Something interesting happened the other day…
As a boat owner, I have become intensely and intimately aware of all the noises emitted by Catan. We were on the hook and as I lay bed I ask Alison, “can you hear faint crackling, popping sounds…seems to be coming from below us? ” Yes. Given that we had never heard this noise during our 10 months on the boat, we were both wide awake now. Despite our days’ worth of fatigue, we are now out of bed trying to determine this new unknown noise. Oh bother… as you can imagine, no one is going to sleep now. We now uproot the bed to check below, I climb in the engine room, Alison goes out on the boat deck, I open a forward hatch to check. The crackling, popping is quietly, pervasive throughout the boat’s length and seems to be emanating at or below the water line, but everything else seem to be as it should. Hmmmm?
Alison provided words of encouragement to me as she climbed back into bed, “I know you will figure this out before you come back to bed, honey.” Literally, I am in the dark, trying to assess the situation. Eventually I seek out the wisdom of boater blogs on the internet. Fortunately, other boaters had experienced this noise too! Yes, my answer is only a click away! To my weary frustration I hit upon a couple of sarcastic responses, like the popping noise is King Neptune prodding the bottom of your boat with his trident and the crackling noise is the fiberglass de-lamenting as a result. I am tired and not in good humor! Never believe everything you read on the internet!
After many more wise guy responses, I finally find the answer. Recall how well sound transmits under water? Pistol shrimp have one normal claw, and one claw that is about half the size of their bodies. The claw stays open until a muscle causes it to snap closed, ejecting a powerful jet of water traveling at an incredible 60 mph. The snapping sound itself reaches 218 decibels - your eardrum ruptures at a mere 150. In the process of shooting its pistol claw, it also creates cavitation bubbles. I feel better learning the shrimp are not doing this solely to keep me up at night, but to stun their prey, capture it & take it home for dinner.
Alas, I am sitting over a bed of hungry pistol shrimp! Or at least that is what I am prepared to believe in the dark of the night in order to get some sleep. It proved all worthwhile, once I climbed into bed and Alison rolls over from her deep sleep to ask if I figured it out? Yes, I said. She said thank you, kissed me, put her ear plugs back in and went back to sleep... love that woman!
Stay tuned for more adventures…
