I'll insert my reply here. If you read Doug's gear lists a small religous text of your faith for spiritual comfort in a stressfull situation is listed. Expressions of spiritual or religous bent are not taboo.Just don't knock on the forum doors like the assorted prosyletizers that have the misfortune to knock on mine. This phenomenon has many names; 6th sense, guardian angels, animal instinct etc. It's hard to quantify, but few haven't experienced it. My old lifeboat had a electrical short in the mast array that produced electrical effects in the almost constant wet conditions of the Oregon Coast. It didn't have any negative effects on the equipment, so we ignored it. later I calmed a very scared, very catholic crewman by telling him about Saint Elmo's fire. In honesty all of us were really worried. Our boat was rated to take so much wave and even my lousy triangulation told me they were swelling well beyond that extreme figure. We made it back. 3 days later to my horror the electrician's mate fixed the short. He had 4 very determined shipmates stand over him while it was repaired <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />