Singlehanding - Sleeping - Good Idea ?

[kenackr]

SLOMOTION,

The ability of the mind to fill in blank spots is called the "Gestalt effect".

You can learn more about it here:

Design Notes: Gestalt

[Kanani]

This is a copy of a post that I made on a different thread but it seems to be more relevant here:

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When you are doing long ocean passages, it's a lot harder than you think to stay awake 24/7 with a crew of 2.

I always get a kick out of this discussion and the reality of what new cruising couples do. Here is a typical watch shift.

Shift 1. sunset to midnight
Shift 2. midnight to 4:AM
Shift 3. 4:AM to sunrise

You know what happens at sunrise......whoever is on watch, goes to sleep. The sun is up so the logic is.....you don't need to keep watch anymore.

Guess what, ships in transit don't keep night-time hours. They run 24 hours a day and all you have to do is be unattentive for 20 minutes and you can get run down. Chances of it actually happening.....probably about 10,000:1.

The reality is, "stuff happens" out at sea. In 80,000 miles and 2 circumnavigations, I have had 2 close calls. One was at night, while someone was on watch and one was in the middle of the day and no one was on watch. We were down below playing cards and we heard the droaning of an engine. By the time we got on deck, the ship passed us by about 150' (about the width of her beam). If it would have been closer, we could not have gotten out of the way. I called the ship on the VHF and they had no idea where we were.

We have a hard and fast rule that we keep watch 24/7 if we are within 100 miles of land. After that, we rely on radar with an alarm set at 6 miles and we go to bed. If the alarm goes off, I get up and take a look around. That will usually happen 4-10 times a day. 95% of the time, it is a false alarm (sensitivity setting). The other time, it will be a ship passing far away and we would probably not have seen them if we were watching.

In order to keep a proper watch, you need a minimum of 3 people. 4 hours on, 8 hours off. Each person taking 2 shifts a day. Any less than that and you are kidding yourselves.

Long ocean passages has it's risks. getting run down is one of them. Hitting a partially submerged container or other large item is another. One time we hit a Whale Shark, off of Indonesia. It was kinda like hitting a big fat bag of lard but it could have been something worse. There is no way that you can see stuff in the water.

One of the most shocking things that I ever saw was in 1985. We were anchored in Western Samoa and a smaller container ship came in and there was a yacht's mast stuck between the anchor and the hull. There was also a fresh scratch in the paint, all the way down the hull. I jumped in my dinghy and went over to the ship. It was a German Capt but he spoke English. They had no idea that the mast was there or that they even hit anything. That really scared the crap out of us for awhile.

I am not advocating carelessness here, just plain reality. The risk of being run down is not anywhere near as high on the open ocean that it is walking across the street. The closer to land that you are sailing, the higher the concentration of ships. Kinda like the difference bewtween jay-walking in Manhattan and jay-walking in Podunk Idaho.

[Ed Steele]

Everyone has his or her own system but what my wife and I have found that works for us i.e. a two person crew, is as follows:

“Formal” watch shifts begin at 8:00 p.m. for 3 hours each. Typically my wife goes to bed at 2000 hours and then goes on watch from 2300 hours until 0200 hours. I cover from 0200 hours until 0500 hours but it begins to get light then. Often by the time I have checked the weather forecast and any e-mails, it may be closer 0700 hours before my wife wakes up and then we may have breakfast together. I will then sleep for as long as I can.

We keep informal watches in daylight. Someone is always on watch but we nap as we feel like it. We run a kitchen timer alarm both DAY and NIGHT. As others have mentioned, it is easier to get run over in daylight if everyone assumes that someone else is on watch. When the timer goes off, we scan the horizon visually and also the radar display, besides doing obvious things like checking that we are still on course and that the sail trim is good.

We set the watch timer according to the conditions. For an ocean passage that is far from the shipping lanes, we will use 20 minutes. As others have noted, this is about the time it could take for a freighter to travel 12 miles. We will usually set the radar display to a 12-mile display setting with an alarm guard zone at 6 miles. If the radar is set to 24 miles, the display may be too coarse to see fishing boats and other yachts. It may not be possible to see these unless at a 6 mile setting. If there is considerable wave activity, the immediate few miles of radar display is blanketed. Ditto rain. What this means is that the radar is virtually useless under these conditions to spot small targets like fishing vessels. The converse is true. The large freighters have their radars and collision alarms set to spot large targets such as other freighters. They rely on computerized alarms and often keep no visual watch. In other words, they will never see you either visually or on their radar. It is up to you to get out of the way.

In areas where there are fishing boats we may set our watch timer to as frequent as 12 minutes. In rough conditions small vessels are spotted visually before they show up on radar and hitting a steel fishing boat with a plastic yacht would be no fun.
On routes where there is considerable shipping or where other cruisers are likely to be on the same rhumb line, again we set the watch timer to 15 minutes or thereabouts.

We have found that it is tough staying awake for a 3-hour shift during the first couple of days of a passage. The on watch person sets the timer and lays down in the cockpit wearing safety harness and attached tether in all night time conditions. When the timer goes off, we perform a visual check of the horizon twice. This is to make sure we were really awake the first time. Then the radar is checked; the course checked to make sure the autopilot has not switched itself to “standby” and the sail trim checked. The final check is to visually inspect the timer display to see if has been reset and is running.

