Life at sea – 2

One could think that it is quiet on a boat in the middle of the ocean...
It is not really true! We are always surrounded by one thousand noises
and one of the big occupation on board is to find the origin of each one
of them. Marie and Thomas have reached an expert level at that game and
every new noise is identified in maximum 15min, while Eloise took 3 days
to identify a noise from the front cabin! The reason why noise hunting
is so popular is because we always need to reassure ourselves that the
new noises are not coming from something defective on board.

Ready for a tour?

Let's start with the noises from outside...

First there is the roaring of the waves. Either the ones breaking around
us or the ones through which L'Olonnois is pushing her 7 tons. This
sounds a bit like a Rooooaaarrrrrr and it is like if a waterfall was
following us. When a breaking wave hits the side of the aluminum hull,
it is then a loud BANG which wakes up everyone. Hopefully that does not
happen to often.
The wind is also responsible for a few noises. First, the wind turbine
starts charging in a happy and steady Vrrrrrrrr. The sails are of course
also flapping in the wind once in a while. The genoa makes a huge FLAP,
while the little stay-sail (trinquette) answers with a Flop-flop when
going from side to side. Thin but noisy, the life line running along
the deck enters into vibration for some specific wind directions -
especially at night of course! The vibrations are not very loud by
themselves but the spinnaker boom located next by is a perfect
amplifier, and makes sure we hear this unpleasant prprprprprpprprp! The
cockpit also has two holes to let the water flow out. Those holes are
located very close to the water line and at each large wave passing,
they emit a pleasant blublublublu. There is also the zrzrzrzrzr sound of
the winches used from time to time to adjust the opening of the sails.
(Even the flag has its own noise when it flaps on the hull.)

As to the inside noises...

As the hull is rolling in the waves, the inside wooden structures get
deformed and generate various sounds such as gniiiiiiick or crrrrr. The
300L of water located in the forward tank slosh and often slam onto the
tank walls in a noisy and metallic BLAM. Sometimes, a pok-pok-pok noise
appears in larger waves: it is the bowls, glasses and dishes dancing in
their cupboard and the sliding entrance panel which slides from side to
side. The auto-pilot Maverick shouldn't be left out. It generates a
bzzzz noise at each action to correct the boat's direction, which means
every second. Sometimes, with certain waves, it starts coughing
(anti-return valve). Despite the great care Thomas brought to the
greasing of the steering system, there is still a gniiiiiick noise
showing up once in a while... The batteries are equipped with low and
high level alarms that generates an electronic plilililit noise when the
voltage is too low (or too high, but this doesn't happen often!). When
someone is moving on deck, even with caution, people inside can hear the
blam noise of the footstep on the aluminium deck. Because of the waves
and the varying wind, the genoa sheet is sometimes moving a little
inside the blocks making a loud crcrcrcrcrcr. The water boiler is often
used onboard for tea and hot beverages as well as when cooking pasta,
rice... When the water boils, it starts making an unbearable and very
loud fffuuiiiiiiiiiiii noise. Believe us, this one is stopped in seconds
as there is always someone jumping to shut the gas off under the boiler.
As despite all those noises we spend our time napping, therefore alarm
clocks ring every two hours to remind the sleepy ones that they are
expected on the deck.

Eventually, you may wonder what causes this RRRrrrRRR sound, coming from
the aft of l'Olonnois. Easy: it is either the engine running (not heard
often since the start), or the captain having a nap :-)

Cheers everyone,
The Noise Descriptorz