Seems that a lot of people have an interest in short handed/single handed sailing. Do you race or cruise? How do you manage watch keeping and sleep deprivation and still maintain shipboard harmony and safety at sea. How is your boat set up so that you can solo handle sail systems. How is your navigation system set up and what redundancy do you have in those systems and why? What provisions and catering techniques do you employ?
Treat me as a newbie, I have so much to learn.

I sail solo almost exclusively. I sail a Currawong 30 which is a delightful, easily handled boat for a single hander. I sail almost exclusively with a windvane because I am an enthusiast. My sailing is mostly day sailing because that's what I do in my retirement after 50 years of watch keeping! Reefing is easy, see points 2 and 3.
I use SeaClear on a laptop mounted on chart table [see photos] Garmin handheld back up, some photo copies of charts in a plastic folder. I eat out of cans cold.

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frant said..
Seems that a lot of people have an interest in short handed/single handed sailing. Do you race or cruise? How do you manage watch keeping and sleep deprivation and still maintain shipboard harmony and safety at sea. How is your boat set up so that you can solo handle sail systems. How is your navigation system set up and what redundancy do you have in those systems and why? What provisions and catering techniques do you employ?
Treat me as a newbie, I have so much to learn.

I cruise single handed, but I've never single-handed overnight so I can't comment on sleep deprivation. I routinely sail 10 or 12 hours single-handed though and my top tip is to get yourself a reliable timer and to get into the habit of setting it to go off every 15 minutes. That way if you get distracted or nod off, you'll be rudely reminded. The old-fashioned mechanical kitchen timers, such as shown below, are ideal.

As for setup, obviously you'll need a reliable autopilot (or self-steering system), and ideally all lines will come back to the helm, or at least very near the helm. Ideally you never leave the cockpit when single handed (unless to go below). In my case, I installed an extra electric winch at the helm to avoid the need to go the mast to raise or reef my main sail.

Andrew Evans has a free guide, "Thoughts, Tips, Techniques & Tactics For Singlehanded Sailing" which is definitely worth a read:
www.sfbaysss.net/resource/doc/SinglehandedTipsThirdEdition.pdf

I did a review on my blog, which also has a few more tips of my own:
blog.arribasail.com/2013/05/techniques-and-tactics-for-single-handed-sailing.html

My solo Spanish friend that sailed from Spain to Australia and back tells me he sleeps during the day as he believes that traffic will see him and then he does he's watches at night.
I personally do my watches from 1 or 2 am and sleep with a kitchen timer on my chest set at 20 min intervals till sunrise and then if conditions are clear I stretch the time out further. I'm a cruiser and don't take associated risks as per racing,fair weather sailer hence no pfd but will use a harness on jack lines on the deck for sail changes at night.
What's the point if you wear a pfd if your planing on cutting it with a knife anyway? Haha

I'd also add, install an AIS transponder - not just an AIS receiver. While it won't stop some crazed recreational fisher from running you down, at least commercial vessels will see you.

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Ramona said..
I sail solo almost exclusively. I sail a Currawong 30 which is a delightful, easily handled boat for a single hander. I sail almost exclusively with a windvane because I am an enthusiast. My sailing is mostly day sailing because that's what I do in my retirement after 50 years of watch keeping! Reefing is easy, see points 2 and 3.
I use SeaClear on a laptop mounted on chart table [see photos] Garmin handheld back up, some photo copies of charts in a plastic folder. I eat out of cans cold.

eating out of cans cold thats hard core

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andy59 said..

Ramona said..
I sail solo almost exclusively. I sail a Currawong 30 which is a delightful, easily handled boat for a single hander. I sail almost exclusively with a windvane because I am an enthusiast. My sailing is mostly day sailing because that's what I do in my retirement after 50 years of watch keeping! Reefing is easy, see points 2 and 3.
I use SeaClear on a laptop mounted on chart table [see photos] Garmin handheld back up, some photo copies of charts in a plastic folder. I eat out of cans cold.

eating out of cans cold thats hard core

You can say that again!

I don't like sailing with the gas turned on, or cooking while underway, so I treated myself to a 12V slow cooker (www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013IR88A). It only takes a minute to duck below and grab some hot nosh.

