Peeeeee-yew! That’s what our neighbors are saying about Cream Puff. We have a pet Osprey who enjoys using the very top of our mizzen mast (rear shorter mast) as a dining room table. Ospreys eat fish. They are messy eaters. All the lovely parts of the fish the osprey doesn’t eat, like the guts, head and tail, falls down onto our deck and cabin top. Come to think of it, we also get treated to a dollop of what the osprey did eat. After a few days of hot Florida sunshine, the fish parts start to stink a little. Okay, they stink a lot! The stench has been so bad several of our neighbors started washing our boat. Now, you have to ask yourself here, how bad does a boat have to smell before you are willing to wash it and get all sweaty in the heat and sunshine? Well, apparently we hit that point. Not once, a few times.
My first thought was to rig up something at the top of the mast to deter the bird from landing. Yep! The plan was to have the osprey fall in love with someone else’s boat. This would mean a trip to the top of the mast. Then, I took this picture. I did not have my good camera with me so, sorry for the quality. Look closely at the top of this neighbor’s mast. They have wire ties pointing upward everywhere! Did it deter the osprey? Nope! I think we are going to have to suffer through this for a little while.
A rather bad picture of an osprey
We will be away from Cream Puff for a few weeks wrapping up loose ends of our land life. It won’t be very long before we are full time on the boat and getting ready to sail to the Bahamas. But for now, much to the relief of our neighbors, we have retained the services of a boat washing company.
