Glad Mark's okay, and I wish him a great Thanksgiving, too. AND, imo, he needs to have the chat again with his sister. While she was afraid for him, he was focusing on what he needed to do = worlds apart.
I'd like to add, two things:
1) Starlink is a real
game changer, in that comms-- for
weather and other purposes--are often possibly in an instantaneous way.
Great unless there was a lightening strike that took our your electronics. AND the modern
communications also help set up unrealistic expectations for speedy resolution.
[When Jim and I started out, it was with
celestial navigation, and we had
VHF and ham
radio and antennas were disconnected from the radios when there was a lot of lightening. We received wx by voice
transmission out of WWVH, and later on, we also received ship code, via Morse Code, and applied the data to our charted positions.
We used lightening deflectors. Never were hit, but that doesn't mean they worked! We both got
radio patches through to shore based ham stations set up for two party traffic,
legal in the US, and would patch through to our mothers while they were alive. His mother later remarked that she preferred
phone calls without the radio, because she was never sure it was really Jim because his voice sounded different.]
2) Life at sea is not only paced differently from life ashore, it is utterly different. Once off shore, you're a tiny dot in the center of a 4~ mile circle, focused on the horizon, and what the sea and sky tell you, through your eyes, ears (not only four
water sounds, but also for sensing changes or steadiness of
wind direction--you can steer downwind in the dark with just the breeze on the back of your ears), skin, and feet. One puts aside ALL land based considerations for the duration of a journey and concentrates only on interacting with the sea and the
weather, only on the benefit of the crew and vessel.
It can be a lot harder for singlehanders than doublehanders because there's NO backup on board whatsoever for the singlehander, not for fetching tools, keeping watch, or helping keep each other calm when things go awry. In general it is a time of internal harmony. But for the SH, if something needs to be done, it needs it right now, so there's that internal discipline needed, and that extends to obtaining weather information, and adequate rest.
***********
Chotu, thanks for the "Ann's right." So far, for this issue, I was only wrong once, and that tragedy haunts me, still, a bit.
But, in general, the SH is a proud, capable man, who understands the needs of his body and the welfare of his vessel, and land based people need to get their heads away from You Tube sailing fantasies and respect the
work of the sailor and the challenges of seafaring, so as to stay away, or to take up the challenges wisely.
Ann