What's That Noise?

[Kristal]

What\'s That Noise?

Does anyone else find the amplification properties of a big hollow wooden thing sitting in the water quite alarming at times?

Twice this morning already, Crystal has caught me out - firstly, the noise that sounded like the Bilge Pump running, but gradually got louder and louder, turned out to be the engines of a huge motor cruiser in the marina, and another noise, sounding very much like water rushing into the bilges from a hole in the hull, was actually a small dredger motoring about.

They have to be in a certain place, I think - presumably uptide from us - but when it happens, it's really loud, and always comes from the bow. I know Nikki Perryman was talking about whalesong being transmitted through the hull of Siandra when they were off cruising... anyone else have experiences like this?

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[Gordonmc]

Re: What\'s That Noise?

Being woken in the early hours by the noise of what sounds like rats eating the hull is disconcerting.
Turns out it was caused by mullet grazing on the garden around the waterline.
I have also heard squeaks I was convinced were caused by porpoises. Is that a possibility?

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[mikesharp]

Re: What\'s That Noise?

I was told years ago that it was the shrimps squeaking. Regarding porpoises, you can often hear them through the hull before seeing them, especially at night. Remember a trip a few years ago from Ireland to the Scillies, sailing down a moonbeam and being visited a number of times during the night by a school, presumably the same one each time.

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[mikesharp]

Re: What\'s That Noise?

I was told years ago that it was the shrimps squeaking. Regarding porpoises, you can often hear them through the hull before seeing them, especially at night. Remember a trip a few years ago from Ireland to the Scillies, sailing down a moonbeam and being visited a number of times during the night by a school, presumably the same one each time.

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[tillergirl]

Re: What\'s That Noise?

I found that if I went on board (swinging mooring) on a dead calm, on going below I could hear the faint whine/hum of an electric motor despite all the power being off. Searched high and low, in and out, turned things on and off and couldn't find it. Then went to the Doctors and found I had high blood pressure and the noise was the sound of blood trying to get to get round!

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[Mirelle]

Re: What\'s That Noise?

Two years ago, anchored at the Rocks on the Deben, we were woken up by a loud whirring noise.

It was a clock calm, moonlit night. The noise was the log impeller whizzing round on the ebb tide - the noise was no louder than usual, but everything else was silent!

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?

 

[Kristal]

Re: What\'s That Noise?

I just discovered that it wasn't another yacht in the first place - it was a dredger clearing the berths for the beginning of the season. Despite being over 100 yards away, we could clearly hear the whine of the motor lowering it's dredgering thingy, then the scrunch of it being dragged through the mud, and, most bizarrely, the sound of rushing water around it's prop when it suddenly put it's engines astern to stop.

It's also strange that the noise is particularly amplified at a certain point on the yacht's centreline.

As a professional sound engineer, I ought to be able to work out why this is - watch this space!!

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[Peterduck]

Re: What\'s That Noise?

I was visited by porpoises many years ago, and as they were more or less keeping pace with buy yacht, I pulled up the cabin sole, laid a ghetto blaster on the planking face down and played "The Blue Danube" to them. They all came to that side of the boat and swam quite closely to us, obviously listening to the music.
Peter.

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[Kristal]

Re: What\'s That Noise?

In the hope of attracting porpoises, I've been through Crystal's CD collection and I've narrowed the selection down:

Gabriel Faure's Requiem, Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell II and Genesis' Selling England By The Pound are the finalists. I think we're more likely to attract gaff-rigged prog rockers than any kind of marine life... but you never know.

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