Most Difficult Thing About Single Handing ?

[zeehag]

"Yep, the hardest thing to do is going without my wife.."

they make blow up dolls for that.....

if it is blowin 40, i am in boat , not going anywhere.....

roller furled headsail is good....
auto pilot is good----



crew is better, but only IF they know anything at all.....

[Lagoon4us]

Definatly the lack of romance with someone else.....

[zeehag]

is definitely difficult to share the awesomeness with someone when ye are solo....

[Mr B]

A little bit of Genoa up. Drop my drive leg down and lock it, It acts the same as a drogue, I do have a drogue on board but never used it, The drive leg does the same but with out any effort involved,
Drop my centre board fully on the windward, side, That keeps me basically in a straight line,

But it does take me a long way off course which I have to make up the next day, adding extra miles and extra time to my journey,

Then go to sleep in the salon, But sleeping is not some thing I do easily, Knowing that a ship can come over the horizon and be on top of me in 20 minutes or so,

I did have my radar set up and recalibrated in Bundaberg, But a ship went past me 150 yards to my rear,

I had the tiniest dot on my radar, which was a 30,000 ton container ship, So I just didnt trust it, after that I turned it off, and the alarm was set, but it didnt make a sound.

I admit, I know nothing about working a radar, Thats why I had it set up for me,
Turn it on and it does its thing, Hahahahaha, waste of time and money,

Totally Unsafe to rely on some thing that doesnt work, or work properly,

There does come a time when tiredness, adreniline, emotion, and any thing else you can throw in there, does run out,

Then your physical and emotional state does become a safety hazard to you and your vessel,

After 6 days, 3 on the nose in 4 metre waves, and 6 metre waves almost beam on,
I decided I was past it, and headed for a safe place to anchor or moor tied to a pier,

From 40 miles out in the Tasman, I decide to cut across at 45 degrees and head for Port Macquarie, Thats the best angle I could sail at with out 6 metre waves crashing beam on over the boat,
Missed it by 12 miles, I was too far south of it, 4 knot current running south, waves about 5 metres, wind howling, 7 knots on the motor, I was going backwards, south instead of north,
So then I headed for Forster, almost didnt make that one either, Hahahahaha
But the bloke in the VRS at Forster guided me in, The wind had changed again by then,
It was going north and I was going south, still in the 4 knot southerly current and 4 or 5 metre waves on the nose again,

My depth sounder was giving 7 feet, That was scary, the paper charts said I was in 300 or 600 feet, depending on the floor of the ocean,
I went on the paper charts and hoped they were accurate, I could just see the lights on land, two were light houses and one was a town, which I got off Google maps on my computer, I was about 5 miles off shore,
One group of lights was Forster which I was headed for, I knew where I was, I had my position on the GPS, The auto pilot was driving,

At least my passenger who was crook as a dog, seasick for the last 6 days and was inside the salon trying to sleep,, so she wasnt giving me extra grief to worry about,

But she did help by talking to the VRS bloke, leaving me to drive the boat. he did spend about 6 or 7 hours on the blower talking me into Forster,

I arrived there about 2-30 AM coming into the inlet with about an 6 or 8 knot out flowing tide,
GPS was spot on getting me into the centre of the inlet, I had the diesel flat chat, 3500 revs, I was thrashing the daylights out of it,
I was doing 1.5 knots going up the inlet, It felt like it was stationary, I was watching the rocks on both sides, and didnt feel like I was moving,

The dinghy davits had snapped off in all this, and I had to tie the dinghy and the davits back on the boat with ropes,

Thats not an inlet you should use at night, But I was stuffed and knew it, and there was no where else to park safely due to the bad weather, and my total ignorance of that coast line,
I also had a passenger and her safety was a very great concern for me,

The VRS bloke was excellent in all this, He did a marvellous job, and I thank him greatly,

After turning hard right after the rock wall and not going into the swimming pool there, and following the lights on the right, it looked like a river I was going up in the dark, I found the wharfe and tied up to it,

At that time, I did have 7 days sailing left to get to Melbourne, Being realistic, I knew I wasnt going to make it,
I was going to fall to pieces, sooner or later, so I took the safe option of landing,

I was too close to land and in the middle of the north south shipping lanes, so sleeping was totally out of the question,
My passenger could not keep awake long enough to be on watch, and being sick as well,
Lack of sleep, is my biggest and most difficult part of single handing,

Far Out in the ocean with no traffic, well away from shipping lanes and land, wasnt a problem, I got by with little sleep,

Theres more to it, but I couldnt be bothered writing it,

Cheers,
Brian,

[Geoduck]

Originally Posted by zeehag

"Yep, the hardest thing to do is going without my wife.."

they make blow up dolls for that.....

if it is blowin 40, i am in boat , not going anywhere.....

roller furled headsail is good....
auto pilot is good----



crew is better, but only IF they know anything at all.....

Zee - I didnt know they made blow up dolls for girls

[nigel1]

One of the hardest things I have done single handed was after a 24hrs uphill slog then making it into Conwy marina, over the tidal sill, force 8 right astern, and realising that trying to get on to a pontoon was going to end up like a bag of worms. Then backing out of the marina into the river, and go back out into the bay to ride it out for another 12 hrs.

