Ugly crew stows away on MD

This is the long awaited set of pics of our latest, and now dearly departed, crew member. He caused a lot of anxiety, sleeplessness and physical damage. We do NOT want to have another like him, or her, on board ever.

He was a healty big guy and no wonder after the feasts he had on board - potato chips, cookies, pasta, etc. What really irritated me though was his taking one of two bites out of many expensive, and long, ropes and nylon webbing, and only out of the middle of the lines, so the whole piece would be ruined. He also chewed on our woodwork and decorative rings for the cabinet finger pulls. I am not sure how we will be able to replace these and may have to have them made from teak. Notice the large size rat trap - he was over 3x the size of the mouse traps we had. I am not a hunter, and would not kill a deer unless I had to for food, but am estatic about getting this guy. We used Peter Pan Smooth peanut butter for bait.

We still are not sure how he got on board, but it was at the Whangarei marina in NZ. We have since found several other boats who have had similar experiences, all unhappy. But he's gone now and I think we have found all the food he stashed around the boat.

Remember - you can blow up any pics on the blog by double-clicking on them - in case you want the gory detail.