Life With A Boat Dog

 

This is awesome!

We own a 41' Tartan Sailboat and Abby is a wonderful sailor! She lives on the boat with us and goes sailing all the time. Frank runs a sunset charter business during the summer on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Abby is part of the crew. And yes, this is the same boat we all live on.

Abby loves to greet the customers, but has learned who doesn't really want to be bothered by her presence...who the hell doesn't like dogs anyway?? Oh well, paying customers first and sometimes, for whatever reason, she has to ride below deck. This does not make any of the pack happy, but especially Abby :(

For the most part though, Abby get to ride up top and enjoy the wind and waves with the rest of us! She does wear her life jacket now (which I will post a pic of soon) like a good young sailor does. Anybody on board under the age of 12 must, by law, wear a life jacket and that includes Abby Dabby!

After the meet and greet, Abby will keep a watchful eye as we leave the dock and head down the ditch to Kitty Hawk Bay. Once the sails are out, however, she will settle down into the cockpit on the heeled side and fall sound asleep. Most of the time, the only instance she wakes is when the boat is tacked signaling her need to move to the other side of the cockpit to be on the low side of the boat's heel.

When the winds are light, Abby will wander the deck to see who might be interested in giving her a  pat on the head or scratch her belly. She knows immediately who the dog lovers are and befriends them quickly, but she is rarely annoying and will move along at the right time. Usually to the cooler with its missing plug...she looks like a gerbil getting water out of its water bottle :D

Once the trip is done, Abby will wait patiently for all on board to debark so that she can run through the empty dock parking lot to burn off any excess energy then settle into her fave spot in the salon's aft berth for some evening TV viewing.

What a dog's life!