Bisou de partout: The Tale of Roquefort

In spite of our attention to the matter of keeping rats off Bisou, Roquefort (as I named him) managed to sneak aboard during the night of 20^th September as we were med-moored to Kizil Adasi, just south of Bozburun. We should have guessed that something might happen for two reasons: one, the boys spotted a large rat on the rocks as we sat there in the evening, and two, the winds slackened overnight and our lines to the shore ended up in the water (along with the rat guards!). During the night we heard one of the boys up on deck but thought they were just outside for a nighttime call of nature – the next morning, evidence of Roquefort’s visit was all over the saloon. He had left his calling card(s) but, as I had not left any food out, there was nothing nibbled on. We searched high and low to discover where he might be hiding but could not find him, and hoped that he had gone back whence he had come. We weighed anchor and headed for our next stop, Orhaniye, where we anchored between the island with the Byzantine Fort and the western part of the mainland. It was an idyllic anchorage with lovely water and very peaceful. There was good shelter and we enjoyed a couple of days here. That night, after an unsuccessful search, we put out a rat trap baited with cheese and peanut butter (apparently rats like peanut butter!) and went to bed. The next morning the trap was sprung but no rat – Patrick said that Roquefort had walked across the screen above his bed during the night, freaking him out. Of course, Roquefort had once again left his calling cards! More work for me to disinfect the boat again! By now the two boys were determined to discover Roquefort’s hiding place and rid us of him for once and for all! They searched everywhere outside the boat including the sail bag, every nook and cranny with no success. Then Karl had the brilliant idea that perhaps Roquefort was in the dinghy! They gently lowered the dinghy into the water and Karl spotted a movement in one of the pouches of the seat cover – he carefully untied the seat cover and flung it into the water. Seat cover and Roquefort went flying into the air…and then the darn rat started to swim back towards the boat! At this point Tad came onto the scene with the boathook and proceeded to bash Roquefort on the head! The last we saw of Roquefort was his lifeless body sinking into the water towards the crabs. What a terrible experience (I don’t like the thought of hurting any animals and if there had been a way to catch him and release him I would have done so), but at least we found him and after scrubbing the seat cover and the pouch wherein he hid, we felt clean again! And that is the tale of Roquefort! Needless to say, we were much more careful with our stern lines and the rat guards after that!

And now some nice photos to offset this tragic story...