Sleeping during long passage.

[boatman61]

As the owner of my last delivery said at the end of the trip from the UK to Athens.. "I did not realise that deliveries were such a test of endurance.."
Its a tough trip your asking folk to take on.. at least offer reasonable food and board..

[El Pinguino]

What the last 3 have said ^^^^^

You pay peanuts ( or less ) you get monkeys....

Pay for your own diesel...

Feed your crew...

Buy em a ticket home.....

You will, at the very least, get a better class of monkey.....

[atoll]

i would have thought being either mad or drunk would be a crew requirement for crossing the tasman midwinter in a small motor vessel..........

[roverhi]

Night time is the worst time to see anything in the water that doesn't have lights. Chances of seeing a floating container, tree stump of whatever are extremely slim and then only if you at the bow. If you are at the bow, questionable if you'd be able to run back to the cockpit and change course in time to avoid a collision with the limited sight range. On the other had its relatively easy for another boat/ship to see you with proper lights on the boat. Probably even more obvious with mast head running lights. That's a masthead GREEN/WHITE RED RUNNING LIGHT not a stupid stupid strobe.

You actually have a chance of seeing something low in the water in plenty of time to avoid it with the sun up.

Not to say don't keep a night watch if you have the crew but solo your watch time might be better done in daylight.

[GrowleyMonster]

I do 10 minute catnaps in the cockpit with an egg timer, rain or shine. You get adjusted to it after a couple of days. If you have a pilothouse, maybe that's better, or maybe that's too comfortable. YMMV.


You can of course just heave too, and hoist "red over red, captain's in bed" lights LOL.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by atoll

i would have thought being either mad or drunk would be a crew requirement for crossing the tasman midwinter in a small motor vessel..........

Quoted for truth.

[colin1]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Night time is the worst time to see anything in the water that doesn't have lights. Chances of seeing a floating container, tree stump of whatever are extremely slim and then only if you at the bow. If you are at the bow, questionable if you'd be able to run back to the cockpit and change course in time to avoid a collision with the limited sight range. On the other had its relatively easy for another boat/ship to see you with proper lights on the boat. Probably even more obvious with mast head running lights. That's a masthead GREEN/WHITE RED RUNNING LIGHT not a stupid stupid strobe.

You actually have a chance of seeing something low in the water in plenty of time to avoid it with the sun up.

Not to say don't keep a night watch if you have the crew but solo your watch time might be better done in daylight.

Hello,
Would you care to elaborate as to why you think strobes are stupid.
Kind regards,
C.

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by Greg Mason

When we were offshore, single handers probably got more sleep the the 2 of us, at 4 on, 4 off. With pilot error alarms, depth alarms and radar intrusion alarms , there are options allowing sleep. For us, with Lloyds insurance, we were directed to have a 24 hour watch system, which as others have posted, means a horizon scan frequently, a check of the radar, etc. Remember, the curve of the earth takes away vision after 25 miles or so, and a freighter steaming towards you can be on you in a hurry. Having said that, they stick to their shipping lanes and you will know to stay away from crossing those. Good luck.

Much, much less than this. It obviously depends on the height of your eye and the height of the freighter. A couple of formulas help

For Imperial
SquareRoot(Height above surface in feet / 0.5736) = distance to horizon in miles (not nautical)

For metric
SquareRoot(height above surface in centimetres / 6.752) = distance to horizon in kilometres

So if your eye is 7 feet about the sea you can only see about 3.2 miles. If a ship is 25 high, keep in mind the bulk of the ship will be below this height, although lights could be higher. In any case, 25 feet means the horizon is about 6.6 miles. Add these two together and you can see the 25 foot above part of the ship at a little less than 10 miles or about 8.5 nautical miles.

[GrowleyMonster]

From the bridge of a ship, I can seldom see another ship outside 20 miles. That is from a ship, where I am 70'+ above the surface of the sea. The farthest I have ever directly seen another ship was less than 22nm. I might see the loom of a brightly lit ship such as a cruse ship from much greater distance, but generally 20nm is considered about max, and from a sailboat, maybe 12nm. YMMV. Keep in mind, this is under excellent visibility conditions. A bit of haze changes everything. It is very common to not see ships outside 8nm. Also, the bridge watch on the ship won't see you until you are even closer. I usually don't see sailboats outside 5 miles. This is an American ship with American seamen. There are plenty of other ships where nobody is really keeping an eye out for dinky little sailboats. The Mate on watch is doing paperwork. The AB on watch is painting or chipping somewhere, or sleeping on his feet. The ship can easily turn and avoid you, but only if you are seen. So, it's all on you.


Far more dangerous are large fast motoryachts. Guy in the brightly lit pilothouse gets tired of watching his movie, goes down, makes a sammitch, grabs a beer, takes a leak, checks the engine room, does this or that, heads back up to the pilothouse, and travels 10 or 12 miles on the mike, with no lookout, and you can only see him IF YOU ARE AWAKE, at maybe 5 miles. The possibilities are tragic. Short catnaps and a quick scan are way better than going below for 20 minutes.

[Sojourner]

Egg timer. Seriously, get a nice, cheap plastic egg timer. Don't rely on a phone. Egg timer, set for 20 min. There is nothing steaming that can get you within 20 min from the horizon. Yes, whales and cargo containers might, but that's a one in a million shot. No ship can appear on your radar or AIS and hit you in 20 min. So nap, wake up, get a good look around electronically and physically, then crank it back to another 20 min, then rinse and repeat till sunrise and beyond....

[james247]

Originally Posted by Neptune's Gear

No point in heaving to. You are just as likely to be hit while stationary. Radar and ais alarms on, autopilot alarms on, go to sleep. The Tasman is pretty empty, especially further south. There are risks in everything.

I agree with the advice given. The alarms on radar and ais, depth, wind speed should be loud.
I learned yoga meditation methods and gain most of my rest through meditation - totally at rest but awake.
Getting tired exhausted is your biggest enemy not sleeping. Eating well keeping and hygienically clean are essential. Washing, cleaning your teeth and clean dry clothes give you a feeling of wellness that makes a difference if a crisis occurred. Making landfall is your biggest risk the last 100 miles that's when you need to be rested and alert. Most boats are sunk when they his earth not a wave

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by Eder

Good luck having cargo ships follow shipping lanes off shore lol.

Big ships "create" those shipping lanes by using the rhumb lines between major ports, not because there is some lines on the charts (which is not the case, except for traffic separation zones).

So not sure what you're laughing about? Staying away from such shipping lanes reduces the chance of an encounter massively, and I'm talking from experience here.

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by Sojourner

Egg timer. Seriously, get a nice, cheap plastic egg timer. .

+1


And for backup, I have two of them, set 5 mins apart. You never know whether one might topple over and the mechanical dial gets blocked from rotating. This also helps in case you ever sleep through the first one (but hopefully not the second).

[JPA Cate]

I'm noticing Brady50 has not been back since midday 1 July. I hope he's okay.

Ann

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by hzcruiser

Big ships "create" those shipping lanes by using the rhumb lines great circle routes between major ports, not because there is some lines on the charts (which is not the case, except for traffic separation zones). ........

There you go, I fixed it for you