I read an interesting book this summer called In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise by George Prochnik. One thing that I got out of the book is that noise in and of itself increases our vigilance response (a leftover from the days when we were prey). For example, when the wind is howling in the rigging during a gale, as John talked about in this post, we find it’s impossible not to get tense, even though we are confident that we aren’t in any danger.
So, since we have a drag alarm on our GPS that is hooked to a claxon in our cabin that would wake the dead, John and I now wear earplugs during heavy weather at anchor (though never at sea), on the basis that being as rested as possible is safer than being hyper-vigilant and getting too exhausted to cope with a potential emergency.
What do you think? Leave a comment.
As a “hyper vigilant” person i always use one ear plug with the other ear on the pillow i find i can nod off and then the brain only wakes me when there is a change in wind or motion.
Only once whilst being overtired in a Biscay blow and not being able to switch off i added a swig of Rum and had the most important 20 minute sleep of my life.
Happy sailing Mike.
Hi, Mike; Yes, being hyper-vigilant can be a curse! For those of us who can get in a twirl and then get severely overtired, strategies like the use of earplugs can make the situation a lot safer—i.e. a rested crew who can respond to an emergency situation vs a severely overtired crew who then has nothing left to give when things actually do get gnarly! Like with most safety issues, there needs to be a balance and sometimes the right decision is not the most obvious one (see John’s post at http://www.morganscloud.com/2009/12/19/safety-by-reason-not-rote/). All the best, Phyllis
Haha, these are definitely not my problems!
I’m profoundly deaf (over 99% hearing loss).
Plus I start snoring within seconds of hitting the bunk, so they tell me. (This only at sea.)
Hi there John and Phyllis…. And the corollary is…
“What y’don’t want to hear will often hurt you”…. TOO !
I have just completed delivery of a 52′ cat from Cairns to Coomera(on the Gold Coast, Qld)(about 1000nm)… returned to the workshop to address warranty issues.
To set the scene…One dark and stormy night while enroute, the Owner was on-watch and delivery crew were asleep. Remember that cats don’t like going to windward in such conditions…. So when one of the crew burst forth from his cabin uttering loud expletive-deletives… I had to remind him that only 2 days previously he had asked me to “zip-my-lips” in case I might offend the nearby Owner… then the anchor winch had failed owing to a Designer-Builder error. On this occasion a huge wave had dumped, via a big overhead hatch, a large amount of water on the supine sleeper!! This is indeed such a case when…
What y’don’t want t’hear will often hurt y’ if you don’t take heed!
PS : I always sleep like a cat.. while on passage, overnight at sea.
Phyllis:
We do the same thing! But we were a little bashful about telling others because it seemed a little… well, decadent. We have found that even with earplugs in, you DO hear any low frequency noise, e.g. if you were dragging, or if someone knocked on your hull or whatever. For us it seems to cut the high freq background noise and the odd “tinging” of an internal halyard. Love my foam disposable earplugs!
Pete & Kareen Worrell
S/V PATIENCE
Hi, Pete and Kareen; You are absolutely right that we would hear anything that could pose a danger. The earplugs just tone the clamour down enough that we are able to rest. Thanks for the clarification! All the best, Phyllis
The U.S. Navy provides me with those disposable ear plugs plus a set of earmufflers that look like earphones when I’m on the flight deck of TRUMAN (CVN 75) during flight operations. Ditto when in the noisy cabin of the C-2 Greyhound flying out to the ship.
Aboard something smaller—like Sea Devil or Wolfgang Reuter’s Ru’ah—I just fall asleep. No ear plugs needed. But then, I’m part of the attainable un-adventure cruising set.