Gimme dat ding, gimme dat.......
andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Mon 7 Jul 2014 12:06
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N37:41:271 W12:31:589
.......gimme dat ding, gimme dat .................
bump, grind, squeak, snore, crash, sniff, cough, groan, sneeze, grumble, splash,
shuffle, hiss, flap, gurgle, tap, sigh, scream, squeal, knock, slap, thump,
thud, smack, warble, ting, dong (not Avon though - yes, we are both of an age
now), snip, snap, scritch, twang, swish, rumble, whistle, whirr, burp, bubble,
whirl, whizz, tinkle, flutter, frapp, click, crack, rattle, sizzle, hum, drip
(there's an album title in here), slide, clunk, clonk, zip, radio squawks,
yell, shout, beep, boing, velcro (noise), ping-pong ball noise(!?), and
other odd, some unmentionable, noises......yes, we have them all and its on
the bumpier passages that we tend to hear them all. It's not a quiet life this!.
Tracking some, but not all (naturally!), of
all these noises down is a major challenge though, as all to often they
seem to be transient and as soon as you home in on one then it stops, and
another begins! Then of course the original starts again. The trickiest so far
was tracking down a cricket - yes one of those that chirrups at night. Could we
find it - it was all over the place, including down the scuppers. As soon as you
were within a few inches of it, it would stop chirruping, so it was stop, stay
still for 10 minutes and start again - this only happened a few times before we
got bored with this game!. Who was leading who on,,,eh? Eventually, after
several days, we found it chirruping away at the bottom of Susans bunk. Ah,
peace and bliss, until we started moving again of course! We captured it and
encouraged it to find other places to explore. It was less than an inch in
length but made a noise worthy of one several times bigger. The worst at
the moment seems to be the outhaul on the mainsail - it groans and squeaks away
unless the main is full and there is plenty of wind - one for the list
of things to sort out.
We are approaching Cape St. Vincent, but the
forecast is for fairly strong winds overnight so we shall see how things go. We
shall be well reefed down, but the seas may also make the passage overnight
quite rolly and uncomfortable, so we shall take things calmly over the next
24-48 hours or so. We have seen another yacht after all this time some way off,
though they seem to be making the same sort of track as ourselves. We have not
seen any other ships though, despite how close we are to the Straits and the
coast of Portugal - however this may well change overnight.
A Shearwater is still flying around us and we
have a notion, no doubt incorrect, that its the one that crashed into us a while
back! Well, we can but dream a bit that its become quite attached to us. Can't
we? Bunch of softies really........
More in due course......
Andrew & Susan
S/V Andromeda a.k.a. Dances with Waves
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