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Sun, December 22 2024, 01:26 [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ]

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Date Posted: - Tuesday - 02/22/11 - 10:01pm
Author: Randall, Murre, M31
Subject: The Other Extreme
In reply to: Sean 's message, "15 min. sleep intervals" on - Monday - 02/14/11 - 12:43am

I haven't had to ponder this question much since posting it a few months ago because I've been island hopping between Puerto Escondido and La Paz. Simply amazing country here, like sailing in the Grand Canyon. I've been getting plenty of sleep at anchor except when (last night; three nights ago; twice the week before last) the forecasted NWesterly or forecasted calm turns out around midnight to be southernly right up you ass and the anchorage turns into a rodeo. But I digress...

Along the way I met a guy who, a few years back, single handed from Mexico to his home in British Columbia via Hawaii in a Cal 29. He had the same question we've been discussing here, and he reasoned that the likeley hood the dotted line on the chart representing his boat would meet head on with a the dotted line representing a ship was miniscule. The Pacific is, after all, vast. It could hold the continential US sixteen times over. Even thousands of ships take up a tiny space...

So he stood no watches. Instead he stayed below. He slept when and as much as he wanted. He watched movies and listened to music. He rarely went on deck unless needed.

Now, this man is no fool. He was forced to repair his autopilot underway. When that failed, he rigged sheets to wheel (!) for self steering. He survivied three gales in the north of greater than 40 knots. When his rigging began to give out--the wire was popping out of its swages--he successfully jury rigged repair. He did the entire Mexico to BC run almost non stop (only stayed two days in Hawaii).

I can see his point. When I crewed on a yacht from Hawaii to BC in 2005, we didn't see anything, not a ship, not a bird, not a plane, not a log, not a bottle with a message, until we hit the great circle route at the latitude of Seattle; i.e. almost 2000 miles of nada.

I'm not advocating this approach, but it is interesting to ponder, and was the norm until a scant forty years ago.

(He made it just fine, by the way.)

RR

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Replies:

[> [> [> I feel sleepy -- James (m-31" Pyxis"), - Tuesday - 02/22/11 - 11:37pm

Randall

When are you leaving Baja? I will be back to Escondido by April 1


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[> [> [> [> sleep -- sam, - Friday - 03/ 4/11 - 3:03pm

Virginia and I spend six happy years simply 'gunk-holing' with a cadre of fellow cruisers. We logged about 25,0 miles just mingling with the locals while par-toking of their hospitality. Years later replicated this trip in a VW 'pop-top'. With out question, the Malolo was a much more rewarding trip....Don't hurry back...You're at the starting line of where the fun begins.....S & V


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