Practical Boat Owner – June 2019

“H

e’s going to fall in,”

whispered my wife, Julie, as

we listened to the cat trying,

for the umpteenth time, to crawl up and

over the ‘V’ of our bimini. We were

anchored overnight in our Parker 235

sailing yacht on the Norfolk Broads

where we like to spend the summer.

Splash. Yep. It’s not the fi rst time he’s

fallen overboard and he climbs out of the

water so fast, up the fenders, that it’s

surprising he’s even wet. Dunk. Here he

comes, straight onto the bed, through the

hatch, soaking the duvet and us in equal

measure. Purring, he nestles in the warmth

of the bed that we’ve hurriedly evacuated.

Ian Garner learnt

to sail in a Mirror

dinghy before sailing

the Menai Straits,

Scotland’s West

Coast and the South

East Coast.

Not everyone takes their moggies

sailing, why would you? They’re scared of

water, they claw your furniture to bits and

they shed so much hair that, in our

kitchen, it’s just another condiment.

Nevertheless for us, all these irritants are

more than outweighed by the sheer joy of

seeing him stride about the deck, so

sure-footed and confi dent. We love how

the other boaters laugh and point at Theo

when they see him on deck.

Camping start

It all began when we started touring with

him in the camper van. A different place

every day and once it was quiet and dark,

we’d open the door and he’d

toddle off on his own. We’d then

leave a window open and he’d

come and go as he pleased, until

the morning, when I’d close the

window and stop his fun. It was at

this point we thought, maybe he

could come with us sailing? After

all, the camper is nothing more

than a land yacht.

One of the perils of sailing with

pets is toileting. We were worried

that he’d puncture the infl atable

dinghy if we needed to take him

to land from a

swinging

mooring. But we

decided in the end

that he could simply

stay aboard and use his litter tray. We

aren’t often at anchor or on mud weight,

preferring to be tied to the side. This gives

him complete freedom to come and go as

he chooses.

Unfortunately this does bring its own

problem: cats march to a different drum

beat and their rhythm seldom matches

our own. He will very occasionally go

AWOL (that’s, Absent Without Leave for

non-military types). We were once holed

up on the River Bure for fi ve days without

him returning. We knew he was about

because we could hear him occasionally

but eventually we ran out of food and

Readers’ cruising destinations, near and far

o

We pay for your published cruising stories and

harbour updates. Email [email protected] or

write to the address at the top of page 5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Megan and Teddy with

the Garners’ Eagle 525 in

the Lake District

Theo the

ginger tomcat

Ian Garner shares his experience of having

a ginger tomcat called Theo as part of the

crew (along with two dogs - Megan the

collie and Teddy the Yorkshire terrier)

Sailing with a cat

D

av

e^

Po

rte

r/A

la

m

y

Thurne windmill on

the Norfolk Broads