wrote in message
oups.com...
Hearing is a funny thing -- some people can and do sleep, and soundly,
in noise conditions I find intolerable: Causes? Wind and some engine
powered generators; slapping halyards and waves; loud talking and
laughing; and thumping loud "music" until the wee hours. I have heard
it all too often and spent sleepless nights as a result.

Not all power boats, I ought to add, have loud generators or exhausts.
Not all sailboats have loud generators or exhausts. But some do -- both
power and sail.

No one in any anchorage is exempt from keeping "quiet" after, say, 2200
hrs -- no banging on pots or skillets to loosen food for overboard
disposal; no drunken or sober loud talking or laughing, or loud music
or TV, in the cockpit or on deck; no unsecured halyards or any other
intrusive noise source, including horns and bells. I have heard them
all.

I have sometimes wished my hearing was far less sensitive than it is.

I once left my own boat when the wind had it pinned tightly against a
piling and the fender outside my cabin was sqeaking intermittenly and
loudly. I took a blanket and pillow and slept in the grass some
distance away. Earplugs do not work. Pillows over the head do not work.
QUIET WORKS.


I really enjoy the sounds, wind and water, but have little tolerance for
mechanical noises in the anchorage or marina.

Halyards slapping on a metal mast is the worst, followed closely by
generators.

If I'm in a marina the halyard noise is from an unattended boat. If it goes
on for several days, I might go aboard and 'snub' it off with a piece of
small stuff. I know I shouldn't do this but in reality, it's not much
different than retying a mooring line/fender that has come adrift or a sail
that has blown out of it's sail cover.

(I'd be interested in opinions regarding, boarding another's boat to stop a
halyard from slapping??)

If it is my home marina, I usually know the skipper and will just mention
that I have tied off his halyard/mooring line/fender. Just being neighborly.

I've never tried to do anything about loud generators it seldom occurs late
at night here in the Pac. NW. I suppose that might be common in the warmer
climates where people will run their ACs in the anchorage, late at night.

I'm an "early riser" and frequently get up at sun rise for an early
departure from an anchorage. I have often wondered how much my engine and
anchor handling effects others. I know this wouldn't bother me since I
realize it is a necessary part of boating.

I also have a wind generator (Windbugger) and never notice any noise
commonly associated with other models. Even these (others) have never been a
bother to me. My attitude, "at least it ain't as loud as a gen set!"

My experience and opinion, FWIW.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions