The Plague of the UFO Tuning Fork

For several weeks we were plagued by mysterious, UFO-like vibrations. The pitch, volume and frequency would change every few minutes and for short periods would cease completely. It seemed most noticeable in the evening and was so loud at times that we had troubles sleeping. The sounds were just plain spooky, like something from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or "The Twilight Zone".

When we were docked at Swanson Harbor, we were convinced that the generators the fishing boats use to keep their ice makers going were the culprits. And believe me, we were cursing them under our breaths. But when we returned to this very same dock a week and a half later on a weekend when the fishing boats were gone and only cruisers like us remained, the vibrations were as strong as ever.

A few days earlier I had tried to troubleshoot the problem. I'd not heard other boaters complain about these eerie sounds, so I just had to wonder. The noise was most noticeable in the head. I had an idea so I headed topside and found that our 1 1/4" stainless steel lifelines were abuzz. They quivered quite vehemently from about 6' back from the bowsprit and about the same 6' in from the stern, with the most violent vibrations coming right near the center of the boat. And the shrouds were vibrating too. But all of this emanating sound was only on the starboard side of the boat. It appeared as though half of our boat was acting as one giant tuning fork! So I had a few clues but I still couldn't figure it out. Frustrated, I gave up in disgust.

Sometimes the eerie noises were nearly mind-numbing and I almost wished I was among the hearing impaired! One night it was so bad I feared I would simply not be able to fall asleep if we didn't fix whatever it was. I finally got Brad to get up and "do something" about our "damned tuning fork". This time HE had an idea and threw on his clothes and went topside. He came back down in under two minutes. The noises had stopped entirely. "What did you do?", I asked, relieved and delighted. "I took the extra wrap off that I had put on the flag halyards", he explained. "You have got to be kidding!", I said. "It's been like that since we arrived in Ketchikan when you removed the Canadian courtesy flag??? That was weeks ago!" (In fairness, he had put the extra wraps on because we thought that we might loose the Canadian ensign in high winds. When he took down the flag, he put the extra wraps back on. Who would have guessed the unintended consequences?) Aargh. Brad, the cause and the cure!