Transitioning to longer solo trips

[GILow]

Originally Posted by conachair

A few random thoughts..
Leaving from a nice quiet anchorage is so much nicer than a marina - your head is already half way at sea. Go hide for a day or 2 to get lots of sleep and finish getting the boat ready.

I like a pressure cooker with a huge thick soup ready cooked tied down to the cooker. You can still cook other stuff but if you can't be bothered then you'll have a few days food easy to get, and just add stuff as it goes down, a slowly morphing dynamic recipe

Audio books on a phone /tablet and a little bluetooth speaker are great to pass the time in the cockpit.

Marine traffic historical page is a good way to see if there's any way to avoid busy patches of ocean.

Conachair, first, let me say thank you for pointing out the traffic density function in marine traffic. I have not used the application much and that is a very helpful function I might not have discovered. Our density map for contrast is below.

Second, I might have inadvertently planned to take your first piece of advice, as I had planned to go to Kangaroo Island first, about a day's sail from our harbour. More to get ready to pounce on the correct bit of weather than to take a break and recuperate, but either way, I think what you say has merit.

Audio books are great, and I really, really love my e-reader.

[boatman61]

Love these 'Traffic Density' images.. guaranteed to scare the newcomer $h*7less..
On most of my Biscay trips (and I've done quite a few) between Ushant and Viviero/La Coruna its exceptional if I see more than 4 ships in the 350nm crossing.

[Snowpetrel]

Yeah, spending a night or three at anchor is a huge advantage, KI is perfect for that. Anchoring enables you to ease into being alone on the boat. Idealy there is a bit of a roll so you can get used to the boat moving slightly.

I always like to sleep aboard even in port for a few nights if possible before heading to sea.

Good weather is a big advantage for the first few days.

I found solo that sleep was so important that I stopped using an alarm clock and let my body decide when I needed to wake up whe well offshore. That way I was rested enough that I awoke almost supernaturally to the slightest change in conditions or course.

Another thing that works for me is a kind of meditation sleep, I lie down and just relax, I dont even try to sleep, somehow I dont seem to fall asleep fully, as I am aware of whats going on. Whatever state it is it really refreshes me without the grogginess I get from a deep sleep.

It is handy having a gps right next to my seaberth, I can open one eye, check the course and past track, and if all is well go back to sleep quickly without even waking fully.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by CoolBeans

Maybe it is obvious or I missed it in a post. . .but are you guys going below to sleep or just kicking back in the cockpit? If in the cockpit, do you have the leeward side set up like a berth?

Thanks

I sleep in my bed in the forward cabin.
Still only takes me 60 secs to check upstairs and get back to bed.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by stillbuilding

Some areas like inside the Great Barrier Reef and other coastal seas are simply not suitable for solo for extended periods - say more than couple of days. Verified by the number of solo sailors arriving with scrambled brains in places like Mooloolabah and Coffs Harbour.

As I age I need less sleep and usually wake every 2 hrs naturally.

Sleeping in the cockpit under the dodger makes snap watching easier - much more comfortable with this than down below.

Not recommended to start out tired.

Re great barrier reef. Sorry, but crap. Slocumb did it in 1895. Its only got easier.

[stillbuilding]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Re great barrier reef. Sorry, but crap. Slocumb did it in 1895. Its only got easier.

Hmm, also a lot busier.

[barnakiel]

Indeed Great Barrier is very difficult solo. Two of our solo friends ended up on the reefs there. Bill hit the rock on his way home (Bill is from Fremantle). There are so many things to hit between the entrance and Thursday Island.

Martin got washed ashore in Queensland like a month ago - even though he was doing the inside route. He is still there figuring out how to get his boat off the beach. Things that are easy elsewhere stop being easy some 100 miles up from Cooktown.

Solo sailor. Beware of the most beautiful and the most dangerous N Australia.

b.

[Foolish]

Bill, thanks for mentioning my singlehanded tips book. Sleep is such an important topic that I wrote a whole chapter on it, including the wonderful hallucinations. I did a lot of research and tried to summarize it to make it more understandable.

For the OP, 500 miles is just about the worst distance you can travel singlehanded. It takes several days for your body to get used to the adventure of being alone at sea, and 5 days is about it. For the first 36 hours you will barely sleep at all. Then very little for the next few days so at the end of 4 days you will be completely wacked. After 5 days you will get into the mode of sleeping much better - just as you reach your destination.

I strongly suggest that you read the section in my book about
"The 3am Effect" and the section on Jessica Watson's collision. This will be especially important of a 5 day trip.

Have fun.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Foolish

Bill, thanks for mentioning my singlehanded tips book. Sleep is such an important topic that I wrote a whole chapter on it, including the wonderful hallucinations. I did a lot of research and tried to summarize it to make it more understandable.

For the OP, 500 miles is just about the worst distance you can travel singlehanded. It takes several days for your body to get used to the adventure of being alone at sea, and 5 days is about it. For the first 36 hours you will barely sleep at all. Then very little for the next few days so at the end of 4 days you will be completely wacked. After 5 days you will get into the mode of sleeping much better - just as you reach your destination.

