Have you ever noticed how the mainstream news services spend a lot of time shouting at each other? It’s not like they can’t hear one another, they’re all sitting in the same bloody studio. The purpose is to raise the stress the level and hopefully keep the attention of the viewer or listener. That props up ratings, sells more advertisements, and if they’re lucky and can out shout the competition they get a bigger share of the available ad revenue. My last trip through Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport it didn’t matter which TV news was playing on the monitor, CNN or Fox. Everybody shouting. Same with much of talk radio, whether of conservative or liberal bent.
Shouting contributes to a stressful environment.
Cockpit crews wear headsets to talk on the radio or to each other. Well, maybe Neil doesn’t in the Airbus 350, and maybe Mike doesn’t in the “Queen of the Skies”. Both are British Airways captains and two of the best pilots I’ve ever had the opportunity to fly with. They both flew our little RV-6 back in our dirt dwelling days, leaving me more time to push buttons and take airspeed calibration data. Everybody won! The RV-6 is a noisy little bugger and headsets are mandatory. I used an earplug style and offered them a Bose noise cancelling one and we enjoyed a reasonably quiet ambient noise background and excellent speech intelligibility. Same deal when I was flying around in helicopters with test pilots. Cockpit communications is crucial to efficient and safe operation of an aircraft.
It's no less so on a boat except things tend to happen a lot slower. We’re not closing on anything at 160 knots or more, but when one of the crew spots a bommie before the helmsman, you can bet we need to react fast because that means we’ve got just a few seconds to change course. Or perhaps sink. Take your pick.
We’ve found anchoring to be particularly stressful, partly because each of us has different ideas about what’s the best spot or adequate separation from other vessels, but the bigger reason is that with one of us at the helm and one on the foredeck looking down to find a decent patch of sand we have difficult communicating clearly. We’ve generally got one or both motors running when in close proximity to things that could smite us, and both engines mean more electrical power and greatly enhanced maneuverability. When we’re having to motor as within a bommie-riden atoll, we might as well make water with all that extra electricity, so we’ve got every noise maker going. It can be quite difficult for the helmsman to hear the bowman. In these situations when communication begins to break down, frustration builds, stress levels go up, tempers may flare, and things might remain uncomfortable for a while after finally getting on the hook.
Hand signals are good, but I’ve finally concluded there’s a better way, especially after observing a couple of our Australian pals on SV Taipan who’ve been on a 20+ year circumnavigation and seem to really get on well. The secret seems to be Bluetooth enabled headsets which form a private intercom system, voice activated, allowing the bowman and helmsman to communicate in normal tone of voice or even almost a whisper. Excellent speech intelligibility. Clear communications. No having to wave arms wildly, repeat oneself, get all worked up and angry. The frustration that morphs into anger isn’t at the other individual, it’s at the situation, but the other individual may take it personally.
After living aboard and cruising together since 2014, I finally decided enough was enough, and threw down for a set of private intercom Bluetooth headsets. Lots of cruising couples refer to them as “marriage savers”. Considering what a divorce would cost each of us in terms of emotional, financial and other turmoil, the headsets were a steal. Naturally they’re at Mike’s place in Albuquerque. He was going to visit soon. Mike, can you check they work before the warranty expires?
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