Strange 'Clicking / Snapping Noises'. . . Crustaceans, Maybe ?

[canucksailor]

love the polyestermites....can I use that one (please?) the next time some new cruiser asks me about that clicking noise?

[Bergovoy]

pistol shrim and mantis shrimp. and there are two different types of manits, one is spearing and one is clubbing, that create that snapping/concussion, and yes, it is cavitation from the speed at which the segments in ther 'arm/leg' snap...

the temperature inside that cavitation is extreme, as you know the affects on propeller blades... same cavitation, same heat...

the concussion probably does travel quite a distance, so i am not surprised to hear about this phonomen.. and hopefully will remember that when i get aboard

[feelsgood]

Originally Posted by bchaps

This is our first trip...traversing the Atlantic waters from Beaufort, NC to the Florida Keys. When the weather was too challenging for sailing novices (us), we headed back inside to the safety of the ICW.

However, while docked at several marinas along the way and even while at Rodriquez Key, loud distinct clicking or snapping noises were heard, much like the sounds one would expect from a shorting wire or the first hail or rainstorm drops to strike the hatches. After a cursory check of all bilge areas for smoke or fiberglass chomping termites, I began to conclude the noise was outside the hull.

Now, I'm moored in Marathon City Marina...no clicking or snapping! Considering the numbers of crab pots that had to be avoided getting here, could these unknown sounds be from crustaceans clicking and snapping their way along the ocean bottom?

Sleeping quietly now,

Bill

While bringing our yacht up the coast of Portugal and the North coast od Spain we heard this same sort of clicking noise when in the Marinas. It took 2 nights of searching with the torch before a Spanish neighbour told us its the crabs clicking their claws. Phew than god for that and so back to sleep

[LibLady]

shrimp......i heard it for the first time in Charlotte Harbor. weird, huh?

[CavalierToo]

We heard the same thing in viareggio (Italy). Locals said it was barnacles.

[ReMetau]

We heard the shrimp right after moving aboard in Bradenton, FL and had to ask our new neighbors what it was.

A few months later I was on a business trip while my beautiful wife stayed alone on the boat. During one of our phone conversations she mentioned that she was hearing this low grumbling noise that sounded as if the boat was rubbing against something, but the boat was freely floating and not against anything. I came home a couple of days later to discover the noise myself. We pondered a day or two over what it could be when we had a couple of new friends over for a sundowner. They lived on the other side of the river from us. During casual conversation they mentioned that we had the drum fish over here too. If you have ever caught a drum fish, you will find that they do sound just like a drum. I guess there is a season that they mate and happened to be right under our boat.

About a year later we were living in Tarpon Springs, FL and heard a buzzing noise inside the boat that sounded like a cell phone on vibration mode. We figured that a phone somehow was lost in a locker so we took the boat apart searching through all our lockers for this mystery phone. We never did find it, and a couple of days later it was brought up in conversation with some dock friends who had gone through the same searches on their boat. We never did find out the source, but figured it must have been some kind of mating fish.

[PamlicoTraveler]

There was a Rice Crispy spill in the ICW a few months ago. Could that be the sound?

[Bergovoy]

is the icw milk???

[colemj]

Another underwater sound for those of you in New England (possibly elsewhere, but we always heard it up there) is that of the Cusk Eel.

http://www.fishecology.org/soniferou...m_cynreg_1.wav

Took us many years to figure that one out. Sounds like an underwater woodpecker driving through your hull.

Mark

[Cotemar]

Colemj,

WOW, that would just drive me crazy. Seem like it’s different in every harbor. Hit or miss. It is just very eerie some times.

[colemj]

Sometimes you will hear it in West Harbor FI or Napatree. A good chance in Block Island, and guaranteed to hear them in Buzzard's Bay, Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound anchorages. Westport, on the mainland in Buzzard's Bay, will keep you up all night (and that should NOT keep you from going there - fantastic place). It became a comfort sound to us - a sound of being out cruising in the summertime.

Funny, we are anchored off an out-island off Columbia heading for the San Blas tomorrow and reminiscing fondly of New England sailing and anchorages.

Of course what is really funny is there is an inhabitant 3 miles away on another island and they have an open router. Didn't expect that here. We will be offline for a long time soon.

But we would NOT want to be in New England right now...

Mark

[AllezCat]

Dolphins also make a "clicking" noise.
Can often hear them when swimming around the bows...

[atoll]

king neptune making popcorn,whilst waiting for "seaworld" to load.............

[Cotemar]

Colemj,

I hear you about this New Engand Weather.
Do you have room for a few quest
Here is what tomorrows commute will look like here in Connecticut.

Mark

[Laidback]

What one is hearing is carried by the wind, from centuries past :- the castañuelas - an evocation of a rhythm carried by the galleons. Later that sound evolved in the maraca and later still in the clacker, heard as far north as San Francisco.
Only those cruisers with an ear for music and rhythm will know it is the castañuelas - otherwise those that are somehow challenged will simply accept that what they hear are simply the frantic sounds of lovemaking shrimps.