Things that go thump in the night
When strange sounds occur on a boat, those who are in tune with it always hear them. That doesn’t mean that they always get up to do anything about them, especially if such sounds occur in the middle of the night, but they do hear them. Take last night for example. Just about 2:00 AM I heard a thump. Now, this thump could have been caused by a whole bunch of different things but because our boat was rocking so much in the rolly anchorage, I attributed it to an object falling off one of the salon seats and landing on the floor. Annoying, yes, but not requiring me to raise from my comfortable sleeping position. When, shortly after that, the second thump occurred, even louder than the first, I was awake enough to register that it was coming from our stern. This definitely required investigation. The thumps were either being caused by the noisiest burglar ever or perhaps something equally as bad.
When I stepped out on deck the source of the noise was all too clear, the Italian boat which had been anchored a suitable distance beside us was now playing bumper boats with our stern. I immediately moved to fend off the boat, easily pushing its large bowsprit away in the dead calm night air. Our neighbors must have either been resting in a stern cabin or sleep like zombies because they never did awake. It’s probably a good thing too as I’m not sure how they would have reacted to the sight of a completely naked man clutching onto to their bowsprit!
Rebecca was up to assist in short order though and once on deck to take over for me, I was able to deal with my lack of clothing. With adrenaline having done away with my sleep-induced stupor, I set about taking in some of our anchor rode to move us further away from our neighbors.
Was I able to get right back to sleep? Negative. For the first while I’d sit up every few minutes to ensure that we’d continue to swing clear of the other boat. Even when convinced that all was well in that regard, it still took me a while to return to sleep.
Our neighbors? Oh, they slept fine. In fact, by 6:45 AM they were up and at ’em, ready to fire up the loudest diesel engine/generator ever. I’m glad we’re leaving here today!
As we set sail for Trinidad later today, our Grenadian flag will be coming down.
We’ll miss our friends here.
For those who don’t read the comments, here is a follow up to yesterday’s post. Rebecca and I visited a local computer store yesterday and purchased the cheapest Mac-compatible Microsoft mouse that they had. It was very tricky getting our computer’s system set to ignore the trackpad with a trackpad that wasn’t working! I did manage to do it though and guess what, the mouse is working. Woo hoo! And it only cost 45 EC too. Of course, this is simply a workaround, not a fix. There is still a problem which needs to be resolved. One step at a time, and one computer at a time.
I guess you have more restraint than me. I know things happen, but I would have at least woken the owners to make sure they knew the boat was dragging and/or not behaving (in a nice way) . I dont know italian, I only know irish!
If one of us had been dragging or the conditions were bad, I would have woken them. The situation was caused by them either having less rode out that we did (we were at 5:1 scope in 35′ of water) or just that our boats were swinging differently with the lack of wind (cat on chain/rode vs. monohull on all chain).
We had the same night story, actually twice. Each time – we were told – it was “our” fault as catamarans tend to ‘dance’ at night but in reality it was always the other boat loosing its mooring line. … And also always in adam&eve costumes. It simply adds a little smile to the nasty situation.
Take care. Ba.
lol @ adam and eve costumes. 🙂
Once when hearing a thump/thwang vibrate throughout the entire boat I awoke from a say, exciting dream to fly on deck in full glory as only a man can do, to the delight of the female crew trying to fend off from the offending boat. Not a word was spoken, just polite smiles as we separated dingy davits from my lower shrouds. Sometimes like you said, there is no blame, it’s just an encounter!
🙂
Score +1 in the “points in favour of a big, rough, hefty steel boat” column.
Good luck with the Macbooks…. they’re slick little machines but you do have to trust that they’ll just work. Three Apples dead at once is rare indeed- perhaps you have a nest of codling moths 😉
No marks on our boat. +1 for the PDQ. 🙂
Um… if his bowsprit was just off your stern, doesn’t that mean you were dragging?