And it's fantastic for making cioppino

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scruzin said..

frant said..
Seems that a lot of people have an interest in short handed/single handed sailing. Do you race or cruise? How do you manage watch keeping and sleep deprivation and still maintain shipboard harmony and safety at sea. How is your boat set up so that you can solo handle sail systems. How is your navigation system set up and what redundancy do you have in those systems and why? What provisions and catering techniques do you employ?
Treat me as a newbie, I have so much to learn.

I cruise single handed, but I've never single-handed overnight so I can't comment on sleep deprivation. I routinely sail 10 or 12 hours single-handed though and my top tip is to get yourself a reliable timer and to get into the habit of setting it to go off every 15 minutes. That way if you get distracted or nod off, you'll be rudely reminded. The old-fashioned mechanical kitchen timers, such as shown below, are ideal.

As for setup, obviously you'll need a reliable autopilot (or self-steering system), and ideally all lines will come back to the helm, or at least very near the helm. Ideally you never leave the cockpit when single handed (unless to go below). In my case, I installed an extra electric winch at the helm to avoid the need to go the mast to raise or reef my main sail.

Andrew Evans has a free guide, "Thoughts, Tips, Techniques & Tactics For Singlehanded Sailing" which is definitely worth a read:
www.sfbaysss.net/resource/doc/SinglehandedTipsThirdEdition.pdf

I did a review on my blog, which also has a few more tips of my own:
blog.arribasail.com/2013/05/techniques-and-tactics-for-single-handed-sailing.html

Thanks for that link Scruzing. The only problem is now I can't stop reading it and I am supposed to be working!

Still haven't worked out a recipe for keeping watch (or is that not keeping watch). A few months back I was about 120nm off the NSW coast and caught up with a yacht in squally weather. The boat tacked and passed less than 1nm in front of me. I wonder if he knew I was there. I suppose if I had of been asleep ,I wouldn't have even known of the passing. Saw a few big steelies that came within about 4-8nm of me and we were nowhere near the coastal shipping channel.

Sailing past Noosa earlier last year and there were a few fishing boats anchored about 5nm out and a few just motoring around. I suppose they were looking for a good spot on the shoals below. One of these boat dropped his anchor on the same spot, less than 1 minute before, my auto pilot was going to reach the same location. I'm not sure if he even saw me or thought I would just go around him. Lucky I wasn't taking a piss. I kept my mouth shut as I sailed by his stern but was very tempted to offer some advice. (milk with 2 sugars ya fuc#en idiot - came to mind). Well I suppose he did get there first, so what right did I have to this location.

It seems no matter were you are, if you not keeping watch, you'd better hope the other boat is. I leave my radar on all the time to check for what's in the area. It is also the best way of making sure I show up on another ships radar as not all boats have AIS receivers but they are certainly becoming more popular. I recently found out the radar reflector I had put my faith in wasn't worth a pinch of $hit if mounted in the upper spreaders and the boat was heeled.

I think that sleep is one of the most critical safety factors in short handed sailing. You probably have to develop an understanding of your own physiology and how you adapt to altered sleep patterns and train yourself to manage that. There is an exponential link between poor decision making and sleep deprivation. Many have clearly read Dave Adams book where he has a 20 minute cycle based on the time it takes for a ship to appear on the horizon to imminent collision. David was a master mariner but 30 years ago radar was not available sailing boats and AIS non existent. Although you should be aware of the limitations of both systems it is (in my opinion) more important to maintain sleep cycles rather than set a 20 minute timer. I use an alarm setting on my ipad air which has a waterproof case and is integrated with all shipboard electronics. I usually set the alarm 45 minutes ahead from when it goes off. Depending on weather state and stability of weather system I will either sleep on the cockpit floor (lousy weather) or in sea berth below in good weather and then either in my pfd/harness and wet weather gear or with that gear close at hand. Immediately after resetting alarm and clipping in to go upstairs I will do a thorough visual scan through 360 deg. This will take at least 5 minutes ie checking where you might expect a flashing light to be visible or ensuring that a distant vessel was temporarily obscured. Then go below and check navigation including such things as wind speed and direction changes, barometric pressure changes. boat speed heading , SOG and COG, zoom in and out on radar and AIS and check charted position at various zooms for anything that might be of interest to avoid. ie islands, rocks and reefs. Then go back upstairs to get a visual on anything that has been picked up. Then back downstairs to work out what if anything needs to be done.
I have a pressure cooker and then might reheat some food or make a cuppa but always consume plenty of water and eat such things as trail mix.
Then back to sleep, usually have about 20-25 minutes left which is enough for me to sustain overnight if I can get a bit longer maybe a few 40 min sleeps during the day. Please feel free to paragraph the above.

