Noob: so you're in the middle of the ocean...

[Woodlouse]

I am curious that some people say you can heave to and others insist on a 24 hr watch rota. Assuming the heave-tos weren't pulling my leg, that's a considerable difference in opinion.

What you can do, and what is sensible varies wildly. There is nothing to stop you from heaving to and going to bed at night. Most however would still want to keep some form of watch system in place to keep an eye out for ships, so you still don't necessarily get your full nights sleep. The other obvious problem is that it will take you at least twice as long to get anywhere, so twice as much fuel, food and water will be required.

The option no one has really given you so far is the use of an auto pilot. Which means you can sail and sleep at the same time. You'll probably want to consider keeping some sort of lookout though for the same reasons as when hove to.

One thing to be wary of on this forum is that people will generally tell you what you should do, rather than what you can do. For example, you could announce that you wish to cross the Atlantic on a Hobie Cat and everyone would tell you that you're a fool and you shouldn't even attempt such a thing because it's laughable and outrageous. The fact that someone has already done it wouldn't be mentioned.

To put it another way, opinions voiced here are conservative to say the least.

 

[Bajansailor]

Aye, read some books, and use a bit of common sense and judgement.

If you read Tania Aebi's book about her singlehanded trip around the world in a Contessa 26, you will find that she went most of the way round without keeping a look-out - she thought it was perfectly normal to go to bed at night and get 7 or 8 hours of solid kip with the wind vane self steering doing its job of keeping the boat on course.
And no parachute sea anchor out.
This was in the days before AIS of course......
She got a fright when she woke up (6th sense?) one night after sailing 20,000 odd miles and found that she had just had a close encounter with a ship.

I personally think that boats and ships out in the open ocean seem to have some sort of magnetic attraction for each other, going on the number of close encounters we have experienced.

Oh, and if you do want to do it on a Hobie cat, go for it - you wont be the first!
I remember reading about 2 lads with a Hobie 18 in the Canaries 24 years ago who decided that a visit to the New World was in order. So they strapped a box of provisions on the trampoline, they possibly had survival suits as well, might even have had some form of navigation device, and they took off on a heading of approx WSW.
And I think they turned up in Martinique about 20 days later.

 

[westernman]

Oh, and if you do want to do it on a Hobie cat, go for it - you wont be the first!
I remember reading about 2 lads with a Hobie 18 in the Canaries 24 years ago who decided that a visit to the New World was in order. So they strapped a box of provisions on the trampoline, they possibly had survival suits as well, might even have had some form of navigation device, and they took off on a heading of approx WSW.
And I think they turned up in Martinique about 20 days later.

It has been done several times. Total madness.

http://www.sail.ie/misc/cats_atlantic.htm

 

[sighmoon]

It's feasible to sail from Ulster to the Med without any overnight passages.

Night sailing is truly magical though, and if you manage to do it in day sails, you're missing out, IMHO

Oh, and if you do want to do it on a Hobie cat, go for it - you wont be the first!

The guys who were the first emphatically do not recommend anyone doing it. Their watermaker didn't work properly, so they got severely dehydrated and constant immersion in saltwater meant they needed skin grafts too. They found all this out early on, but were unable to turn back.

 

[cimota]

The option no one has really given you so far is the use of an auto pilot. Which means you can sail and sleep at the same time. You'll probably want to consider keeping some sort of lookout though for the same reasons as when hove to.

I think i'll be okay with the lookout system. When you start out on a trek (like working to fulfill a fantasy as much as crossing the Atlantic) there's always a stage of stuff you don't know. The ocean is not in my blood, none of my family were ever in the Navy, so this is all new. And there are no stupid questions.

The autopilot while we sleep seems a little risky but then I don't know the technology yet. I have years ahead of me to become good at it.

 

[V1701]

Chartering a yacht, or buying one and keeping it there or living on it there (wherever there is) are other options, e.g. see here...

 

[RichardS]

When it is asked in good faith, as in this case, I also agree that there is no such thing as an idiotic question - making people feel that they should not ask a question in case they attract scorn is, in my experience, inevitably counter-productive for all concerned.

