Saturday 2 May, CY day 49: Continue work on the dinghy cover project, and we welcome the rain and the cooler air that comes with it.
Not a lot to report on today’s boaty activities. It’s again our designated shopping day but we decide to defer till Tuesday and leave the dinghy on the deck.
It’s one of those laid back days – well it’s the weekend right? On and off throughout the afternoon, we cut out the main panels of sunbrella fabric for the dinghy chaps: 2 for the starboard side and 1 bow panel. And I make a couple of seams just to try them. But didn’t try fitting it on the dinghy yet. That will be tomorrow’s task. I have pins everywhere in the material, so not a good idea to play in the dark near the rubber. It would be just typical of me, to make nice dinghy chaps but puncture the inflatable tubes in the process!
Oana is into a new series of books which must be very good because I find her occasionally sniffling, with tears running down her face. But her main emotions of the day dramatically starts early evening, when she lets out a huge scream in the galley. I kind of know now: this is a “there’s a big bug” scream. She is pointing to the dish drain board with a quivering hand, barely managing to get her words outs: “c-c-cockroach, under there” she says. But when I lift it, nothing is there. Then I spot the bugger running down the wall. OMG it’s a about the size of a bloody mouse! Its body alone must be 10cm long. I’ve never seen one so big. As cockroaches go, this one has clearly lived a long life on good food. I make a grab for it and wrestle it to the ground. Boy-oh-boy it’s strong. After quite a fight I finally get it to the toilet, where the losers prize is …. maceration and ultimately, fish food. OK, so maybe the fight is a bit exaggerated. But it did give a very strong wriggle when in my hand 🙂
Where the hell are these things coming from? Surely, like the one we found several weeks ago, we would have seen others by now if we had an infestation? The last few days we have noted numerous tiny flying bugs, about the size and shape of flees, but the colour of cockroach. Could they be baby cockroaches? The rest of the evening I’m again into every void and space from bow to stern with my head torch. But other than these little bugs in the saloon area, there are no signs of any bigger intruders, or their detritus, behind any closed cupboard doors or below the floors. Could it really be coincidence that after 4 years on board with no cockroaches, 2 similar sized ones manage to fly into the boat one month of each other? It seems impossible, not to mention the flight from land would be at least 300m. Well, mosquitos make it … maybe cockroaches can too?
Needless to say, for the remainder of the evening, Oana is itching and twitching all over. And isn’t even happy once in bed with covers over her. But that’s probably down to me, because earlier I had described a recent dream to her, which was probably not my smartest idea in the circumstances. I dreamt a very big bug walked over me when asleep in bed. I was so convinced about it, that I woke up and turned on the light looking for it! So sleep doesn’t come quickly for poor Oana this evening 🙁