So I went for a lovely sail yesterday and when I stepped the mast, not quite as much water flushed out as usual and there was a funny smell, but I chalked it up to stagnant water and the great outdoors. When I returned home and began rinsing the boat and rigging, odd puffs of something rose up when I hosed out the mast hole to flush out the salt water......and then the earthly remains of a mouse floated to the top. I guess he fell in or went in for water during the week and drowned, unable to crawl up and out of the smooth-sided cavity. Does anyone have an ingenious cover for the hole to prevent other critters from a similar demise? The critters and I thank you in advance! Fun Fish
A scaled down boarding ladder would be invaluable to assist the mouse in coming and going, perhaps the installation of a red light would also help, that way if a the mouse does descend into the mast step he/she could activate the light so that you would not accidentally step the mast while he/she is "below" Or you could simply stuff a stainless steel scrubbing pad into the hole during storage.
Go get a length of 2 1/4 pvc pipe. Cut long enough to it sticks up above the deck when inserted in mast hole, glue a cap on top the pipe. May not even need a cap if the pipe sticks up high enough.
Hmm I wasn't quite sure what it was in post #4, I knew it resembled a tennis ball but I've never played tennis with a ball made of foam like you mentioned so I thought I'd state the obvious in case you were referring to a different type of ball or the OP was similarly uncertain.
Some chopped liver would be nice though, I'm craving a midnight snack
I guess foam tennis balls are the latest thing. I see some for practice and some for regular play, though I suspect fuzzy is still the "regulation" play.
I like the closed-cell aspect for a water-tight mast step plug... that's how close I get to that game.