[Sasha_V]

There are books, essays and university studies on the answers to this. But the short version is that some people trust their elctronics enough to go to sleep for several hours at a time. Some train their circadian rythms (sleep patterns) to work differently and take to sea being able to catch fifteen minute cat-naps that seem to be as valuable as full deep sleep.
Some seem to have decided that it is safer to sleep during the day when passing ships can see them more easily and thus keep most of their active watch during night-time.
Yet other swear by simply steering well clear of all shipping lanes and having huge chunks of ocean to what they hope is purely themselves.

I guess it is about putting together the many years of experience needed to contemplate a long solo passage seriously and deciding what works best for you, the expected conditions and the area you will be sailing through.

I have seen quite a few comfy beanbags and loud egg-timers more or less mounted into cockpits for just standard watchkeeping, when the rest of the crew is asleep and you only need to take a good look around and trim sails and stuff every half hour to an hour. You can convince yourself you are just going to read a book and drink coffee....but having that alarm to wake you up whenever it is time to look around is sure useful.


You can find dozens of books on single-handed passages, nearly all of them devote some time to discussing the watch-keeping methods selected.


Sasha