I strongly suggest that you read the section in my book about
"The 3am Effect" and the section on Jessica Watson's collision. This will be especially important of a 5 day trip.

Have fun.

Oh dear. This has thrown me somewhat. I was thinking of the 500 mile straight run to avoid the shorter day hops which, I have been told, are the worst way of doing this trip. Now I don't know what to do. Fwiw, I could do this trip using a coastal route which only add about 100 miles and would provide me with harbours 24 hours or so apart.

Which way would you do it?



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[DumnMad]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

As far as I can see, the chances of a random intersection of the paths of two vessels, well out to sea, are the same whether you are hove to or sailing along. Not true if you are on watch, of course, but if the vessel is "unattended" and not taking evasive action, doesn't matter if it is moving.

Jim

I'd think thats true on collisions per day but if you add some hove-to days to your trip you have more days in which to have your random collision

[conachair]

Originally Posted by GILow

Oh dear. This has thrown me somewhat. I was thinking of the 500 mile straight run to avoid the shorter day hops which, I have been told, are the worst way of doing this trip. Now I don't know what to do. Fwiw, I could do this trip using a coastal route which only add about 100 miles and would provide me with harbours 24 hours or so apart.

Which way would you do it?

Where to and from?

The image of Aus didn't show much ais traffic. Personally I'd get a good bit offshore and go for it. Getting off the continental shelf helps lots as there aren't any fishing boats any more. Few fishing anyway.
24 hour legs are nasty imho, takes a day or 2 to get back in shape again. Though everyone is different, I agree with foolish about the first 5 days being different but for me that's just to relax into it, I'll still sleep but just be a bit on edge. Actually, worth mentioning a couple of things, if I feel the eyelids getting a bit heavy then straight into a bunk curled up for a snooze - every little helps Also, it can really wear you out just being in a hot tropical sun all day, staying down below with a lookout every 10 minutes or whatever won't wear you out quite so much.
But your call, everyone did a first one , good luck either way

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by GILow

Oh dear. This has thrown me somewhat. I was thinking of the 500 mile straight run to avoid the shorter day hops which, I

Which way would you do it?

Remember, just because someone has written a book on it it does not mean they have written the book on it.

I think 5 days is fine. Nearly as easy as 10 days. After 24 hours I am fully settled in and will be less tired than when I left.

Each person is an individual SI it's impossible for anyone to say how each person w/o best deal with it. But look at it this way: when would be your be,t chance to solo 500nms?
So panzying around coast hopping because you're worried you can't sleep is wasting one of the few oportunitues to do it at all!

And, well, put it this way, if you can't solo from Adelaide which saw its last ship in the Tea Clipper days of the 1800's how the hell can you solo up a real coast like Melbourne to Brisbane? Or as Phil Boatman says, the English Channel, Bay of Biscuits, Straits of Gibralter, Malaccas Straits, the Mediterranean, the Greek f'ing Islands, the Great Barrier Bloody Reef or from bar to bar in the Whitsundays, Caribbean, Bahamas, New York or ANY DAMN CRUISING PLACE IN THE WORLD?

Pull your finger out and get to sea. You will have the time of your life (and, hopefully, survive)


I am so glad I have done it and the procrastinations are behind me.

PS take booze! A solo sundowner is a pleasure you will never replace with any other life acomplishment, especially when you wonder at the number of forumers "tut-tutting" the very thought

[Foolish]

Oh dear. This has thrown me somewhat. I was thinking of the 500 mile straight run to avoid the shorter day hops which

Heavens; this is certainly no reason to avoid the trip. Just understand that you'll be really tired while doing it. Go out there an enjoy the experience, however it takes you. I keenly remember my first hallucination. I thought "wow, so that's what they're talking about." I would NEVER avoid a singlehanded voyage just because of lack of sleep. That's why God invented coffee.

After 24 hours I am fully settled in and will be less tired than when I left.

That will be true for someone who has done a few trips and is more comfortable, but for a first trip the lack of sleep is a given. The OP will be able to sleep three or four hour each night, but 8 hours is wishful thinking.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

. But look at it this way: when would be your be,t chance to solo 500nms?
So panzying around coast hopping because you're worried you can't sleep is wasting one of the few oportunitues to do it at all!

Good point.

Originally Posted by MarkJ

And, well, put it this way, if you can't solo from Adelaide which saw its last ship in the Tea Clipper days of the 1800's

Strangely accurate. The place is crawling with square riggers at the moment, some kind of event going on. Or maybe they are still trading in wool... not sure.

Originally Posted by MarkJ

PS take booze! A solo sundowner is a pleasure you will never replace with any other life acomplishment, especially when you wonder at the number of forumers "tut-tutting" the very thought

You have an evil and deviant mind. Clearly a local.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

I'd think thats true on collisions per day but if you add some hove-to days to your trip you have more days in which to have your random collision

That's a valid point, Nick! And supportive of my thought that simply sailing on is the best strategy. Possibly with somewhat reduced sail if there are squalls about, etc, but not stopping for "safety's sake".

Jim