Ghost ?

[lapworth]

I have an old boat and sometimes when sailing solo I feel like there might be an extra hand on deck. Anyone else feel this way sometimes?

[smackdaddy]

Ghosts suck as rail meat. But if they can cook or sand the teak...they're keepers.

[WanderingStar]

Not a ghost, no. But sometimes I feel that my boat is taking care of me, handling my errors, bringing my attention to hazards. And I do like knowing her history. All of my keelboats were built before 1970 and some have interesting histories.

[5hortBu5]

It's possible you have an overactive temporal lobe.

The Ghost in the Brain « Richard Wiseman's Blog

[JohnRPollard]

Joshua Slocum had a ghost that visited him on his voyage, and helped him steer through heavy weather and illness. He believed it was one of the crew from Columbus' voyages...

Originally Posted by 5hortBu5

It's possible you have an overactive temporal lobe.

The Ghost in the Brain « Richard Wiseman's Blog

Of course, the believers would just say it's the presence of the ghost that is causing the neural activity in the temporal lobe...

Basically, neuroscientists Michael Persinger and Sandra Tiller from Laurentian University got lucky. Whilst carrying out a routine EEG brain scan, their female participant suddenly experienced a sense of presence. The woman reported her arms and hands feeling icy cold, and was then convinced that there was a man was in the room, even though she was alone. In short, a classic ghost-like experience. The resulting EEG scans showed a burst of electrical activity in her left temporal lobe at the time of her experience. This finding is in line with some of Michael’s other work, in which he has argued that the feeling of a sense of presence is caused by aberrant activity in the brain’s temporal lobes, thus explaining why those with temporal lobe epilepsy report the feeling so often.

[killarney_sailor]

I read a book this summer about what is sometimes called the 'Third Man' and sometimes the 'Fourth Man' phenomenon. The latter description came from the writings of Sir Ernest Shackleton after his epic trip to South Georgia and hike across the island where he and one of his mates felt that there was a fourth man with them. A lot of study has been done about it by psychologists in particular how it relates to stressful situations - not like what you are describing.

The book I read was The Third Man Factor: True Stories Of Survival In Extreme Environments by John Geiger.

You can read a precis of it at
The Third Man Factor: How those in dire peril have felt a sudden presence at their side, inspiring them to survive | Mail Online

[lapworth]

I don't see an actual person. Example last night I was sailing in of the bay and there was no wind so I turned on the motor and started rolling up the sails. As I was putting things away I lost my blinking red as I was looking around my boat decided to hit a wake that made me sit down and look directly at my mark.

[MedSailor]

My wooden boat definately had a soul of it's own. No matter how hard I tried (in my ignorance) to sink her, she kept floating. Once 2 of my bilge pumps were down, I cracked a plank, then left the boat on a mooring.

I came back to floating floorboards and the 3rd bilge pump was keeping her floating. Later I decided to inspect the 3rd bilge pump and see if it needed maintenance. The butt crimps (previous owner) fell apart in my hands when I barely touched them....

She didn't want to sink.... But she was built in Scotland in 1959 and was a lifeboat on a freighter until 1980. Probably had seen hundreds of ocean crossings, so she was quite a bit more experienced than I was.

MedSailor

[Insails]

Have you ever checked to see if a previous owner ever died aboard?

[sailortjk1]

I can't say I have anybody on board with me, but I have seen plenty of ghost ships and ghost lights.