Things That Go "bump" Well...sometimes "squeak" In The Night

[redbopeep]

Our hull draws a bit over 6 ft. Our depth transducer is about 2 ft below the waterline on the starboard side. We are anchored in about 12 ft of water (shallow) and with the tides this level ranges from 8 ft to 18 ft. I set a depth alarm on the CruzPro so that when the depth drops 2 ft the alarm will sound. The purpose of this is part of the anchor watch--in addition to GPS and eyeballs, we've got the depth alarm. I update the depth every hour or two so that tide changes won't greatly impact the usefulness of the depth alarm.

Just now I heard a strange squeaky noise like something rubber squeezing under against the bottom of the boat on the port side. Then, as I was asking David if he heard that noise (I'm in the main saloon and he's up in the charthouse) he said yes it was coming from the head (on the port side between him and me) and then the depth alarm went off (it is set for 10 ft right now). The water depth registers 12 feet more or less still. So something squeaked by under the boat. I wonder what it was... Ever have anything like that happen?

Speaking of interesting things under the boat:

Last week we had US Navy Seal teams in training bumping around under the boat for several nights. That was really weird. The trainees have high tech re-breathers (so no tanks) and all the latest in equipment but because they're in training in a civilian environment, each one of them is trailing a green light stick. One evening we'd see 30 or 40 green lights moving across the anchorage in an organized "search" looking pattern. The next night they'd be just all over the place. Another evening I swear one of them got stuck under the keel. Bump, bump, bump the light stick struck the hull on the port side and then finally he made his way across and the stick popped up on the starboard side! Considering there was only about 2 ft of water under the keel at that moment, I was really impressed on one hand and grossed out (yuck! think of the mud down there!) as well.



Bump, bump, bump in the night. Or..tonight it seems to be squeak, squeak, squeak..