Cruising Forums

saxon · 01-12-2010, 03:10 PM

I'm wintering in a marina here in Portugal and because of the prolonged periods of very heavy rain lately, the water in the marina and river is pale brown from the run-off from the surrounding land. A couple of evenings ago there was a loud "Thump" on the hull, so loud that I went on deck to investigate.

Flopping about in the water alongside was a fish about 12 to 14 inches long, one of it's eyes looked to be damaged and the fish appeared to have lost it's ability to get below the surface. It eventually struggled away out of sight under the pontoon.

There are Cormorants which often hunt in the marina and I wonder if the poor old fish had been chased, and in the murky water had swum at full speed into my hull. And yes, the shrimps chorus hasn't been heard here since the colder weather set in and the water turned coffee colour from the rain.

redbopeep · 01-12-2010, 08:01 PM

My sister in law just visited us for New Years. We gave her the most comfy bed on the boat--giving up our stateroom so that she would have comfort and privacy, we slept in the less private double berth that resides under a fold-up seat in our chart house.

The next morning we talked about this thread and the little snap, crackle, poppers....she started laughing. She said that she heard them loud and clear and wondered if we had given her the "noisy" stateroom! She also was worried that something was eating the hull!

**Istioploos** · 01-12-2010, 10:32 PM

This is a good story Brenda. I have a similar one.

My college roommate visited my on my boat. We were anchored off in the lovely cove of Ermioni and it was perfectly calm. The sea was a mirror.

Next morning I asked my friend how he slept. He said that he had trouble sleeping because snap & cracking noise. He said he thought it was made by little fish eating away the hull!!

Happy New Year

Vasilis

capdiy · 01-24-2010, 09:15 AM

Here is an other slant to this story: depending on water and air temperature differences ( that's my theory), fiberglass will move causing a crackling noise. I have experienced this on a number of boats in the Caribbean and the the east coast of Australia for tooo many years!

Aquaria · 01-25-2010, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by capdiy

Here is an other slant to this story: depending on water and air temperature differences ( that's my theory), fiberglass will move causing a crackling noise. I have experienced this on a number of boats in the Caribbean and the the east coast of Australia for tooo many years!

...if that is the case, I'd be highly whorried!! Fiberglass= glass fibres embedded in *hardened resin, and both components are highly connected to each other. If not, we talk about delamination: the fibres loosing contact to the resin and they can start to move..., the material (and therfore the hulls structure) becomes soft and very flexible. *But you are right when talking about decks and when they are not constructed as a sandwich: walking on deck produces a crackling noise and the older (and softer) a deck, the more it crackles. Delamination at work? *But this is a different topic and maybe a new thread.

Back to the Snap, Crackle, Pop made by sea creatures: *When living on board way back in the early 90ies (European Atlantic Coast, Caribbean and Atlantic Islands) we NEVER heard it. In partially the same waters on the same boat in 2003/04 we found it nerve wrecking loud at times! Did the species that produces the noise grow in population or* spread into new habitat, or didn't we notice back then?

Uwe

SY Aquaria*