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How can you sleep at night?

9K views 28 replies 19 participants last post by  Stillraining 
#1 ·
As a completly inexperienced sailor, i was wondering if anyone would enlighten me...

If you and your partner are sailing across an ocean, do you have to take turns sailing 24/7? I figured an anchor wasnt an option because of the depth, so do you just go to bed and drift on through the night? A worrying prospect!
 
#18 ·
I have often wondered ...



Does the radar paint an image of a 3/4 submerged container? I understand that some 10,000 of them (yes!) are lost from container ships each year.
And I bet they drift well away from the shipping lanes.

If you collide with a ship there is at last a chance that someone on the ship notices, but with a container .... it's adios, baby
 
#10 ·
only Cams and wimps sleep at night in a crossing....real man (like me) don't sleep...

back in 1923 when I was crossing the atlantic East to west from new York to Frankfurt, via the Indic Ocean, on my wood ornamented rich, 5 foot thick Valliant hull built in 1845, with a over full keel and skeg hanging rudder, proudly spiking the sky with my 4 mast tripple decker double core plank on carbon fiber sloop ketch, with a hoyt rig on the port spreader, I spent 46 days without sleep.

Off course it help the fact i did not pay the Sears credit card bill and I knew they were going to cut my credit off, and that makes me lose my sleep....

But what kept me going was the thought of watching Oprah once again....once I hit the famous atlantic islands of Madagascar...

Having nothing to eat for 67 days and drinking my own urine, only because I like the taste, and making margaritas with the water from washing my socks, also helped in keeping awake....

Man once I landed..I slept a whole 3 hours...then moved on to my next trip, a cruise to Siberia, via Serbia, and then I got 5 Knockroaches...but that's another story...
 
#14 ·
People, not sailing people, always ask us where we stop at night; do we anchor? Two in the cockpit - is my rule. I but not two asleep. On long trips (12-1500 miles) I like to have 6 on board. that gives us each plenty of sleep and we always have a fresh crew for emergencies. For 2 or 3 day trips - my wife and I usually crew by ourselves with three hour rotations.
 
#17 ·
Unfortunately, Knockroaches tend to breed on Gui's boats.
 
#25 ·
I've never seen a container, but I've seen more than a fair number of pilings, oil drums, large chunks of fishing nets with floats on them, and other things that you don't want to tangle with.

As to the original question, when I single handed to Hawaii from Long Beach, I'd routinely sleep during the day--sometimes as much as four hours at a time, followed by getting up, taking a noon sun shot, then another nap. I figured even the morons out there would see me during the day. I stayed awake all night--and was glad I did, because I saw at least a half dozen ships that might not have seen me.

On recent passages we've had full crews, so four hours on and four off were the norm. Fortunately, on the last trip, we only had to roust out the off-duty watch once when a squall hit us.

A friend of mine is currently crewing on a large motor yacht, and they have enough people aboard to have three people on watch at all times, and stand four on and eight off. Must be nice.
 
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