws.  I sprang into defensive action, invited the nice gentlemen to have a seat (who also spoke very good English) and assaulted them with my artillery of paperwork….passports, ship documents, cat vaccination certificates, crew lists, boat specifications, insurance, and VHF licenses….about 2kg of it.  They had nothing to say accept have a good evening and wished us a nice journey to our next stop in Italy.  I have to say, the officials in Spain have been the most helpful and pleasant people to deal with.  I smiled proudly knowing all my hard work to prepare for engagements with officials was paying off….turns out I would need those skills again upon entering Italy.