The Hairy Catapillar

[phil_kirk]

We had a pleasant sail at Thornbury yesterday. 

On the second lap of the race Sarah noticed a big hairy catapillar hanging on to the mainsheet.  A mixture of surpise and guilt struck home for this little fellow was unlikely to stay dry.  By lap three he had gone into the brown  soup that we call water in the severn eastury. (In years gone by the severn esturary water was said to be to thick to pour but to thin to plough)

From the catapillars point of view he had found the ideal winter home in the dinghy park.  Sheltered from the rain,  insulated from the cold by the foam sandwich hull and a few bits of rope to snuggle up to.  That was until some idiots came along turned his home on it's side before dunking it in the water. i'm sure you would be a bit upset too!

[Phil Alderson]

We gave a few spiders the same treatment on Sunday

[Will_Lee]

As far as I know, we were the only wildlife aboard Antidote at the weekend.....

[ross_burkin]

I know a guy who had a wasps nest in his wooden Contender.

[simon_jones]

Could that be the best use for a wooden contender? The crew of  the L2000 that we capsized on top of looked quite wild, does that count? On the plus side they learned not to try and luff a cherub with a kite up.

[JimC]

Before he built he Int Canoe Andy Paterson bought an old wood one which had been in a barn fpr a few years to do some development with. The first time he capsized it there was, predictably, rather a lot of water inside, but as the water came out through the hatches so did two or three very long dead rats...

[phil_kirk]

Wow! 

I hope no one has discovered anything bigger.  Think of the weight penalty.

If Andy's rats had been alive they would have probably escaped as soon as the boat got near the water.

[Ratface]

while sailing my rs300 in the middle of a gybe i noticed a live mouse come out of the front of the boom and run to the back but see water and think again,instead of jumping overboard it hid inside my halyard bag!! until i came ashore where it ran off

days later one of the fireball guys discovers a mouse in his kite bag on the boat! what a life that mouse must have had them few days.

Ross- that hornets nest didn't venture onto the water... however it was fun putting the hatches back on and watching the hornets attempting to get back to the nest 

[Neil C.]

When I bought 2631 it had a squirrel's nest under the foredeck, complete with a large stock of hazlenuts. But it was minus the squirrel, so I guess that might not count.

[mathew_harris]

I know when we righted Dreams in Sunderland we came ashore with a fishing lead, 2 hooks along with bits of worm and assorted bits of fishing line (i know what you're thinking, typical scousers, will knick anything).  Think the worms had probably been there a while though so maybe not as alive as they could have been.