10º 18.311n 121º 01.734w
Thu Apr 25 2019
From
ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties and blah blah blah. . .
You
live on a boat for five years and you think you know her. Then you blast off
for a 3000 mile passage, and WOW. What the heck is that noise? What’s that
creak? That groan? Have the bearings in that engine raw water pump suddenly
decided to fail?
Jamie
and Behan Gifford went for a short day sail with us in Banderas Bay back a few
weeks ago. We checked the rig tune, main sail luff shape versus the prebend in
the mast, and caught an error in the reefing rigging, but the biggest point
Jamie made was that we needed to change a few things so we didn’t go insane
from the persistent noises that could be avoided. Number one on the list was to
change the way the reefing lines attached to the boom by fabricating dyneema
strops, looping those around the boom, and attaching the double braid reefing
lines to those so that the double braid wouldn’t rub against the aluminum spar.
There was more, and as we continue the trip we find little tings and ticks and
clicks and moans and grunts and groans and you name it. Some we’ve remedied,
some still remain a mystery.
Today
there was a blood curdling scream! Thad and I about both about had a cow - I don’t
know what went through his mind, but that horrible Samuel Jackson movie “Snakes
on a Plane” flashed through my head as I bolted for the master cabin to save my
darling wife from the evil serpent.
As
we nap whenever we can, I had placed tin foil above each hatch screen and
snapped them into place, making the cabin much darker and more conducive to
daytime sleep. Poor Isabel was snoozling away having who knows what kind of
dream when the hatch screen over the bunk gave way and bonked her full on. I
reckon her dream had the sudden stimulus of an impact from the hatch screen
falling on her, the crackling sound of tin foil, and the sudden bright light.
Must have been a doozy. Scared the poor thing half to death, and got the
adrenaline going in the rest of us for sure.
We’re
all having a laugh about it now, of course. Of all the nutty boat noises I
expected to hear, screaming didn’t even make the top ten on the list!
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