Last year a friend asked is to write a post about cruising with our cat, Baxter. He is a 6-year-old Maine Coon cat that came into our household when he was about three months old.
Introduction to boating
Right away, we introduced Baxter to boating. Starting out, we would simply put him on our boat, a Sabre 32 at the time, and let him get familiar with it at dock. Then he would ride along on day sails and eventually we began to take him on overnight trips, with his longest on the Sabre about 5 nights long in 2020.
When we purchased Utopia the following year Baxter came down with us when it was time to splash the boat. After the three of us spent a very hot night in the yard, Baxter rode alone in Utopia as she was moved from jackstands and placed into the water. Then we spent about 10 days cruising from Charlotte Harbor to Apalachee Bay, which included one overnight passage towards the end of the trip.
During 2022, Baxter spent each weekend on Utopia while she was moored at the Apalachee Bay Yacht Club and even participated in a couple of PHRF races. He was onboard when we moved Utopia to St. Petersburg in January 2023, which made for his second overnight voyage. Then Baxter traveled to down with us nearly every other weekend until we moved onto Utopia full time in October 2023.
Preparations for living onboard
Veterinary Services – we kept our existing veterinarian in Tallahassee. In fact, we took Baxter to the vet this past week for his annual checkup. We may need to visit vets in other locations prior to entering countries, like the Bahamas, which require a recent veterinary checkup before entering the country.
Microchip - In order for most other countries to read the microchip, it needed an ISO certification. Jimmy worked with our veterinarian to get Baxter an international microchip.
Cat Food – For several years Baxter has been eating a very good Maine Coon dry food that we are all happy with. We’ve have managed to have it delivered to us as we cruised around Florida. Most likely we will need to change to locally purchased cat food once we sail to more remote locations. We just hope that the food agrees with him and doesn’t cause an extraordinary foul odor in his litter box.
Litter Box - After years of using standard kitty litter, we have switched to a Breeze litter box system. This litter uses a large rock-like pellet and an absorbent pad to capture his waste. The benefit of this system is that we no longer end up with sand all over the floors and furniture. Also, if litter should end up in the bilge, it will not gum up and clog the pump.
Adapting to fulltime cruising
So, after several years of getting Baxter used to boating it was time to test him out as a full-time liveaboard cruiser. Overall, he has adapted to his boat life very well and seems to be happy. We have seen him appear to be nervous when larger storms roll through, but it could be that he feels our nervous energy, and that is affecting him.
Baxter has gotten used to the movement of the boat while underway. In the beginning he did not care for the engine, but now he just seems annoyed by it. Whether motoring or sailing, some days he hangs out in the cockpit with us, and others he prefers to sleep all day.
While underway, Baxter is wearing a harness. If he chooses to hang out in the cockpit instead of the cabin, we put his leash on and clip him to one of the cockpit padeyes.
Same goes for being at a marina, during the daytime, he is wearing his harness. Then when he wants outside, he is on a leash to keep him from wandering off.
In the early days at anchor, he stayed harnessed and leashed when outside of the cabin. Overtime we monitored how he behaved on the deck and was eventually allowed to roam completely free when at anchor. Occasionally, Baxter will make us nervous, like the times he zooms allover the deck, trying to run as fast as he can. Then sometimes he explores the dinghy as it is tied up on the davits behind Utopia. So far, knock on wood, he has managed to stay on the boat.
Baxter has been on a few dinghy rides and has handled them quite well. We started doing this back when Utopia was still in Apalachee Bay. In the first attempts, we learned that the water needed to be calm. If the water is slapping the dinghy and hull of Utopia, he did not care for being lifted from the safety of the big boat to the small dinghy. It also better to start up the dingy motor before lowering Baxter into the dinghy. Once we get moving, he likes to look around as long as we are not up on plane. In 2022, Jimmy took Baxter to a beach during one of our weeklong cruising trips in North Florida. During our five-month trip around Florida this winter, we only took him a ride a few times due to either bad weather or tight schedules.
Appalachian Trail
Shortly after moving Baxter on board, Jimmy’s uncle let us know that if Baxter was not happy with the boat, he would be glad to take Baxter. Instead, we asked if he would be willing to keep Baxter for about six months so that we could hike the Appalachian Trail. He accepted and now Baxter is now living in a house, overlooking a pretty bayou in Mississippi.
Jimmy and I share a lot of pictures of Baxter in this blog, but if interested in seeing photos of just Baxter, you can check out his Instagram page @baxter_on_board.