A colleague of mine is a professional solo round-the-world-non-stop sailor, so he has no-one on watch when he is grabbing his 15 minutes of sleep every couple of hours whilst still racing. Whilst there is probably very little chance of being hit by a ship in the Southern Ocean, there are still icebergs around, and, of course, much of the racing is in much busier seas than the Southern Ocean.

Although, by definition, he has to have no-one on watch, I feel instinctively that this is an additional risk which is best avoided, and without much downside, by crewed cruising boats.

Richard

 

[Toutvabien]

Cracking Thread

I must admit I am still unsure as to whether this is a troll or not.

Some of the posts are very amusing. Heaving to each night on an Atlantic crossing is a delightful notion, in the trades it gets dark at about 6pm each day during the crossing and dawn is about 12 hours later so you would certainly arrive well rested. I am not sure why though a boat is much less likely to be involved in a collision whilst hove to than when under way. If a large ship is not keeping a lookout then the fact that you are hove to will not have a great deal of impact, (unlike the ship hitting your boat).

As I am sure the OP will discover there are several ways to skin this particular cat and half the fun is working out what works for you and your crew. My wife still complains about me sleeping on watch whilst crossing the Atlantic but the reality is that you would be unlucky to hit something.

I found dozing in the cockpit with a kitchen timer to wake me up every 20 mins worked for me, but once you sleep through it it does not re-set itself (so I am told) and you might sleep on for ages with the boat sailing calmly through the night whilst her crew sleep soundly below, until somebody wakes up and discovers you snoring in the cockpit three hours later.

 

[boathead]

What you can do, and what is sensible varies wildly. There is nothing to stop you from heaving to and going to bed at night. Most however would still want to keep some form of watch system in place to keep an eye out for ships, so you still don't necessarily get your full nights sleep. The other obvious problem is that it will take you at least twice as long to get anywhere, so twice as much fuel, food and water will be required.

One thing to be wary of on this forum is that people will generally tell you what you should do, rather than what you can do. For example, you could announce that you wish to cross the Atlantic on a Hobie Cat and everyone would tell you that you're a fool and you shouldn't even attempt such a thing because it's laughable and outrageous. The fact that someone has already done it wouldn't be mentioned.

To put it another way, opinions voiced here are conservative to say the least.

I was one of' or the one who mentioned that I heave to, I'm glad that posts are now being kinder to the practice. Wow I thought I was going to have to sneak away and hang my head in shame after mentioning it as an option that I do use. Even with windvane I will stop if I feel inclined, everything that breaks on me seems to do it when I am catching some sleep and on the move, .......... I have gremlins!......... They change the wind direction too.............

As 'Woodhouse' says, this is just something I do, I sailed as a young lad with a great fella, now long past, he had a very relaxed, laid back way with sailing, I picked up my habits from him. Also I love the act of sailing in itself, the travel to the places is not my motivation, so time is not an issue.

 

[Kelpie]

More reading material for the OP... incidentally this guy favoured heaving to for some rest.

http://www.clevelandmemory.org/ebooks/tinkerbelle/

 

[Ludd]

Two weeks to the Med?

I'm planning to take two years.

What's your hurry?

 

[Beadle]

"I am not sure why though a boat is much less likely to be involved in a collision whilst hove to than when under way. If a large ship is not keeping a lookout then the fact that you are hove to will not have a great deal of impact, (unlike the ship hitting your boat)."

I must say that I agree with this. I cannot see any greater risk in continuing to sail rather than heaving to. After all there are plenty of people who have done long ocean passages single handed and they must sleep sometime, and I can't believe they spend a third of the time hove to.

 

[Ludd]

"I am not sure why though a boat is much less likely to be involved in a collision whilst hove to than when under way. If a large ship is not keeping a lookout then the fact that you are hove to will not have a great deal of impact, (unlike the ship hitting your boat)."

I must say that I agree with this. I cannot see any greater risk in continuing to sail rather than heaving to. After all there are plenty of people who have done long ocean passages single handed and they must sleep sometime, and I can't believe they spend a third of the time hove to.

I sail singlehanded, and my routine is to put a reef in thr main,almost regardless of conditions,as it gets dark. This 1)slows the boat down and 2) means less deckwork in the dark if the wind rises'
On long passages I heave to periodically to shower,sleep,and cook if conditions are lumpy. Radar goes on first ,though,and I never really relax completely !

