Jamie off watch off the California Coast.


nights in a rolly anchorage will hint at the sounds to silence. The list may be long and from sounds that come from anywhere onboard, even at the masthead. Once you try night sailing, don’t


be surprised by the noise. All boats are different, so you won’t know until you’ve done it. An important note is that a nervous or scared feeling can really be exacerbated if it turns out that the boat sounds like a rock concert below decks. It’s hard to undo that type of first night out, so take it slow. Many noises are easily fixable.


Some will take more than a rubber pad in a drawer to fix. When we first sailed down the coast from Puget Sound, I noticed that with each big swell there was a loud squeak below the cockpit; a noise not there when we’d previously sailed Totem north from San Francisco. I couldn’t quite identify the source, but thought it had to be slight movement in the wood pieces forming the end of our engine compartment. Application of fiberglass and epoxy to the suspect


area solved the problem. Hulls and decks flex, expand, and contract. New sounds from structural areas are like a voice calling out for inspection. No matter how much effort we put


into having a quiet night sail, there is a new or different sound every time. Children onboard are good contributors to this reality and we wouldn’t have it


any other way. When sailing after the sun sets, we borrow from Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon, “Goodnight stars, goodnight air. Goodnight noises everywhere.”


Totem is currently in Sydney,


Australia. Follow along 48° North’s website Cruisers Blogs.


48° NORTH, NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 27


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74