April 12, 2014
stowaways and voices.

A couple of days into the trip, Alan asks me if I hear voices when I am in the in the bunk.  He says it sounds like the SSB radio was left on, or people on a playground or in a swimming pool.  Continual chatter.  Sometimes they are just noises but often they are clear words, names, phrases. I am hearing them too. My voices often sing, one day it was dixieland jazz all day. They also talk. We often think we hear the other calling our name when we are in bed.  Several times we have gotten out of bed and gone to the hatch to see what the problem is, only to find out it is just “the voices”    Of course it is only the creaks and groans of the rigging which change as the wind changes and as sails are raised and lowered.  We know that but it does not stop us from hearing voices whenever we turn in to catch some sleep.  We get used to it but It never goes away.  Up until the last day we are still jumping out of bed because we heard the other call our name only to be told “it was just the voices”

We also are seeing stowaways.  The first was a cat in the bathroom.  Somehow the dirty clothes bag had transformed itself into a cat that peaked around the corner of the bathroom as the boat rocked.  Both of us, independently, saw it.   Even after more dirty clothes were added, to the bag it still was a cat.  Even though we knew it was just dirty clothes there was always that moment when it was a cat.  Then there were the faces in the rag bag, 3 of them.  Clearly visible from the cockpit when on watch, with big noses and eyes.  Alan saw a lady sitting backwards on the toilet.  (I did not actually see this one)  There was also a little mouse peaking around the propane tank on deck.  Actually the end of a rope hanging down. The towing generator turns into a storm trooper in the night, although during the day it it just a round canister hanging from the rail.

The odd thing about these illusions is that they started almost as soon as we set off.  It was not something that started up after we were exhausted.  And even though we knew what they were, the illusions persisted.  I can imagine if one were single handed and exhausted one might start to question one’s sanity.