Unwanted visitor

[nereida]

Can anyone tell me how to get rid (humanely) of a gecko that's just appeared onboard "Nereida"?
What do they eat - insects? - flying ones?
Can they survive for long without food - for instance a long sea-passage??

Help!!

Jeanne
"Nereida"
Trinidad, but about to make for Panama

 

[John Hayward]

Jeanne,

Too bad my nephew isn't there. He was very good at cuping his hand around them and they would crawl onto his hand and stay there for quite some times. He often had to nudge them to get them off his hand. BTW - I think it might have been the "only" thing he was good at? Good Luck!

John
Dream Chaser

 

[sleddog]

Hi Jeanne,
Geckos are considered by many to be a sign of good luck and a symbol of keeping one eye on the past while focusing the other on the future. They are nocturnal insect eaters. I used to keep a few around the house, and buy them small crickets as treats once a week at the pet store. Without food or water, they have the ability to go dormant for a couple of weeks.

Geckos are quite amazing athletes, doing vertical pushups, and able to stick upside down to overheads. Unless you can catch your gecko crew manually, the only way to likely get him off is to get a cat, who will catch the gecko when it releases from the ceiling and pulls the little parachute they carry on their backs.

When WILDFLOWER arrived in Hawaii in 2002, a praying mantis moved aboard. I called her (him?) "Alice." She was quite friendly and docile, although it is said that praying mantis eat their partner after sex. Anyway, I finally had to scoop up Alice in a Chinese takeout food box and deposit her in the mangrove swamp behind KYC before voyaging home.

CU @ CYC. ~sleddog

 

[sleddog]

From Latest Yachting Monthly Website. (we sincerely hope NEREIDA catches a break.)

More than 150 yachts are in a marine 'traffic jam' on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal, awaiting transit to the Pacific Ocean. Many have been told it will be 'weeks' - in one case two months - before they will be able to get through.

This delay could put them in danger of meeting the cyclone (hurricane) season. One yachtsman is so concerned he is having his boat driven across the Central American isthmus on a low loader.

Reports of 50 yachts in the Flats anchorage at Colon, another 30 in the Panama Canal Yacht Club (PCYC), 30 or 40 in Shelter Bay Marina and a similar number cruising the Atlantic Panama coast. All waiting to go through the Panama Canal.

'Rumours are rife and cruiser chat in the bar at the PCYC can reach heated levels even in tropical temperatures. The pilots are on a go slow. The lock operators are on a go slow. The canal is not interested in yachts as it makes more money out of ships.'

'A lot of the yachties are getting concerned about crossing the Pacific to Australia and NZ before the start of the cyclone (hurricane) season in the South Pacific in November. Some of the skippers here are taking drastic measures. One is getting his yacht taken overland on a truck and trailer. Another yacht is going to spend a season cruising on the Caribbean side. Another plans to cruise Ecuador and delay for a season before heading out across the Pacific. And South African John is crossing back to the Azores and then down to the Canaries and across to Brazil to head down around the bottom of South America and eventually get into the Pacific that way. "Wasn't in my plans, " he said, "but the devil goes where the wind blows and that looks like the Magellan Strait."'

Manager of vessel transit operations for the Panama Canal, Abraham Saied, told YM that the peak time for canal transits is between February and April, but for reasons still being analysed the commercial traffic this year is much heavier than usual.

Groups of yacht transits have been dropped from two per day to one per week because they 'impact negatively' on commercial shipping transits, he said. 'The yachts take time to raft up together and handling them through the locks takes 30 minutes or so longer than commercial ships.' Normally up to 38 ships a day are expected at this time of year, but on some days up to 50 ships a day have been arriving. 'We are taking one step forward and two steps back,' Mr Saied said. 'We are hoping to get the backlog through in the next few weeks,' he added. 'And traffic normally drops off during June and July.'

 

[nereida]

One thin/dehydrated, deceased gecko found on "Nereida"

Hi, John & Sleddog (name?)

Thanks for your replies - but I'm sad to say that one very pale, dehydrated, thin, DEAD gecko was found on board "Nereida"on Saturday.

Obviously, the many flies, moths, noseeums & mosquitoes visiting us here in Colon were of no use in preventing starvation - was it too young, in need of mother's tuition, too far gone even before passage from Trinidad?... I don't know..... but it hasn't survived .... so "Nereida" has lost her visitor before we even had a chance to get to know it properly! Pity!

Waiting times here for Canal Transit are way down on previously .. but still long enough to threaten SHTP08 entry, together with upwind distance to SF from Panama.... time will tell if we're to head for Start Line or Finish Line, soon enough!

Jeanne
"Nereida"
P.C.Y.C., Colon, Panama - with Internet access ....



www.svnereida.com

 

[erica]

Hi Jeanne,

what is your sheduled date for the transit?
I've been in Colon from March to May 2006 doing 8 transits. This time boats had to wait 5 weeks. A chance to get an earlier date was to call the shedule every few days and ask for a gap. Sometimes boats get canceled or for any reason there is a gap you can jump in. By then you have to be very flexible, the boat ready and your linehands available. In best case you get a date the next day.
I got this chance 3 times when I was helping boats going through the canal.
I keep my thumbs for you

Erika

 

[nereida]

Bad news from Colon

Hi, Erika!
Yes - a boat last week went at 15 minutes' notice, 13 days ahead of schedule ..! But had to get Tito from Y.C. here to help with immediate tyres, lines & handlers (paid). I linehandled on Sun/Mon & only two boats, not three, went through - same happened two days earlier - what a waste!!
I'm busy with lots of boat jobs just now, whilst getting Windpilot repaired - it got pushed up 2-3 feet and rudder 'exploded' .. only steel rudder stock & flanges to be seen... no glass fibre outer !! Might have hit something in big following seas off Colombia on way here from Trinidad.. who knows?? Once it's finished (2-3 days more?) I'll make sure I'm ready at an instant's notice... gaps keep appearing unexpectedly but not always able to be taken up.
Bad news today is that one gap appeared for tonight's transit when a guy was attacked viciously & aggressively - stabbed several times walking back to Y.C. from town last evening - he was very lucky to survive and has pierced lung and bad shoulder/chest wounds. He was about to deliver Moorings cat to N.Z. but didn't follow standard advice to get taxi back (just $1) through 'barrios' nearby.... I walked nearby there myself in daylight on Monday afternoon when returning from linehandling - it's only too easy to get complacent and think all will be OK on coming back to the Y.C.... Think it's taxis for all of us from now on!
Cheers,
Jeanne
"Nereida"