PS I like the idea of an inflatable doll, wonder if the GF would believe me if I said it was personnel floatation aid

[erasmos]

buy a cutter rigged ketch, makes it a lot f€%k&#G easier when the winds are up!

have an additional spare autopilot!!!!!

[zeehag]

girls dont need blow up dolls.

ladies dont use blow up dolls.


gentlemen dont ask.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Excellent advice, I will try the trick with the halyards. How well does anyone trust their electronics? When soloing offshore, more than 100 fathoms, and out of a sealane, does anyone just set their radar, their AIS and get some sleep?

Yep. No problems at all. Though I try to get up once an hour. AIS is great, off the shelf everything I saw was transmitting. And the one´s I spoke to saw me a long way off too which is heartening, steel boat so good radar reflection.

And radar catches the squalls. Gives you time to get the shampoo out One thing I learned early on was write everything down. Memory is very fallible, not to be trusted.

But never felt too comfortable sleeping until a good way off the shelf, after that´s behind you it´s pretty much deserted out there, the bits of the Atlantic I saw were anyway. When you only see a ship a week you tend to relax a bit.

[Andrew Troup]

In post 10 the comment was made that one difficulty was the conflicting need to be down below sorting out some problem and at the same time on deck keeping watch etc.

Just came across this recent account of an incident, to yacht "Stargull":

"... a steel yacht hit rocks while the sailor was below dealing with a problem. It is intact, but high and dry.

This incident happened at night when the Kiwi solo sailor was arriving in Australia and heading for the Bundaberg Port Marina when his yacht Stargull developed its equipment problems. He was down below dealing with the problem when the yacht left the channel and hit the rocks ... "

A tough call, making decisions about priorities.
Tougher still, perhaps, when one has become habituated or reliant on certain items always working.

One item I try to remember, which has always worked for me, is the anchor. When I say 'eventually' ... sometimes it gets lonely down there and requires company. Luckily I travel with a comprehensive quiver.

I subscribe to the point of view that it's a good idea to put aside the money saved by not being insured, and use it to keep upgrading the anchoring facilities - accessability, capability, redundancy, deployability, recoverability, versatility, etc.

If the boat design permits, the spare gear makes excellent 'informal ballast'. I'm a firm believer in ballast pulling its weight.

What I'm working round to saying is this: My usual reflex when I have a problem (whether it be equipment, or pilotage, or anything demanding intense focus) is to STOP THE BOAT.

This may mean anchoring, it may mean heaving to, it may mean idling in reverse letting the stern find the wind... but standing implacably into danger is not conducive to good problem solving.

I'm not casting aspersions in this instance: I don't know what happened specifically.

I'm not sure if the Australians publish annual reports on life-threatening marine incidents? (In NZ the MSA do, and it's very valuable, but it's a subset of the possible candidates, tipped towards the commercial fleets, and not many sailing yachts make the cut.)

Getting back to this distressing instance: Obviously it's not always possible to stop the boat. Furthermore, the equipment problem might have been (say) a jammed chain cable in the spurling pipe.

But sometimes we might think of stopping, but don't do it for no better reason than ego, or because tradition dictates otherwise.

I just want to make the point that even anchoring in a busy channel may occasionally be preferable to the least worst alternative.

If it's possible there's sometimes another option: I've not infrequently tied up to channel markers or piles to sort out a problem (usually a $%&#ing solenoid - I HATE solenoids at sea, with a passion, and my next boat will have exactly NONE !!!!)

And I remember my crewmates getting frustrated once (mid 80s) leaving Nuku'alofa because half way out I required that we stop and mooch around a navigation marker for an hour because it was getting too dark to see the channel (specifically, the reefs to either side) but not yet dark enough for the beacon lights to have come on.

I sometimes toy with the idea of carrying a powerful crossbow when singlehanding a 23' offshore yacht, all the better to harpoon channel piles and the like, firing annular grooved 'bolts' each towing a doubled 2mm Dux messenger.

(Adapted from a more practical but as yet untested idea for getting stern line messengers ashore, when solo, in tight, heavily wooded coves - my favourite anchoring venues)

[carstenb]

The worst is almost certainly sleep deprivation. When you haven't slept you can't figure anything out. Even simple things that you normally can do with your eyes closed become almost impossible. And if you get hit with hard weather - you'll end up being sleep deprived. Even 24 hours without sleep will make you incapable of most things

[tspeed]

I will go with lack of sleep as being the hardest for me. I find that I tend to make more mistakes that I would never do if I was rested, especially when docking. That is the worst when my eyes are burning from lack of sleep and only takes a second to goof up when trying to wipe my eyes so I can see.

[videobear]

Man overboard drills! :O

[capn_billl]

I always seem to be down below in the head, with my pants around my knees, when something really bad happens. But it just might be my luck

Murphies law of single handing, all wind shifts occur while you are in the head.

[Eleven]

Heads, whats the fun in going solo if you have to hide below?
Vidoebear, the first rule is to clip on. The second rule is to clip on again, with a long line attached to the rudder, tiller, wheel. The third rule is not to exceed four knots, no-one can pull themselves back to the boat at more than that.