What do single handlers do at night?

[Captain Anthony]

I have not yet had the opportunity to single hand at night yet. I have talked about this topic with seasoned sailors. Their advice, radar on, auto pilot on, and sleep / nap for an hour or two but only if you are far away from costal traffic

[CaptBobR]

Using AIS with an audible alarm is a good starting point. I am going to leave the issue of sails alone but want to point out your body needs 4-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. If you are just doing an overnight that’s a different game but if you are going to be single handing for a few days, you need to plan your sleep cycles. You also need to ensure your diet does not interfere with sleep. Lastly it is hard to route outside shipping lanes on a trans-Atlantic because the big boys also want to use favorable winds. The US Coast Guard has a Crew Endurance Management System. It is worth looking at

[kmcshane]

There is no opium so sweet
as the unguarded sunny sleep
on the deck of a boat
when it's after lunch in summer
and you don't know when you're going to arrive
nor what port you will land at,
when you've forgotten east and west
and your name and address...


John Dos Passos

[Hasbeen]

I never saw a ship anywhere out in the Pacific, except when close to a large port, so not a problem.


I had no electronics, so on the Australian east coast I would sleep for 2 or 3 hours at a time during the day, when far enough off. I expected ships to see a yacht during daylight.


I would stay awake all night doing things like bake bread, to help.

[Sailing4Jesus]

STANDING WATCH
In San Diego Navy Boot Camp 1961, I had the 04:00 to 08:00 Clothes Line Watch. I, like all my fellow recruit seamen, was sleepy, so I leaned up against a Clothesline Pole with my M-1 Rifle at my side to catch a wink or two. Back in those days, Navy Chiefs wore light-brown shoes. All of a sudden my eyes popped open to see two light brown shoes at my feet. Thinking quick, I said Amen and looked up into the eyes of Chief Signalman Magnum, my Boot Camp Company Commander. Well, he started laughing despite his intentions to sound mad. Finally, he said; "Freeman, I must admit that was the quickest but best LIE I have ever heard told. Now, fifty-eight-years later I would give almost anything to see Chief Magnum again. I pray he'll meet me in Heaven when soon I too graduate to Heaven.

[Stevie Blueboat]

Originally Posted by jSchooley

Sorry for the obvious straight line.

Just curious about the options usually selected by single handed sailors. Are you mainly u/w making way under power? Under sail? Reefed? On auto pilot? Adrift?

Or are you mostly on the hook, moored, or tied to a pier?

Thanks for responses. i'll be here all week ...

If single handed and under way, I don't sleep at night.
If on my boat with other(s) (crew or otherwise) and under way, I don't sleep at night.
I dog nap during the daylight hours.

[Stevie Blueboat]

If single-handed, I don't sleep at night.
If on my own boat with iffy crew or passengers, I don't sleep at night.
I dog nap during daylight hours.

When someone else is captain, I don't sleep at night --- unless I trust them.

[Ammeer]

I have undertaken significant crossings single handed. I never thought of time in terms of night and day. if I was tired, I put my head down. But I always set an alarm for 40 mins. After a couple of days I found that I never slept longer than this, and I always woke up if the sea state changed, or the boat motion changed. I was racing so had maximum sail up all the time. If that included the spinnaker, I dozed in the cockpit. I had an AIS which was transmitting, and the boat was mostly on auto pilot. I found that, like getting up at home in the middle of the night, you can do a check and look around without actually becoming wide awake, and go back to sleep. I agree with other comments about the dangers closer to the coast and this needs to be taken into account. I also found that in gale conditions, I spent longer in the cockpit and dozed there rather than slept. It can be incredibly tough. All of the factors mentioned by others come into play to varying degrees and for varying periods.

[bangka]

Humans sleep in cycles, averaging pretty close to 90 minutes a cycle. Cycle goes from light sleep down to deep back up to light. Wake up at the bottom of the deep cycle, you will feel groggy - no matter how many cycles you've slept through. That is why you can feel lousy when woken after napping for 45 minutes. Wake up at the top, and you are refreshed. That is when the body is 'ready' to wake up. So sleeping for less than 20-30 minutes (so you don't get to the deep sleep) or more than 65 minutes (so you are coming to the top) is recommended. So ideal sleep is 1.5,3,4.5, 6 or 7.5 hours. I've averaged 4.5 my adult life.

[pendragon]

Originally Posted by jSchooley

Or are you mostly on the hook, moored, or tied to a pier?

I tie up to a pier in mid ocean, take a taxi home at night and continue the voyage to Tahiti in the morning

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Factotum

When my wife and I, along with our two children, crossed the Atlantic in 1990, we asked other cruisers what they did, and were advised to have a good radar reflector on the mast, use an egg timer or other countdown timer, and sleep in short intervals.

Can't one of you stand watch alone for a few hours?


That's very bad advice if you have two competent watchkeepers on board.

[Fleetwoodjack]

Originally Posted by Chuck Hawley

I have sailed from the West Coast to Hawaii twice singlehanded. By far my most concern was getting away from the coast and shipping traffic, although there was obviously some vessel traffic all the way across. I would nap during the day, for up to an hour or two, and would sleep at night for perhaps 3-4 hours at a spell. Generally, the boat would "crash" (I kept the spinnaker up as much as possible) and I would wake up to untangle the sails and autopilot to get going again.

I saw very few other vessels of any size during the trip. This was pre-AIS, which would have been an outstanding addition. I also didn't have radar, nor did I have the power to keep a radar on for extended periods.

This was also pre-Fukashima, and I understand that the amount of debris in the Pacific has dramatically increased, as evidenced by the reports from Transpac and Pacific Cup sailors. And the damage...

Chuck

Hello Chuck,

It has been a while since you and I sailed the 1981 S/H Transpac. Good to see your name. I'm 82 and still sailing s/h the same "Fleetwood", including a 12 year circumnavigation. Looks you have gone traditional from your go fast Olson 30 in the 1981 S/H Transpac. Best regards from Cape Charles, Va.

[BoatBumm]

My solution is as follows: For night offshore passages before I lay down to sleep I do a slow careful 360 look around with my eyes, do the same again with a pair of quality 7x50 binoculars, check the AIS, and check radar. If all the above shows no signs of traffic I nap in the cockpit for 30 minutes. And the AIS is set on alarm mode with a 1 mile approach distance. I don't leave the radar on during the nap because of power consumption. I almost always wake up at 25 minutes. Once I'm up, if I want to sleep more I repeat the same process. It is extremely rare that offshore at night you are going to even see another boat/ship, let alone it is going to be an avoidance issue. But I had a job for 33 years that commonly had me working night shifts. And we were allowed to nap if nothing was going on, but had to be able to get up and be functional quickly if needed, so perhaps I handle night passages like this better than some others would.

[Sailing4Jesus]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Oh, you must mean the blow-up doll.: smitten:

Well, had you seen his last girlfriend you would understand why he bought the doll.

[pjr03]

If there was on-board company, it would not be single-handed sailing would it