Tapping in the Night
April 25, 2013
It is 0145 hours aboard Why Knot. We are in a slip just off the Chesapeake Bay up the Patuxent River. We have been back aboard just over a week and it feels as though we never left. The boat motion is making sleeping easy. We have always felt we sleep better aboard than at home. Ever once in a while we are awakened by “hull slap” of the waves against the hull most noticeably when it comes from astern and is trapped by the stern. We have grown used to that version. Since we are in a slip at present, thus held at whatever angle against the waves Neptune presents, that slap can come on the side of the hull. That is the price one pays for being on the end of the dock where there is no protection from those waves. Boat motion takes on a combination of the normal wave action plus the jerking of the dock lines. The motion is sudden and quite rhythmical. All of that goes away usally when one is at anchor since the boat bow swings into the wind and starts to yaw side to side but seldom more than a few degrees. Most of the motion in that case is pitching of the bow.
Ok, so here we are in 18 knots of wind hitting us on the side. The waves are not objectionable and the motion is a roll that causes us to roll sideways in our berth. That, friends, is a great motion unless it gets radical. One can sleep like a baby in a hammock. That is except for that little intermittent tapping on deck just outside our cabin. We strike our signal flags before retiring. The knucklehead (that would be me) that took down the signal flags failed to secure the carabineers (snaps) that are holding the netting to keep Scurv aboard. The winds lift one of them ever so slightly and let it go. The resulting tap is why I am up at this hour. So knucklehead gets to charge topside and secure it in the 55 degree wind of which I spoke so highly. The question is whether or not I take the time to get fully dressed to do so---- or not.
Update: I secured the netting only to find the dink was attempting to climb up on the deck. That triggered several other deck activities to secure stuff. Bottom line is that it is now 0300 and I have just completed topside tasks. What the heck, guess I will have a coffee and read a bit to wind down. We are now in a full gale with winds projected to hit in the high 40s mph before dawn.