BUG FREE ZONE

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Last night, before I went to bed, Mom warned me that there was one cockroach that they had on board. Supposedly it is the large kind and so is a lone cockroach, and in the south pacific, where they've been everybody gets at least one. Well, my little bed is right by the hatch to the outside. And in the bathrooms, there were a bunch of little black crickets for some reason. Yeah, bugs. Ick! I didn't think I'd have to face that here in NZ. As I was chanting right before bed, one of the things that I was chanting about was a BUG FREE ZONE all around my bed.

I slept about 8 hours, but it was a bit fitful. A boat is NOISEY! Creeking, rocking, clicking, all kinds of noises, not to mention the noise of the little fish against the hull (no, really, its loud!), birds, random people, etc. It is always hard for me to sleep in new places, and I also missed G.
(Ooo - but we discovered that my cel phone works fine here in NZ, but don't call me! It's $2.30 a minute!!) Well, finally it was getting light enough for me to feel like it was worth the trip up to the bathroom (have to get off the boat, walk down the long dock, up the ramps, across the parking lot). I was so paranoid about bugs that I sat up very slowly, got my glasses and inspected my surroundings before getting out of bed. I had just woken up so I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw a small dark spot on the floor. Peering closer, I thought, no way...but sure enough it was Fred!! (the cockroach) Well, I sure wasn't getting up with him there (it is a VERY small space and you can't get out of bed without stepping right where he was), and I didn't want to just scare him away cuz I'd have to deal with him again. So I carefully lifted the cup mom left for me the night before and slowly slowly slowly went towards him with it and BAM! slammed it down on him! (uh, mouth side down, I didn't want to crush him either) But the cup was plastic and he was big and I was worried he could get out - I put a candle on top of the cup to weigh it down and then went and got mom (uh, make that, woke mom up!). She was excited - Brian wanted to spray him, but Mom didn't want the area so close to my bed to be sprayed. So she carefully and slowly managed to slip a piece of paper under the cup and then use LOTS of tape to seal the cup shut. We then put it all in a garbage bag and walked it up to the garbage cans at the marina - I figure we did him a favor because he will go to the landfill, where his people will set him free and he will have endless acres of lovely garbage to frolic on!

Now, you might say that my chanting for a bug free zone didn't work...but that is not true! If we hadn't found him I would always be wondering, but now that we have removed him we KNOW it is now a BUG FREE ZONE!!!

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Photos

Tools of freedom
You can see the cup on the back left, and the candle I used to weigh it down. They are all on the little ledge just by the bed.

View of space
You can see the hatch just to the left - the way to get out of the boat - then the little ledge and my little bed beyond.

View from above
You can see how small it is! Fred was right under the bottom step. Forward is the main cabin.