Raccoons are kind of cute... as long as they're not on board your boat, rummaging through your food bins. I've had them raid campsites before, but I think this is the first time we've been boarded by the clever little critters.

The photos here are from our Rideau trip in August. It was the first of two nights at Chaffeys Locks, tucked into a quiet little corner where the bigger boats couldn't fit. One of the nice things about small, open boats is that you can (almost) always find somewhere to dock.

Of course, an open boat is slightly more vulnerable to Procyon lotor, the not-so-little guy in the top photo. His den is in the cribs supporting the seawall we're tied up to. Several of our friends with larger boats have found these critters in the galley, the head compartment, and all sorts of other places, so we were careful to lock up all the food in well-sealed bins... or so we thought.

It only takes one box of doughnuts to get a family of four into "board and pillage" mode, and they're not easy to chase away. Some noise, chaos, a long stick and a flashlight eventually coaxed them to leave, but the doughnuts had to be sacrificed to keep them from coming back.

The solution? A kedge anchor off the starboard quarter into the turning basin, which allowed us to pull the boat half a metre off the seawall the next night. P. lotor is a rather clumsy beast and won't jump over open water if he can avoid it.

And, of course, a friendly comment to the lockmaster... who was no stranger to this problem, having recently ordered about fifty of these critters removed from his lockstation by animal control officers. Something about a "plentiful food source" from all the campers and cruisers passing through.