The Sailing Kitty and Some Time Off

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This page was last updated on July 13, 2004

July 3, Force-10 Gale

Gale recuperating in the cockpit during his first
daysail, with a little streamer of barf decorating his chest.

Acclimating kitty to the sailing life comes with a steep, very steep, learning curve. For Gale's first hoist-the-sails and tilt-your-house, we chose very benign conditions. Winds were light and the seas were nearly flat. That wasn't good enough for Gale. He got seasick, and we, the crew, learned some valuable lessons about sailing with a ship's cat.

What we learned about sailing with kitty:

• Keep kitty's stomach empty before setting sail. A whole can of Fancy Feast came up ten minutes after the sails were set.
• Keep kitty in the cockpit. Once the boat motion got to him, Gale searched out his favorite hobbit hole down below. Unfortunately, closed hatches made the bouncy cabin too stuffy; his comfy little hobbit hole was a woozy stomach's worst nightmare. He dragged his miserable, barfy self up onto the shelf in the v-berth where SolMate's gyrations resembled a carnival tilt- a-whirl (okay, it wasn't that bad, more like a kiddy tea cup ride). Whatever the ride, Gale became even more miserable.
• Keep the litter box open. Not only did kitty barf, but he suffered sudden diarhea attacks, so sudden crew didn't have time to remove the litter box lid. Off-watch crew had to follow kitty, armed with paper towels, cleaning in his wake.
• Keep kitty tethered to the boat. A comfy little cockpit corner can become a slippery slide when the wind pipes up and the deck tilts.

Initially, Gale was blasé. Motoring out of the marina was no big deal for him and the initial sailing was fun -- he even wandered up forward to watch the bow wake hiss past. Then, after his barfarama down below, Stan forced him to stay in the cockpit and he faired much, much better in the fresh air. The crew became a bit nervous, though, as the wind piped up, the boat heeled a bit more, and Gale couldn't find a secure cockpit corner to wedge himself into. Next time he'll wear his harness and be tethered to a line that will allow him access to the cockpit, his litter box and a couple of cozy corners. The learning continues.

After considerable research into other ships' cats and how cruisers deal with kitty issues, we purchased lifeline netting. It will encircle the deck from the top of the lifelines to below the toe rail and be secured to the bottom of the stanchions. Not only do we hope to keep Gale from sliding off the deck, but perhaps we'll keep a few more of our possessions on board as well. Our list of tools that have gone "plop" is pretty long, already.

4th of July Dinghy Parade

A day off! We declared
the 4th of July a no-boat-work holiday
MJ paddled her kayak to K-dock where Kelvin was
adding the finishing touches to his parade entry.

Kelvin and Ginny in their sailing
dinghy during the parade. We parked
ourselves, in our kayaks, at the edge of
the parade route and enjoyed a ringside seat.

July 5th. Finished! Dinghy Chaps

The dinghy sitting on SolMate's coach roof, with chaps.

Distinctive bull's eye at the back of the dinghy chaps.

Chaps are to protect the inflatable dinghy from the burning sun when it's in the water. These took more than four months to construct. Design and sewing entails digging the sewing machine out from its storage space under the settee, making pattern pieces from an old sheet, flipping the dinghy from its belly to its back to try on each new pattern piece, and fitting each of the pieces on the dinghy, sticking it all together with masking tape, cuz straight pins and inflatables don't mix.

After setting up the sewing room, there was also a pesky timing issue -- fittings only on calm mornings when the wind cooperated, otherwise pattern pieces blew off into the water, making for a cranky seamstress.