Outer Banks Snapping Shrimp

posted by Ardys

Stormed all the next day.  WIND!!!

It was quiet in the cabin of NORTHERN STAR last night—just the sound of the heater and Carl muttering about the complicated online directions to make our printer act like a fax machine.  And…….a subtle background noise that sounds kind of like air bubbles popping on a frothy glass of root beer.   The sound seems like it’s coming from the hull of the boat, sometimes on portside, sometimes starboard, sometimes both sides.  I’d heard it off and on since we arrived in Morehead City a few days ago.  I hadn’t commented on it to Carl previously because we had some very “invigorating” weather since arriving here, and since the boat wasn’t sinking from the heavy wind and hard rains, the popping sound was ignored.  We’ve been waiting for a good weather window to head out on the ocean to hop down to Wrightsville Beach near Wilmington, NC.  

Hmmm, a charter boat company with the gods of the sea on their side?

Finally, last night I had to say something to Carl about the sound.  First, let me say, I ask my husband lots of questions on the boat.  I don’t always necessarily expect him to have a good answer, or even any answer at all—I just bring up a topic for further discussion, research or shared ignorance.  Depends on whether it’s truly an important issue.  So, I asked him, “do you hear that, like a crackling sound?  I hear it in the head (bathroom).  Kind of sounds like it’s inside the wall of the boat.”   He got up and listened and didn’t hear it at first.  Then said, “Remember I told you about the crackling or snapping shrimp?”  No, I did not remember anything about crackling shrimp.  Sounded pretty suspect to me.  Was he pulling my leg?  “Look it up” he said.  So I did.

First bluefin tuna of the season.

“Crackling shrimp” is apparently a really good recipe for  preparing shrimp, but Snapping or “Pistol” Shrimp is a real critter!  Cragnon synalpheus. C.Alpheus.  Snapping shrimp!  Still thinking this could be some elaborate hoax (like the time I heard a man tell a story about “snow snakes” to a group of people who do not live in a snow belt), I read further and was astonished.  How had I never heard of snapping shrimp before?  These little guys have no pincers, but rather one really large claw with a “pistol-like feature with a hammer that snaps to make a very rapid cavitation bubble” which is so loud that it stuns their prey so they can dismember and eat it apparently without running after it.  How convenient.  Seems a little unfair in terms of how the food chain works, but as a representative from the top of the food chain, who am I to comment.  I thought about recording the sound and posting it along with this, but this link will allow you to hear it much better than my equipment could do.  http://ocr.org/portfolio/snapping-shrimp/.

Morehead City boardwalk

Listening closely to Chris Parker, our weather router by VHF each morning, and studying the weather, we have decided that the time has come to make the jump offshore to an inlet near Wilmington, NC.  We will leave late afternoon and sail through the night to catch the best winds.  Our first sail on the Atlantic.  We’re excited.  A little anxious, but mostly excited.  Jax is noncommittal.  

NORTHERN STAR on the left; sending off Escape Velocity yesterday

While in port, we have enjoyed the bird watching, the boats coming in with the enormous tuna and meeting two other sailing couples that have been waiting for the right weather window.  One couple, a lively couple with delightful Irish accents, left on their 48’ sailboat last night.  The other couple, a much younger couple from Switzerland, are still waiting for a weather window that will give them enough time to make good headway toward the eastern Caribbean islands.  Lovely people, all of them. Our three sailboats have been the only stragglers left here in Portside Marina, Morehead City trying to make their way to warm waters for the winter.  We said we wanted to avoid the onslaught of the major crowd of sailboats heading south, and we sure did,  Time to move.  

Time to continue journey south.  A good weather window.