Intruder on Board the Boat!

Hugo slept right through the sound of feet walking up one side of the deck, around the bow and down the other side of the boat. I could tell it was a small 4 footed animal, not the two footed kind which would have really worried me, so I went back to sleep.

We were alone on the boat last night and Hugo was even more protective of me, sleeping right by my shoulder. Or, perhaps he wanted to be close as he was the scaredy cat. I know he has hidden behind me in the past when he was afraid.

Kent hitched a ride home with Sean and Kaia yesterday and is ‘repositioning’ one of Trevor’s 42 foot North Pacific Yacht’s to Oak Harbor, Washington from the Nico Wynd Marina.

Back to Hugo and I, alone on the boat, in the middle of the night. It was pitch black outside and we were awoken by the sound of a number of loud crashes when objects fell onto the back deck. I knew what it was by the sounds but Hugo went ballistic and wouldn’t stop barking so I had to get up to chase away the intruder.

When I put the outside light on, I could see the five gallon prawn bait bucket lying on it’s side, the lid a couple feet away and a striped tail. The tail belonged to the bandit, one of the annoying racoons, and he was busy eating the prawn bait. He didn’t care that Hugo was three feet away barking at him. I banged on the window and he moved a foot away to look up at me. He even went so far as to get up on the side of the boat to try to trick me into thinking he was leaving.

Hugo would not quieten down, so I opened the door a crack, yelled at the racoon then let Hugo out. The cockpit door was closed so Hugo couldn’t do more than sniff around and give off a few more “I’ll take your leg off if I catch you here again!’ barks, but then he discovered the prawn bait tasted yummy.

I had to shoo Hugo off while I cleaned up the mess, put the lid on the bucket and tidied up the mess. It’s beyond me how a twenty pound racoon can get a tight fitting lid off a five gallon bucket when I find it almost impossible.

I put the bucket under a table and a heavily weighted bucket on top of the table to hold it tight against the bucket and hoped I’d get back to sleep after all this excitement.

My feet were freezing and I was shivering and wet from the rain, by the time I crawled back in bed, shut the light out and waited for Hugo to come to bed. He was still doing his sixty pound big attitude dog-duty by letting out the occasional growl, but soon the growl’s turned to whine’s.

He wanted on the bed and doesn’t like to make the three foot jump up in the dark. I turned on the light and begged him to do the ‘big jump’ so I wouldn’t have to get up again to lift him. Nope, the little doggy with the great big attitude needed me to lift him.

We snuggled under the covers and slept soundly until 0900. I can only guess Hugo dreamed of eating the whole bucket of prawn bait. I dreamed of a Davy Crockett ‘coon skin cap with a striped tail.