Singlehanded full night sleep?

[StuM]

Originally Posted by CassidyNZ

First fact: at 400nm from the nearest land there is no commercial shipping simply because ships don’t go on routes that don’t go to a port and in that part of the Indian Ocean there are no shipping routes.

AIS track density maps would say otherwise

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by boatman61

That's because folks mistakenly assume daylight means other boats can see you much better and avoid you.. assuming they are not all down below having cheese n wine..
Trouble is fully crewed boats make the same assumption..

Exactly. In fact for large ships it's often easier to spot them at night since the lights are more visible than the superstructure against a hazy horizon in the daytime.

[Greg K]

Originally Posted by CassidyNZ

I don’t admire single-handed sailors, I think they’re all a bunch of total whack-jobs.

I couldn't disagree more. Some of the most interesting folks I've ever met and spent time with were single handers.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by jalmberg

Thinking outside the box, considering how many people have dogs on boats, I wonder if it would be possible to train a dog to bark when it heard/saw/felt a nearby ship? I bet they can hear the sound of engines through the water pretty far off. Sure would be handy to have a dog on watch! Never heard of such a thing, though, so...

An old, salty sea dog - for sure... [emoji12]

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by Greg K

I couldn't disagree more. Some of the most interesting folks I've ever met and spent time with were single handers.

A huge amount of whack-jobs are interesting people. I never said they were boring.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Greg K

>

I couldn't disagree more. Some of the most interesting folks I've ever met and spent time with were single handers.

I guess it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" ?

Frequently a "whack job" is "interesting"

[JPA Cate]

The notion that singlehanders are all cuckoo, imho, is incorrect, it misses the realities. IME, many of them are previously partnered men who still want to go to sea and to sail. Only a few of them are just alone because, like Garbo, they "want to be alone."

They accept a higher risk level than a couple sailing together. (I'm the 6 hrs. on/off kid); that watch schedule has seen us well for thousands of miles, now. We taught our bodies to do it, and they oblige. Doublehanding is really different from singlehanding, because there is someone with you to share the antics of the sea creatures, the sunrise and sunsets, it is much less lonely.

If you cruise a lot, you'll notice what Jim and I call singlehanders disease: they'll talk your ears off. Maybe we humans, like other herd animals, need social contact. It's not an easy lot, being a singlehander.

Ann

[GILow]

It’s interesting that any rime the subject comes up for discussion amongst the boat owners I meet, it’s a very polarising topic.

When people discover that I mainly sail solo it’s like they fall into one of three camps:

The first group look either aghast, concerned or even scornful. Mostly they consist of a type that sail on well crewed racing boats, usually they are not boat owners themselves or own only very small boats or power boats. They’ll often kindly offer to crew for me or dream up solutions to my perceived “problem” either in the form of crewing web site recommendations or passage planning a trip for me in short hops.

The next group are those that are totally comfortable with the concept. These are mostly 60+ y.o. males, usually very well travelled themselves and are often the sort of easy going, unflappable type that did yacht deliveries when they were younger and in some cases are still doing them as a sort of hobby/favour for a friend mode. These guys don’t even offer a suggestion on how I should sail, knowing full well that we all need to find our style.

But the third group are by far the most interesting. They are mostly men, mostly married, mostly have kids, they tend to own their own reasonably modern and capable sailing boats and almost always go very quiet when the topic is being discussed. Later on they’ll sidle over to me and ask a lot of very penetrating questions, usually in a furtive manner away from their partners.

I find this segregation all pretty self explanatory really.

But hey, apparently I’m a whack job, so what would I know?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by GILow

It’s interesting that any rime the subject comes up for discussion amongst the boat owners I meet, it’s a very polarising topic.

When people discover that I mainly sail solo it’s like they fall into one of three camps:

The first group look either aghast, concerned or even scornful. Mostly they consist of a type that sail on well crewed racing boats, usually they are not boat owners themselves or own only very small boats or power boats. They’ll often kindly offer to crew for me or dream up solutions to my perceived “problem” either in the form of crewing web site recommendations or passage planning a trip for me in short hops.

The next group are those that are totally comfortable with the concept. These are mostly 60+ y.o. males, usually very well travelled themselves and are often the sort of easy going, unflappable type that did yacht deliveries when they were younger and in some cases are still doing them as a sort of hobby/favour for a friend mode. These guys don’t even offer a suggestion on how I should sail, knowing full well that we all need to find our style.

But the third group are by far the most interesting. They are mostly men, mostly married, mostly have kids, they tend to own their own reasonably modern and capable sailing boats and almost always go very quiet when the topic is being discussed. Later on they’ll sidle over to me and ask a lot of very penetrating questions, usually in a furtive manner away from their partners.

I find this segregation all pretty self explanatory really.

