Hey Babe What’s That Sound?

On the boat, we are always listening. First of all there are so many systems jammed into a small space, it is impossible to avoid hearing them. And secondly, you want to know what is running and that is it running properly. Monitoring the sound of things we want to work, like the engine and the fridge, and things we don’t want to work, like the bilge pumps is constant. Any change draws our attention.

For example, when we were on Lake Michigan heading for Chicago, we started hearing a really low vibration. It wasn’t consistent. It would last for a little while then stop. Each of us went below at different times to listen to the engine and check things out. No strange sounds down there. There was nothing else around us as we were still about five miles off shore. Engine gauges were all fine, no smoke, vibration didn’t get worse and the engine was running fine. So we continued on.

Eventually, we realized that it must be musical, likely a sound check from the Lollapooza festival starting that evening on the Chicago water front. This was confirmed later when Metallica took the stage and vibrated the boat from more than a mile away.

Last night we anchored on a sand bar on the Upper Mississippi River. A gorgeous spot on a sharp bend in the river called Brown’s Bar. We dropped anchor in about six feet of water well outside the channel. The anchor immediately set deeply in the sand bottom and held us fast. The current was strong enough to hold us parallel to the shore even with a light wind and even against wakes from passing tows.

We ran the generator for a short time allowing the air conditioner to cool down the cabin while John made a beef with broccoli stir fry.

We did the dishes and had quick showers before we lost the light. Then watched twilight settle from the flybridge. It was then that we noticed the lack of sound. The water slipped passed the hull noiselessly. No slap or gurgle. The chorus of frogs and crickets which can actually be deafening here was paused for a shift change between those would call during the day and those that call at night. No mechanical noises from the boat: no rattle from the AC, no hum of the fridge or fan, no cycling of a pump.

Spooky.