 

[Sybarite]

I have done S. Brittany - Strangford Lough and back a couple of times. I take about 6 or 7 days each way stopping off at interesting places. I could take less but who wants to? There is plenty to see on the way; the Iles of Scilly often occupy a few days.

Forget about sea anchors; they are difficult to deploy and recover and should really be for survival type conditions. Of course you need to practice but its not a solution for a passage. Going to the Med and unless you have bad weather you are not going to spend more than 2 or 3 nights at sea at any time. Most people can stand a watch system over this length of time and you can recover pretty quickly once resting in port.

Why not post a notice in a club asking for cruising experience? Many boats would be glad of a hand. On my trips to Ireland the other crew members were inexperienced and had never over-nighted before but it worked out ok.

 

[Rob_Webb]

Thanks for the answers, folks. The always-on thing is not going to work and I had to google the meaning of heave-to I think that I may need to rethink stuff because SWMBO won't be happy with broken sleep I mean, if it takes more than a week to cross the Atlantic? How long to sail from Northern Ireland to the depths of the Med?

We're not in a rush anywhere so I'm happy to drop a drogue and get plenty of sleep.

Assuming it's big enough, get a skipper + crew so you become passengers on your own boat - that way you'll get all the rest you want. Mostly.

 

[Toutvabien]

More reading material for the OP... incidentally this guy favoured heaving to for some rest.

http://www.clevelandmemory.org/ebooks/tinkerbelle/

.........and he only took 78 days to get across the Atlantic. And that was in 1965 when the technology was slightly less helpful.

Is anybody going to put their hands up and say that they have actually done an ocean crossing where they hove to each night to rest?

We could organise an Atlantic Rally for Snoozers, it does conjure up a wonderful vision, the evening SSB net could be bedtime stories and lullabys.

 

[webcraft]

I am curious that some people say you can heave to and others insist on a 24 hr watch rota. Assuming the heave-tos weren't pulling my leg, that's a considerable difference in opinion.

If you want to sleep and don't want to run a watch system then get a windvane and either/or a SeeMe and AIS with alarms for both that will wake you up. I wouodl be happy sleeping most nights when well offhore and away from shipping lanes with a set-up like that, but you will still need a watch system when in/near shipping lanes.

Free windvane book: http://www.windpilot.com/n/pdf/bookeng.pdf

See-Me info: http://www.sea-me.co.uk/

AIS info: http://www.noonsite.com:8000/Noonsite/PDF_Files/AISExplained

But really all this at the moment is a complete and utter pipe dream. You need to read a lot more books by people who have actually done it - I am sure people here will be happy to supply a list. Then you need to organise some sailing for the coming year.

- W

 

[boathead]

.........and he only took 78 days to get across the Atlantic. And that was in 1965 when the technology was slightly less helpful.

We could organise an Atlantic Rally for Snoozers, it does conjure up a wonderful vision, the evening SSB net could be bedtime stories and lullabys.

Now that is a really good idea, but can we also organise it so we can change our destination if we get the whim..... please?

 

[BrianH]

All this talk of sleeping at sea and no mention of the ColRegs yet, guess I'd better introduce it so we know our obligations - rule 5 states:
Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper lookout by sight, hearing and all available means appropriate to the prevailing circumstances and conditions.

Perhaps "prevailing circumstances and conditions" may imply permission for the odd nap for the solo sailor but I doubt that would be considered appropriate for a normal crew who just like their regular beauty sleep.

As someone who regularly sails single-handed I often take cat-naps underway when out of obvious shipping lanes but know from hard experience it's a dangerous business and that I am lapsing into poor seamanship. European and Mediterranean waters are full of very fast ships with questionable watch-keeping, especially at night and they'll be bearing down on you in very short order anywhere and everywhere.

 

[emsworthy]

We could organise an Atlantic Rally for Snoozers, it does conjure up a wonderful vision, the evening SSB net could be bedtime stories and lullabys.

But surely then, logically, if the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers is better known as the ARC. it would be the .............

Perhaps they could have a new poster boy to promote participation!