Worst Stowaway?

[fishrdan]

So what's the worst thing you have found on your boat out on the lake?

I was night fishing and grabbed a sack of cookies from under the seat. I chowed a couple and felt a weird tickling on my arm ANTS

After doing the "funky ant dance" around the boat and sending the infested bag of cookies to Davie Jones locker I commented to my partner, I wouldn't be laughing so hard, those ants are under your seat

To get in the boat, the friggin little *&@^# had crawled up the trailer tire, onto the axle, across the spring, onto the frame, up to the bunk and then into the boat. I noticed them a week earlier and killed them off, but didn't think to check the boat interior...

 

[achris]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

I get spiders in my boat, which is stowed in my shed. They also have to take the same sort of route to get in.

I'll swap your ants for my spiders anyday.... Some are Red-backs (Black Widows to you).....

Chris..........

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

ants, spiders, mice, snakes. if you store your boat under a tree, they fall out of the trees, don't have to come from the ground. the ones i hate most are wasp and bees.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

Its bee's for me. I always do my seasonal launch before the temps get warm. I try to check for all the nests that were built during the fall winterizing, but they always get into places you can get to. Of course when the weather temps warm up, that is when they come out with their stingers ready to AIM and FIRE!

One season I took out a few city youths for an early morning fishing trip. While walking out on the dock, we noticed some animal tracks on the dock in the morning dew. I told the kids that they looked like raccoon tracks to me. The boys immediately said no, they are cat tracks. The tracks were all over the place. There was tracks on boats where they had investigated just about every boat tied at the docks.

The kids got their gear stowed, we shoved off and out into the lake we go. Once we got to the honey hole, I instructed one of the boys to fill the live well for anticipation of a good catch. He raised the cover to the live well and out pops this big ole p-ssed off coon. The boys jumped back and screamed "SKUNK"! OMG, these boys need to get out of the city more often. I slammed the cover back down on the coon's head before he was able to get out. We headed back to the dock where we was able to get the coon to disembark from the boat. That day, they learned what a raccoon is up close and personal.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

that's funny, and could have been dangerous also.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

years ago my exwifes grandfather, had left some fish in the live well of an old wooden boat. well he opened the live well to find a big fat moccasin, well fed, who could not get back thru the hole in the bottom of the boat.

 

[JB]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

Had a few confrontations with wasps, but always got them over with before hooking up.

Worst case was probably a cottonmouth that got in the boat while beached for a nature break.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

Bees here too. They seemed to be more prevalent years ago thankfully. I remember as a little kid growing up on the water mud daubers were always around.
One spring, I hopped on the our 23' Formula at the pier which of course rocked it. Bees were building a nest under one of the seats and did not care for the motion not even a little bit. They zeroed in on me and took aim en masse. My mother was on the waterfront and saw what was happening. She yelled to jump in the water. Well duh, this was common sense to any lad that lived on the water and was past the crawling stage. In fact, every little kid knows to take in as much air as humanly possible beforehand. Evading bees on the water is an early survival skill learned quickly. Anyway, it was a low tide so the boat sat considerably lower than the pier. I ran towards the back of the boat toward the pier. Superman would have been envious of the jump I performed. The last solid object I remember my feet touching was the floor of the boat. I apparently made it over the doghouse, up and over the pier, and into the drink in one motion. Don't ask how other than the adrenaline rush provided by sheer terror. Being underwater at this point, SOP mandates that you swim underwater as far as possible. The bees will hover for a while over the spot where you went in. They know you can only hold your breath for so long as they have timed many a youngin' in the past. They know after two minutes at most, you're coming back up. Well, I could make it almost to other side of the creek underwater and this was good enough. Fooled 'em that time!

 

[mphy98]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

My neighbor had a cat family take up residence in his boat over the winter. One of the kittens had died in there too. What a mess, He got it mostly cleaned up but today here comes the snow.

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

Roaches, ants, mice, snakes, lizards, birds, mud daubers, yellow jackets. Used to have to throw a bug bomb under the cover the night before if the boat had been covered for awhile. A can of Raid was standard equipment on Dad's boat.

 

[mars bar]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

SPIDERS... big hairy wolf spiders, I'm 6'3' weight 285lbs. and I still almost jump in the drink!

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

....some French Canadian girls

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

Termites. Formosan termites, to be exact.

I am currently restoring an old Thunderbird cathedral hull. Although the boat is in pretty good shape for the most part, the floor obviously needed replacement. Once I got into the project, I was somewhat surprised to see that the stringers were in good shape. Further removal of the floor and saddle tank enclosures revealed the reason why - both were full of active termite nests. They had gotten into the floor because the underside was not encased in FG. The same was true of the saddle tank frames.

So, now I have another good reason for fully encasing wood pieces in the boat in either FG or epoxy.

 

[CN Spots]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

My brother's boat had a deer tick infestation once. Probably stopped a dozen of the little buggers trying to crawl up my leg one trip. He had a cat squirt out a litter of kittens on his back deck, complete with a squirrel carcass for snacks. My personal favorite is the wasp nest under the trailer tounge. First there's that little crunch and then the flailing and hollerin starts!

 

[DJ]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

years ago my exwifes grandfather, had left some fish in the live well of an old wooden boat. well he opened the live well to find a big fat moccasin, well fed, who could not get back thru the hole in the bottom of the boat.

Similar.

Had one crawl in the splashwell drain hole. I didn't realize it was there until I went to switch tanks.



Had a neighbor that went to plug in his lights one night. He found the bow and stern light sockets full of CHEESE. Rugrat infestation-confirmed.

 

[Nandy]

Re: Worst Stowaway?

I did my precheck yesterday. It all looks clean and dry. Little molding in a few spots though.... No insects or anymals... That is a good thing....