Can you "hear" a sailboat?

I sometimes write about diving. It's an amazing sport.

I think any diver knows how sounds travel underwater. But, I always wondered if you could hear a sailboat when underwater. Well, it turns out you can.

One day I was diving in, of all places, St Thomas. It was a shallow dive, maybe 40 feet or so. I was with some new divers who with an instructor. They were being taught some basic open water skills. I was bored. There was a nice little reef off the beach we were diving on. While my wife and the others were training, I went off on my own. Again, it was shallow. I looked around at the fishes, and that was fun for a while, but I got bored.

I swam a ways away, out onto a sandy portion just beyond the reef and just rolled over on my back and sank to the bottom. I was alone. It was peaceful. I just laid there, my hands clasped on my chest, back to the bottom. I heard this whooshing noise (don't know if that's the right term). I looked up, and there was a sailboat above me. I was hearing the keel of the boat pushing against the wind pushing it.

I always thought sailboats were perfectly quiet. I guess not.

It was cool to watch from below.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Nice to read. I imagined how it sounds underwater and tried to think about how a boat would sound, going by above.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

That's cool... I can hear it, but it's most unfortunate that i can't see it.. seeing as an operator has taken away my ability to 'see' avatars on ATS including my own for no apparent reasoning. Crazy right.. I agree...

the song sailing 'takes me away' comes to mind.. love that song.

How shallow was the water? Could you have been hit by the keel if you hadn't sank to the bottom? Be careful out there.

Yes you can hear it, I heard it several times. Was surprised, too. Normally you can hear the motor boats for a while until they get near you. The sail boats will just come out of nowhere. It´s nice to watch from below when they zip past over you.
But one thing I noticed, sailboat captains often give a # about your buoy, I´ve seen hobby sailors use my buoy as turn points and that´s crazy dangerous.

I swore to my self, next time I´ll test my emergency signal gun on their sails. If you´ve ever seen a two mast speeding towards you and your buoy that´s there for safety, you get warm inside your neopren... I still have that picture branded into my mind with the "cool sunglas guy" making a face like he´s not even caring if he splits you in half. Only option pulling the valves on my jacket and try to get as deep as I could. I have a deep hate for those guys, because some are really reckless assholes that think they can do whatever they want and use my buoy as target/turning point.