Murder and Mayhem in the Bahamas

We arrrived late Monday evening and discovered droppings all over the power boat Dirty Girl. I don't mean a few here and there, about a million inside and out. A hundred rats and/or lizards must have moved in, or so we thought. Lizards because nothing was chewed up, rats because that's what you usually think it is. We cleaned up enough so we weren't stomping through the mess and called it a night. Next morning more cleaning taking time out to watch the shark (about 5' long) lazily swimming circles around the boat. Poor thing has a fishing line wrapped around it's tail, barely visible in the photo.

Nurse shark

On Tuesday cleaning soon became boring and we said “screw it, we're going to the beach.” It was so hot we spent most of the time in the water, watching a sea turtle touring the bay.

Wednesday is fish fry night down the road but I elected to stay behind in the freshly cleaned boat. So I'm sitting in the main salon when I noticed movement on the floor – a rat had just strolled in from the front of the boat. It didn't even see me until I moved and it scurried behind a table in the corner. For the next 1.5 hours I kept watch, scaring it back until Chris and Gerry came home, more than a little inebriated. Chris thought she could catch it by putting a bucket over it if it ran out and Gerry put a trap down thinking it would wander out on its own across the trap. The rat fooled them both and dashed across the room, disappearing behind the couch. We jammed mats under our bedroom doors and went to bed, thinking we had it trapped in the salon and we'll deal with it in the morning.

Thursday morning we found it had chewed its way under Chris's door so Chris and I (Gerry was at coffee club) tore the room apart, and found that our rat is a she, mother of 6, or she was – the young 'uns ended up in the canal (murder) and we're patiently waiting for dear mommy to fall into a trap. 

It's now Thursday evening, no sign of her, nor have we seen any more droppings, perhaps she's left the boat, hope so.

Guess there was no mayhem -- yet.


Update:

Friday, 5:00 a.m. mayhem struck. We had set traps in the side berth and salon. Chris opted to sleep on the couch so she'd have more room to run if the rat showed up, and show up she did, stepping on the sticky pad and running around like mad, with Chris standing on the couch shouting for Gerry to save her - was really funny (from my point of view). Gerry shoved it into a garbage can and tossed her and the sticky pad overboard. We woke both Richard and Gary, hopefully not the new neighbours.  For the bleeding hearts out there, the rat escaped and was last seen swimming for shore (minus the sticky pad) where I'm sure she's getting a posse together. I'm hoping she's smart enough to not venture back on board - we have more traps.

Chris standing on the couch, waiting to be rescued - the typical scene of a woman and mouse/rat.

Update: Saturday morning, October 13, no sign of Alice the rat.