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Old 20-04-2016, 15:55   #31
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

Well, it's not far down to paradise, at least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility
Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see

Believe me ...

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Old 20-04-2016, 16:08   #32
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

3 weeks, was hoping for a bit more but a sailboat appeared, used motor to catch up and asked for cigarettes

As barnakiel said "I like being offshore in calm only when the sea is flat, which is hardly ever."

If one is solo that is the time to go untethered for a mid night skinny dip, float there ayes open, face down, arms spread and think of the miles below you and forget about your boat for a while.
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Old 20-04-2016, 16:36   #33
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

What do I achieve spending so much time alone... was asked.
When I spent 4 years alone, hunting and fishing and some gardening was required.
I'm 67 now. It's my turn to do what I want.
So #1 is Quiet. No nagging, whining, complaining, nobody pushing me to do something I don't want to do. No door bells, no phone ringing. No lawnmower noise. No screaming neighbors or kids. Most of you wouldn't understand. Especially the married ones. You tune it out. I don't want it in the 1st place.
I had a black lab that recently died at 14. I'm looking for another. Until she got real old, when anchored, she would go to and from shore on her own when I was busy or lazy. I miss my dog, but not people. Especially women. Women are never happy.
I do projects on the boat that have the materials on board. Now I have satellite "sort of broadband", so I can type this. The time before I didn't. Because it's quiet, I see lots of sealife from whales on down.
I hike places that hasn't see people in maybe 100 years. Maybe never. If it hasn't been logged the forest or animal trails are easy to walk. My dog was my bear warning system. Beach combing is better with out a crowd. At night I don't see another light or hear human noise. It's like being the first person in the world.
Currently I sometimes take similar people with me. Especially the ones that cook better than I do. Rarely, but a few times I have taken want-a-be fishermen to Alaskan ports to look for a job. And usually any veteran that asks.
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Old 20-04-2016, 17:00   #34
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

1 week or on the boat.
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Old 20-04-2016, 19:09   #35
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

Thread just hit a triple. Well played sailors.
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Old 20-04-2016, 19:37   #36
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

Only a week or so, but I talked to my Wife on sat phone briefly most days, checking in. Longest with no contact is about 3 or 4 days.

But I resonate with a lot of what has been said above. I took a 4 month sabbatical and did a voyage, mostly solo. wife was with me the last month. It changed me. I came back to the house, walked into the kitchen, stood there about 5 minutes looking around, got in the car and went back to the boat.

That was a few years ago, but the change in me was permanent. I did have to go back to "normal" life for that time, but now we are off, retired.

For me I want my Wife with me, no one else, just her. If I lost her it would be terrible, I don't think I'd look for a new partner, I think I'd just be a solo guy.
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Old 20-04-2016, 20:52   #37
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

I think I went 12 days without seeing a ship. I went 48 days (total) without seeing another person, and only one other yacht a half mile away.

Being alone is the subject of my new book, "Alone Together: Sailing Solo to Hawaii and Beyond."

Five-minute book "trailer" video here:



"Alone together" video here:



Being alone was not at all like what I expected.
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Old 21-04-2016, 00:00   #38
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

The best description of making the transition which I've ever read was by Dame Ellen MacArthur, after she'd just finished a solo, non-stop, RTW race. Coming in in in 2nd place I think. And of course she was mobbed by fans, press boats, etc., starting many miles offshore. Let alone, of course, family, & friends, etc. who all wanted to see her.

But before all of that could take place, another famous single hander was ferried out to her boat. And he took over sailing it, but Especially in helping her to make the transition. Particularly with regards to shielding her from the worst of it.
As he understood Exactly what she was feeling/going through... having done it a bunch of times himself.

And for it, she was pretty much eternally grateful. Given the HUGE transition from being by yourself for 4 months, with at most, a bit of radio contact with your team & a few tech guys, regularly. But back then, mostly only via email, unless it was something really crucial.

I wish I could recall what race in particular it was. Though I'm pretty sure that it was in Yachting World (A British Sailing Magazine) back in the early 2000's.

But I, personally, can't imagine making that kind of transition. There can't be many more abrupt ones on the planet. Well, I can think of a few, but not many people have done them, & they're pretty extreme.

And most, especially single handers, simply collapse for several days, upon arrival. Post tying up at the dock, or dropping the hook. Slowly working up to trips exploring/being around people.
Doing things like just going in for an ice cream cone, or for a few bits of fresh produce. Then retreating back to their boats for a while.
But, of course the dam eventually breaks; sooner or later. And then it's hard to get them to let anyone else talk.
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Old 21-04-2016, 00:12   #39
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Deep Blue Blues View Post
I don't mind peoples noise so much but the noise they make I'm sort of tired of. I'm looking out over my property right now and there is a parked train huffing and puffing.. A moving train hauling Ass. And a parkway with 18,000+ vehicles passing by in a normal work day. Less than 400ft from my bed.

I recently tried moving to Pensacola Florida, a few hundred miles south of here, to the coast and to escape the noise. It was a huge mistake.

The navy is on crack down there and they fly jets at moch 1 all damn day at super low(read the wing) altitudes.

I love fighter jets but not every day. All day. Less than a mile away from my rental, you could hear them doing morning exercises at the base.

The noise was too much, I'd rather have the rhythm of the passing trains than the sneak attacks of the blue angels.

At this point, I'm thinking sleep tank, or sailboat.


Edit: wow lepke. Are you still solo? And did you interact at all? Like email? Message in a bottle? Nothing?
That's why we love the PNW. . . the solitude and the silence is hard to beat.
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Old 21-04-2016, 01:05   #40
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

Oceano I loved your documentary. I'm on your coat tails friend. I first saw it a few months ago and was inspired to remain inspired. I'll be looking for your book to add to the growing library at sea.