But hey, apparently I’m a whack job, so what would I know?

Well the story of my life, I don't fit exactly into any of the above categories but then I was always the black sheep in my family and probably by family standards a bit of a whack job.

On one hand I do believe that singlehanding violates Colregs both in the letter and spirit of the law.

However with one of the various methods of watchkeeping discussed and especially with modern electronics I think the risk both to the singlehander and to others is manageable, extremely minimal and reasonable.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by Hasbeen

Off shore I always slept during the day, when I expected to be seen. Never slept at night. Spent most nights sitting in the companionway reading. It was also my time to do time consuming things like bread making.


Can't have been too bad a system, as I am still here after 53,000 nautical miles.

damn good plan

[CatNewBee]

You can sleep during the night if the weather permits and you stay adrift, so you don't hit something around by accident, you light up the boat to be visible and maybe signal out of command two red lights in addition to the nav lights, make sure you transmit AIS too. During the day you can use two black spheres for the same reason... Run your electronics with safe zones for AIS, RADAR and keep the VHF on just in case. On the ocean far from any shore and main traffic areas, it is quite safe to do so.

This is well within COLREGS btw.

On other conditions or if you intent sailing and sleeping, 15..30min are the limit to check the surrounding and continue to sleep. AIS gives you almost an hour ahead time, Radar in good conditions about 40 minutes from first warning to a close approach to react.

[Tonali99]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

The notion that singlehanders are all cuckoo, imho, is incorrect, it misses the realities. IME, many of them are previously partnered men who still want to go to sea and to sail. Only a few of them are just alone because, like Garbo, they "want to be alone."

They accept a higher risk level than a couple sailing together. (I'm the 6 hrs. on/off kid); that watch schedule has seen us well for thousands of miles, now. We taught our bodies to do it, and they oblige. Doublehanding is really different from singlehanding, because there is someone with you to share the antics of the sea creatures, the sunrise and sunsets, it is much less lonely.

If you cruise a lot, you'll notice what Jim and I call singlehanders disease: they'll talk your ears off. Maybe we humans, like other herd animals, need social contact. It's not an easy lot, being a singlehander.

Ann

6 on/off is prettty good. Had a capt. who loved the 4. Not enough time to do anything useful, like sleep till rotation came around and you got more.
Talkative? Perhaps, but it ain't me.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

You can sleep during the night if the weather permits and you stay adrift, so you don't hit something around by accident, you light up the boat to be visible and maybe signal out of command two red lights in addition to the nav lights, make sure you transmit AIS too. During the day you can use two black spheres for the same reason... Run your electronics with safe zones for AIS, RADAR and keep the VHF on just in case. On the ocean far from any shore and main traffic areas, it is quite safe to do so.

This is well within COLREGS btw.

That is not true.

NUC means that exceptional circumstances prevent the vessel for maneuvering. It does nt mean no one is in charge.

Exceptional circumstances are: steering gear failure, engine failure, electrical supply system failure, fire, flooding, uncontrollable cargo shifting and stability issue.

https://www.ecolregs.com/index.php?o...bility%20issue.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

The notion that singlehanders are all cuckoo, imho, is incorrect, it misses the realities. IME, many of them are previously partnered men who still want to go to sea and to sail. Only a few of them are just alone because, like Garbo, they "want to be alone."

They accept a higher risk level than a couple sailing together. (I'm the 6 hrs. on/off kid); that watch schedule has seen us well for thousands of miles, now. We taught our bodies to do it, and they oblige. Doublehanding is really different from singlehanding, because there is someone with you to share the antics of the sea creatures, the sunrise and sunsets, it is much less lonely.

If you cruise a lot, you'll notice what Jim and I call singlehanders disease: they'll talk your ears off. Maybe we humans, like other herd animals, need social contact. It's not an easy lot, being a singlehander.

Ann

Talking people's ears off.??? Dunno, you'll have to ask Wottie or Jedi, two members who know me..
I don't consider myself a great conversationalist in general but can be provoked into the odd rant now and then..

[Luther]

Originally Posted by Paul Howard

We met a couple from England in their early 70's while we were in the Pacific Ocean while on our circumnavigation. He had heart problems and did not want to stress himself and she was not strong, but they were determined to sail around the world.
They shared watches during the day and into the evening. At bedtime they reduced sail and hove-to and both went to bed and slept through the night. In the morning they got up and continued sailing.
We met them in several islands and countries, it took them longer to make the passages but they did circumnavigate the world and greatly enjoyed doing it.

I think I knew those people. Saw them in NZ & Vanuatu. I believe they had a bilge keel Waterwitch! She told me that crossing the Pacific they ran out of food and only had olives left. She added “and we don’t like olives!”
Miraculously they came across another yacht that gave them provisions.