Life on Board with Cats

Part of the Crew

Cats have been part of our life aboard Hunky Dory for many years. The cast has included Alf, Lola, Lizzie, and Lulu, each with a different personality and a different way of adapting to the boat.

One advantage of having cats aboard is companionship. Whether we are working on a project, spending a quiet evening at the marina, or anchored in a cove, the cats make the boat feel more like a home and less like a place we are temporarily visiting.

Hunky Dory is large enough to give them choices. They can sleep in a stateroom, watch the activity from the pilothouse, stretch out in the salon, or retreat to a quiet berth. When Lizzie was recovering from an illness in 2018, she moved among the master stateroom, pilothouse, and salon as she began feeling better. Once recovered, she resumed eating normally and playing with Lulu.

The cats have also become a natural part of our boating stories. When we sheltered aboard Hunky Dory during the early weeks of the COVID lockdown, the cats sheltered with us. Two of them even made unscripted appearances during our virtual cruise through the boat.

The Advantages and Disadvantages

Having the cats with us means that we do not have to leave them for extended periods or arrange for someone else to care for them. They remain with familiar people, furniture, bedding, food, and routines. After settling in, the boat becomes another familiar home rather than an unfamiliar destination.

The disadvantages are mostly practical. Cat hair gets into rugs, bedding, corners, air-conditioning filters, and places that seem almost impossible to reach. Litter must be stored, scooped, and disposed of in a relatively small living space. A veterinarian may not be nearby when the boat is traveling, and every exterior door becomes a potential escape route.

Traveling to and from the boat also requires more planning. Our daily logs include overnight hotel stops with the cats in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Columbia, Tennessee. On another occasion, I drove Debbie and the cats to the Pensacola airport so she could pick up a rental car for the trip home. A simple drive becomes a small logistical operation when carriers, food, water, litter, and hotel arrangements are added.

The greatest disadvantage is the need for constant awareness. A door that can be opened without a thought at home requires a cat check aboard the boat.

Keeping the Cats from Leaving the Boat

Our basic rule is that the interior of Hunky Dory is the cats’ safe area. The exterior decks, dock, and water are not places where they should be allowed to wander freely.

Before opening an exterior door, we need to know where every cat is. This is especially important while loading supplies, carrying tools aboard, welcoming visitors, docking, or preparing to leave the marina. Those are the times when doors tend to remain open longer and everyone’s attention is divided.

A few practices make this easier:

• Keep the cats in a closed stateroom or their carriers while loading or unloading the boat.
• Open only one exterior door at a time whenever possible.
• Make sure visitors understand that the doors must remain closed.
• Locate every cat before starting the engines, opening machinery spaces, or preparing to get underway.
• Keep carriers assembled and readily accessible rather than buried in storage.
• Maintain current microchip information and keep recent photographs available.

Screens can provide ventilation, but they should not be treated as secure barriers. A determined or frightened cat may push through a loose screen surprisingly quickly.

If a cat slips onto the dock, chasing it can make matters worse. A calmer approach is usually better: close off additional escape routes, keep the cat in sight, reduce noise and activity, and use a familiar voice, food, or carrier to encourage it to return.

A cat allowed onto an exterior deck should be directly supervised and gradually accustomed to a properly fitted harness or feline flotation vest. A cat should never be left tethered unattended because the line can become caught on railings, deck hardware, or other equipment.

Precautions Around the Boat

A boat contains hazards that do not exist in an ordinary house. Engine rooms have hot surfaces, moving belts, electrical connections, fluids, and openings into the bilge. Access doors and floor panels should remain closed unless someone is actively working in the space.

Before starting an engine or generator, it is worth confirming that the cats are accounted for and not hiding in a machinery space. Cats are attracted to warm, dark, quiet places—the same characteristics that can make an engine room appealing when the machinery is not operating.

Restoration work adds another group of hazards. Epoxy, paint, solvents, cleaners, fiberglass dust, sharp tools, and loose wiring must be kept away from the cats. When I am sanding, painting, or working with fiberglass, the safest approach is to close the cats in a clean section of the boat and ventilate the work area. Chemicals should be returned to closed storage as soon as the work is finished.

Open access panels, removed cabinets, and partially disassembled equipment also create hiding places. Before closing a hatch or reinstalling a panel, I check the space rather than assuming that nothing entered while I was working.

Temperature is another concern. A loss of shore power can stop the air conditioning, and a closed boat can become dangerously hot. Temperature sensors and onboard cameras are useful for monitoring conditions, but they do not replace having someone close enough to respond if the power or cooling system fails.

Dealing with Litter, Hair, and Odors

The litter pan needs a stable location where it cannot slide or tip as the boat moves. A mat beneath it helps contain tracked litter, and frequent scooping is more important aboard a boat than in a larger house. The pan itself also needs regular washing—one of the less glamorous boat-cleaning tasks recorded in the Hunky Dory logs.

Cat hair does not stay near the cats. It eventually reaches air-conditioning filters, drain screens, bedding, rugs, and upholstered furniture. Frequent vacuuming and filter inspection are easier than waiting for airflow or odor problems to develop.

One lesson from Hunky Dory’s CruiseAir systems is that a more restrictive “pet” filter is not necessarily better. Testing showed noticeably greater airflow without the dense pet filter, so I installed lower-resistance filter material and cleaned it more frequently. Protecting the equipment from hair is important, but the filter cannot be so restrictive that it interferes with the air conditioner’s operation.

Food and water bowls should also be placed where they will not slide, block a walkway, or be contaminated by repair work. Nonslip mats help, but bowls still need to be moved before rough water or extensive maneuvering.

Cats Underway

Most cats prefer a quiet, protected place when the engines are running. Their preferred location may be a bed, berth, carrier, or corner away from the engine rooms. Giving them access to a familiar blanket or bed can make the sound and motion less unsettling.

Before getting underway, we secure the litter pan, food and water bowls, carriers, and anything else that might slide or fall. Exterior doors remain closed, and the cats stay inside throughout docking, locking, anchoring, and other operations that require people to move rapidly around the decks.

Cats should first become comfortable aboard while the boat is secured at the dock. Short outings provide a better introduction to engine noise and motion than immediately beginning a long trip. Some cats adapt quickly, while others need considerably more time. Not every cat will enjoy boating, and the individual cat’s temperament should guide the decision.

When a Cat Gets Sick

Illness away from home can be one of the hardest parts of having pets aboard. During our time near Mobile, Lizzie became lethargic and stopped eating and drinking. We took her to a veterinarian in Theodore, Alabama, for steroid and antibiotic injections. When the symptoms returned in January 2018, the veterinarian performed chest X-rays and blood tests and provided additional treatment.

The daily logs show how closely we watched her afterward—whether she ate, drank, used the litter box, moved around the boat, and returned to her usual behavior. She gradually improved, began spending time in the pilothouse and salon, and eventually resumed playing with Lulu. Lulu also had a brief period of lethargy during that stay but began feeling better later in the day.

That experience reinforced several lessons. We should know where the nearest veterinary clinic is whenever we will remain in an area for an extended period. Medical and vaccination records should travel with the cats, along with any medications, special food, and the telephone number of their regular veterinarian. A carrier should always be ready for immediate use.

Cats often conceal illness, so a change in appetite, thirst, litter-box use, breathing, movement, or normal behavior deserves attention. Being on a boat is not a reason to delay veterinary care.

Tips and Lessons Learned

• Acclimate a cat to the boat while it is quiet and secured at the dock.
• Keep the cat in a carrier until all exterior doors are closed and the interior is secure.
• Establish a routine for locating every cat before opening doors, starting machinery, or getting underway.
• Give each cat a quiet retreat with familiar bedding.
• Secure litter pans, bowls, carriers, and other loose items before moving the boat.
• Scoop litter frequently and clean air-conditioning filters more often than you would in a house.
• Do not use a filter so restrictive that it reduces the airflow needed by the air-conditioning system.
• Keep engine rooms, bilges, repair areas, chemicals, and tools inaccessible.
• Carry veterinary records, medications, familiar food, and enough litter for the trip.
• Identify nearby veterinary clinics before they are needed.
• Keep microchip information current and maintain recent photographs of each cat.
• Brief guests about exterior-door precautions as soon as they board.
• Never depend solely on screens, cameras, or temperature sensors to keep a cat safe.

Worth the Extra Work

Having cats aboard requires additional cleaning, travel planning, and vigilance. It means checking the doorway before stepping outside, accounting for every cat before starting the engines, and accepting that cat hair will eventually find its way into places where no cat has apparently been.

Even so, Alf, Lola, Lizzie, and Lulu have made Hunky Dory feel more complete. They have been companions during restoration work, marina stays, trips, illnesses, quiet evenings, and an unusual period when the boat became our refuge during a nationwide lockdown.

The cats add complications to life aboard—but they also help make Hunky Dory home.