Uncivilized you describe it so well, like you've lived it.

And what does PNW stand for Sailor Bob? Not pacific north west. That'd be Russia right?
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Old 21-04-2016, 04:16   #41
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

Quote:
Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED View Post
The best description of making the transition which I've ever read was by Dame Ellen MacArthur, after she'd just finished a solo, non-stop, RTW race. Coming in in in 2nd place I think...
... I wish I could recall what race in particular it was...
In 2001, she came second in the Vendée at the age of 24; the fastest woman and youngest sailor to make the solo non-stop circumnavigation.

In 2005, she established a round-the-world solo record in her trimaran B&Q.

Following her retirement from professional sailing in 2010, MacArthur announced the launch of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity that works with business and education to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

https://www.ted.com/speakers/ellen_macarthur
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Old 21-04-2016, 04:33   #42
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

Not my thoughts, but interesting thoughts.....

Bernard Moitessier

Quote:
"I have no desire to return to Europe with all its false gods. They eat your liver out and suck your marrow and brutalize you. I am going where you can tie up a boat where you want and the sun is free, and so is the air you breathe and the sea where you swim and you can roast yourself on a coral reef....(1)"

IN EARLY MARCH 1969, THE FRENCH-COLONIAL SINGLE- handed circumnavigator Bernard Moitessier, aboard his unique 39 foot steel ketch Joshua, rounded Cape Horn and stood to the north "outside" the Falkland Islands for the long run uphill to England to finish first and fastest in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race around the world.(2)

Joshua was so far ahead of the other entrants that winning was almost a certainty, barring any unforeseen emergency-and there were few exigencies that the capable and versatile Frenchman could not handle, including Cape Horn, which Moitessier had now doubled twice in his long sailing career. Waiting for Moitessier would be the cash prize of $25,000, the trophy, and the inevitable storm of noto- riety, adulation, and perhaps a million dollars in books, endorse- ments, public appearances, emoluments of all kinds to say nothing of the nationalistic pride of beating the English at their own game, and winning the Legion d'honneur.

Joshua at the moment was a shoo-in. Then something happened. Moitessier changed course, headed eastward along the Roaring Forties (after having already crossed his outbound track) on a second nonstop circumnavigation, automatically dropping out of the Times race.

In his log, and in a long letter composed for his publisher, which he hoped to give to a passing ship, Moitessier's reasons were although he professed to be of sound mind weird in the extreme, incomprehensible at best. He was in a region noted for phenomena and hallucinations, which had affected many lone voyagers such as Captain Slocum (for whom Joshua was named), Al Hansen, and Vito Dumas. Had he succumbed to some strange mental unbalance? Had he just plain gone nuts?

"Why am I doing this? Imagine yourself in the forest of the Amazon. Suddenly you come upon a small temple of an ancient, lost civilization. You are not simply going back and say, "I have found a temple, a civilization no- body knows." You are going to stay there, try to decipher it . . . and then you discover that 100 kilometers on is another temple, only the main temple. Would you return?"(3)

But no. How could anyone understand? It is this thing, this strange cosmic dimension, which time takes. You feel as if you could sail on for a thousand years....


Yet, to have not done what he did, Moitessier would have been out of character. His actions were completely logical for a man whose kinship with the sea was as nearly complete as is possible for a land mammal.

As his friend Jean-Michel Barrault wrote of him in Match:

"For five months alone at sea, a man had dealt with a multiplicity of technical problems, had shown his physical stamina, had run risks which most would not have faced but above all had sought his own truth, had si- lenced the sounds of the world and talked with the waves, with the flying spume, with the torn clouds, with the albatross and the petrels. He had lived in the roaring forties, not as a stranger but deep in the beauty of the ocean of which he said, "I shall always cherish the memory of these gigantic waves, of this incredibly beau- tiful sea." What was waiting for him in Plymouth was also the other side of glory, the tumultuous crowds, the lack of respect for the individual, prying indiscretions. The rape of his realized dream he could not accept this."(4)
I never found his writing odd, made sense to me.
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Old 22-04-2016, 10:40   #43
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

That entire race was a life lesson for all who've explored it's details. There were two sailing mentality extremes in that race. The amazing decision based on love that carried him further than any finish line ever could. And then that other racer who built his boat with ego and had too much pride to play fair when he realized his late departure and total lack of seaman ship wasn't helping him against real sailors like Moitessier.

He laid up off the coast of Brazil for months waiting on the leaders to circumnavigate around the horn before trying to fall into position amongst them. He then committed suicide or just fell overboard during his last leg home. Living a lie is a heavy burden.

I've purposefully forgotten his name.

But what a race. Best outcome possible and worst outcome possible. I think I'll choose the love of the sea over winning as well. That would be winning for me anyways.
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Old 22-04-2016, 12:04   #44
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

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The amazing decision based on love (...)
Correct me if I am wrong but I think he met the other woman only after living some time in Tahiti.

My French friends mostly see it as if he was dodging his wife and children. I am not sure how much they say this out of envy and how much is a fact of life.

Does he say anything on this in his book?

b.
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Old 22-04-2016, 12:12   #45
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Re: How long have you gone without seeing another human being on the water?

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Correct me if I am wrong but I think he met the other woman only after living some time in Tahiti.

My French friends mostly see it as if he was dodging his wife and children. I am not sure how much they say this out of envy and how much is a fact of life.

Does he say anything on this in his book?

b.
Love of the sea.

It's funny how perspective can twist stories. The French took him for a coward while the world took him as a romantic.

His wife must have been hell.
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