The Noises at Night and Naps

Unless you are making an overnight passage, cruising sailors and cruising yachters want to be tied to Mother Earth each evening.  That means one of three options.  You can tie up at a dock, nearly always in a marina.  You can drop your anchor.  Or, you can tie up to a mooring line.  Each option has advantages and disadvantages.

If you’re at a marina, you usually can lay out several dock lines that add a measure of security.  The boat doesn’t move much.  But the air in marinas can be stifling.  And the oily and other smells unpleasant. 

If you’re on your anchor, you can set the hook so that the anchor digs down and is good and safe.  And, as backup, you can always lay out enough chain so that the weight of the iron adds extra holding power.  But the longer the chain the more expansive the swing, and the shorter the chain the less likely the anchor will hold if night winds develop.

If you’re on a mooring ball, you have a concrete block resting on the bottom with a line to a large float right above it, and then a painter (second line) with a little float.  When you moor, you grab the little float, attach your boat’s lines to it and drift back.  The painter then restricts how far you swing.

Our preference is to anchor in shallow enough water that you can swim out and see if the anchor is dug down, with enough chain for security, far enough from the shoreline so you can’t swing into it and away from other boats also at their anchors.   But the backup has to be the mooring line – on most evenings.

Anchoring is free but restricted to certain places.  Moorings cost money.  The average nightly cost is $30.  In the US national parks, and if you have a senior citizen’s card, the price drops to $13. 

Now all this assumes that the weather is in a cooperative mood.  Namely, you want the wind to slow at night, but still have a bit of a breeze.  The breeze keeps things cooler on a dock, and keeps your boat away from the anchor or mooring.  If the breeze drops and/or a wave/swell pushes in an opposite direction, then the boat can drift right above the anchor – or bump into the larger mooring ball.

And THAT is the worst night noise we’ve experienced.  Fiberglass against metal means that any bumping becomes exaggerated all throughout the hull.  The bigger the mooring ball (and the US Parks mooring balls are relatively huge), the louder the noise.  And if the ball gets positioned along an outside hull – where it is not easily able to drift back away – then you hear a repeated bumping and it can be very loud.  Loud enough that it wakes you and sometimes persistent enough that you get out of bed, flashlight and boat hook in hand, to find the ball and shove it forward and off the hull.  Of course, the calm winds and wave swells can return you to the bumping, but even the temporary relief is worth the effort.

Bumping into mooring balls isn’t the only night noise.

Some of the noises are due to your own choosing.  For example, we have paddleboards that are normally stored on the deck.  If you think you’ll be using them the next morning, it’s tempting to leave them in the water for the night – if you’re willing to live with the constant slapping sound the board and water make.  Or, you leave your dinghy in the water and calm winds and wave swells can lead to the crashing sound of the dinghy meeting the stern of the boat.  Not pleasant.

Sometimes it’s just the wind pushing the water under the boat and there’s a distinctive slapping sound you’ll hear.

Sometimes it’s the roosters greeting a new day – starting about 3am!

Despite that loud crashing mooring ball, the scariest noise is to hear scratching sounds, indicating the bottom of the boat is bumping against the rocks below. 

I wouldn’t say that all together, the night noises bring any music to the ears.  Together, they make for light sleeping, which is why I think you can see many cruisers taking naps in the afternoon.

I have dear friends, Ted and Rosy, who have a sign on the porch of their cottage:  The Lakeside Napping Team Tryouts Here.  I like that, especially the older I get.

God’s OK with naps.  And when the night noises sound, and you’re suddenly awake… well, it is what it is.  What else are you going to do anyway?