I happened across a June or July 2004 issue of Latitude 38 last week and it
contains quite a long letter from a fellow who sailed single-handed from SF
to Hawaii. He describes all strange sounds he heard during the voyage,
including having his name called more than once. He does not mention
anything about lack of sleep, in fact he infers he had no trouble in this
area. I think there may be some issues with sensory deprivation on these
sort of voyages, that is, you are removed from most of you common
experiences and your mind starts to fill in the void. Some underlying
stress may also be involved.
"..be.." wrote in message
om...
more because of gales and other bad weather than anything else i've
just completed a four week new zealand to norfolk island solo voyage
and was wondering if other folk who have spent a similar period of
time alone at sea find the ropes talking to them after a couple of
weeks. it got to the point that i actually dreaded the sun rising,
because everything that was talking to me during the night, stopped
with the coming of daylight. perhaps its a survival mechanism?

the two week trip from there to australia was much more enjoyable,
primarily because there were only two days of 35knot+ gales as opposed
to two weeks of it.

cheers
bruce

i developed a theory during that voyage, all spoken communication
throughout history is actually imprisoned in unique molecules of sea
water waiting to be released into the ether. as a yacht (or anything
else) disturbs the molecules the noise is released from its
imprisonment. initially those playbacks were only in english but after
a while i was picking them up & understanding them in several
languages. other things that happened include sailing through sheds &
parkland and being visited by friendly spirits who i felt were time
travellers coming back to observe me.

that aside for anyone cruising near norfolk island in favourable
weather, take the effort to visit the island. it is well worth the
trouble.

cheers
bruce

"Gordon Wedman" wrote in message news:2qC4d.76353$KU5.51456@edtnps89...
I happened across a June or July 2004 issue of Latitude 38 last week and it
contains quite a long letter from a fellow who sailed single-handed from SF
to Hawaii. He describes all strange sounds he heard during the voyage,
including having his name called more than once. He does not mention
anything about lack of sleep, in fact he infers he had no trouble in this
area. I think there may be some issues with sensory deprivation on these
sort of voyages, that is, you are removed from most of you common
experiences and your mind starts to fill in the void. Some underlying
stress may also be involved.

On 22 Sep 2004 17:30:49 -0700, (..be..) wrote:

more because of gales and other bad weather than anything else i've
just completed a four week new zealand to norfolk island solo voyage
and was wondering if other folk who have spent a similar period of
time alone at sea find the ropes talking to them after a couple of
weeks. it got to the point that i actually dreaded the sun rising,
because everything that was talking to me during the night, stopped
with the coming of daylight. perhaps its a survival mechanism?

You're in good company. Wasn't it Joshua Slocum who had a "spectral
pilot" in the Southern Ocean?

Next time, bring a wind-up shortwave radio. Hearing other people's
voices will lessen the need of your brain to manufacture some of its
own.

Also, get in the habit of RELIGIOUSLY keeping a log AND a separate
diary of "thoughts and reflections". Even if you don't think you have
many thoughts worth recording, the mental effort involved will help
keep the ghosties quiet.

Lastly, consider that just maybe extreme fatigue from heavy weather
solo sailing was a large part of "whispers in the rigging".

Well done, anyway. I plan to sail that part of the world someday, and
you confirm what I already suspected: it can be bloody rough!

R.

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 01:57:10 GMT, "Garuda" wrote:

I just knew you had the answer to voices from the sea.

That doesn't account for the voices from his hat.

..be.. wrote:
...initially those playbacks were only in english but after
a while i was picking them up & understanding them in several
languages. other things that happened include sailing through sheds &
parkland and being visited by friendly spirits who i felt were time
travellers coming back to observe me.

I dunno, but this sounds like pretty classic sleep deprivation symptoms
to me. I'm no expert, but back when I was in the Rangers, we used to
push the limits of sleep deprivation and lots of us had similar things
happen. To this day, I have a clear recollection of an elf or
leprechaun like guy showing up and carrying my weapon for me most of one
night. Guys would carry on animated conversations with trees. All kinds
of wierd stuff.
--
Dan Best - (707) 431-1662, Healdsburg, CA 95448
B-2/75 1977-1979
Tayana 37 #192, "Tricia Jean"
http://rangerbest.home.comcast.net/TriciaJean.JPG

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 23:51:13 -0400, rhys wrote:

That doesn't account for the voices from his hat.

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Or from further aft...