If we are sailing a rhumb line we use the “off course” alarm but this is not usable when we are close hauled. In the latter event we have the autopilot set to “wind-vane” mode.

On the third and subsequent days of a passage, we have found that we often do not feel the need to catnap during a 3-hour watch. For me, reading sometimes seems to cause eyestrain and then it is hard to stay awake. What we have found to be effective for long night watches are the new generation of portable DVD players. You set the screen brightness low to maintain your night vision and just pause the movie when the watch timer alarm sounds and you check your horizon.

The procedures I have described also worked when I was forced to single-hand for four days following an accident on the Tonga New Zealand leg, when my wife broke several ribs and was incapacitated. I found a lot of respect for single-handers and lost any desire to perform this chore voluntarily.
Ed

[liberty16]

Recent sleep research (I heard on the news) found that interrupting the circadian rhythm for extended periods of time leads to greater rates of cancer in human beings. Nature intended us to be awake in the day and sleep during the night. Not conforming with this is without exception harmful to the body.

[Reality Check]

Too much sex causes cancer, too much rich food causes cancer, too much poor food causes cancer, too much sun causes cancer, too much computer time causes cancer, life causes cancer....

Never take these "studies" at face value. Most are not actual clinical studies but statistical studies where they analyze data for trends and analyze them. Using these methods it is obvious that the main cause of divorce is marrage... it is common in almost every case...

Indications do exist that excessive stress over long periods of time are harmful and may possibly manifest in many forms. However in single handing on a long passage.... I do not think the risk of Cancer is of primary concern, even if your stretched out nude on a raft. The main concern is mental acuity.

[Rez]

Just sail the Northwest Passage - ice is no problem.
Rez

[Rez]

According to a recent state of California lawsuit about freighter pollution, there are "about 90,000" freighters world wide.

That's a lot of big heavy objects.

This is an interesting thread!:
Rez

[Rez]

The couple who recently sailed the Northwest Passage successfully had four additional crew. They went 4 on 8 off. The skipper said that they really didn't see much of each other or talk much except at meals "because everyone was busy with their assigned jobs or asleep."

Seems a proper situation at sea, to me.

Rez

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by Rez

According to a recent state of California lawsuit about freighter pollution, there are "about 90,000" freighters world wide.

That's a lot of big heavy objects.

This is an interesting thread!:
Rez

Well.....the ocean occupies about 140,000,000 sq mi of the Earth's surface. That makes about 1 freighter for every 1,555 sq miles of ocean. Now, I know that there are some areas of higher conjestion than others (usually closer to any large port). However, about 40% of freighters are in port at any one time. That would leave about 54,000 ships at sea or 1 every 2,600 sq miles.

The chances of being run down at sea are about the same as shooting an arrow into the sky and accidentally hitting a bird or 2 people rolling BBs across a gymnasium floor (blind-folded) and hitting each other.

I just don't feel very threatened. I have made many-many long ocean passages and see less than 1 ship a day, at sea and it is usually miles away because my tiny boat only occupies about .0000000000000000001.23% of the Earth's surface.

[SimonV]

Kanani, you have way too much time on your hands!!

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by SimonV

Kanani, you have way too much time on your hands!!

Ya.....I know....that's about to change thow. I have to go back to work tomorrow. I've been sick for the last couple weeks.

[Ex-Calif]

While I like Kanani's statistics, we can't understimate the density along known routes and near harbors.

It's similar to measuring the density of cars until you factor in that they all follow roads.

It's not something to lose sleep over <groan> but the risks need to be understood and managed.

[Seeratlas]

I knew a fellow who had a very nice radar installed that would wake itself up on a preset schedule, (I think he had it set for every 15 minutes or so); and scan then compare the scan to the one it had in memory from its previous 'wakeup', and if it anything new had showed up, scream like the dickens and wake up the ship's crew. If the scans showed no change, then the radar would go back to sleep and repeat the cycle. Once set up and serviced, I think this system would be of substantial benefit to any boat given the reduced amp draw and added safety. I've sailed with quite a few 'crew' that I would trust less than this radar I doubt I'm the only captain who ever came up to relieve someone on watch who was fast asleep

seer

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Seeratlas

I doubt I'm the only captain who ever came up to relieve someone on watch who was fast asleep

Oh man -- I was so incredibly unhappy -- same person time after time who just didn't care.

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by Seeratlas

I knew a fellow who had a very nice radar installed that would wake itself up on a preset schedule, (I think he had it set for every 15 minutes or so); and scan then compare the scan to the one it had in memory from its previous 'wakeup', and if it anything new had showed up, scream like the dickens and wake up the ship's crew. If the scans showed no change, then the radar would go back to sleep and repeat the cycle. Once set up and serviced, I think this system would be of substantial benefit to any boat given the reduced amp draw and added safety. I've sailed with quite a few 'crew' that I would trust less than this radar I doubt I'm the only captain who ever came up to relieve someone on watch who was fast asleep

seer

Most radars have a "Sleep" mode now.

They go on at a set interval and make a few sweeps. If they pick up anything "Heavier" than the preset density, the alarm will sound and it will stay live. If it see's nothing, it will go back to sleep.

I set mine at 10 minutes and a 6 mile radius. It goes off several times a day/night and 90% of the time it's a false alarm. The rougher the seas. the more false alarms. Breaking seas will set off the alarm unless the sensitivity is set way low.