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frant said..
I think that sleep is one of the most critical safety factors in short handed sailing. You probably have to develop an understanding of your own physiology and how you adapt to altered sleep patterns and train yourself to manage that. There is an exponential link between poor decision making and sleep deprivation.

Many have clearly read Dave Adams book where he has a 20 minute cycle based on the time it takes for a ship to appear on the horizon to imminent collision. David was a master mariner but 30 years ago radar was not available sailing boats and AIS non existent. Although you should be aware of the limitations of both systems it is (in my opinion) more important to maintain sleep cycles rather than set a 20 minute timer.

I use an alarm setting on my ipad air which has a waterproof case and is integrated with all shipboard electronics. I usually set the alarm 45 minutes ahead from when it goes off. Depending on weather state and stability of weather system I will either sleep on the cockpit floor (lousy weather) or in sea berth below in good weather and then either in my pfd/harness and wet weather gear or with that gear close at hand.

Immediately after resetting alarm and clipping in to go upstairs I will do a thorough visual scan through 360 deg. This will take at least 5 minutes ie checking where you might expect a flashing light to be visible or ensuring that a distant vessel was temporarily obscured. Then go below and check navigation including such things as wind speed and direction changes, barometric pressure changes. boat speed heading , SOG and COG, zoom in and out on radar and AIS and check charted position at various zooms for anything that might be of interest to avoid. ie islands, rocks and reefs. Then go back upstairs to get a visual on anything that has been picked up. Then back downstairs to work out what if anything needs to be done.


I have a pressure cooker and then might reheat some food or make a cuppa but always consume plenty of water and eat such things as trail mix.
Then back to sleep, usually have about 20-25 minutes left which is enough for me to sustain overnight if I can get a bit longer maybe a few 40 min sleeps during the day. Please feel free to paragraph the above.

Do you see the logic in it?? When you move to another point of the topic, it is time for a new paragraph. Change of idea = change of sentence grouping.

If you are taking the trouble to make a longish post with different ideas around a single topic, I assume you are wanting people to take the trouble to read it. The easier you make it to read, the more likely people will read it and fully grasp what you are trying to communicate.

I am not being pedantic as paragraphing is something we were all taught around grade 5. It is a graphic thing as in it makes the reading easier on the eye.

When you are speaking, do you just pour out words in a continuous stream or do you pause for breath or emphasis occasionally?? I for one am unable to type out a long post in a continual stream of words as I am about a three finger typist. I have to pause to check my spelling and think about what I am next going to type.

I don't think there are hard and fast rules in English about paragraphing. I think it is more a courtesy thing.

Cheers Cisco.

Ive made a couple of 24 hour stints.. i found i was in better shape without coffee. Water, nuts, energy bars and cans of fruit in the cockpit. Few times it got so rough i could not let go of the tiller, i mean there were times could urinate in a bucket and times that would be impossible. I had ways to getting comfortable with wrist tied to the tiller, eye on the compass and scan horizon every 20 minutes in more peaceful conditions. Also, triple checking if i have my heading right.

Thanks Cisco, I can actually write in sentences and paragraphs. Actually just did that one for you but I do find that when typing on a smartphone or ipad with only a few lines visible I just dont bother to hit the return key. Hope it doesn't offend you too much. If so apologies. I think you missed the last paragraph as well.

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frant said..
Thanks Cisco, I can actually write in sentences and paragraphs. Actually just did that one for you but I do find that when typing on a smartphone or ipad with only a few lines visible I just dont bother to hit the return key. Hope it doesn't offend you too much. If so apologies. I think you missed the last paragraph as well.

I am not offended and I understand what you are saying re small screens. I have stylus for my tablet which makes writing very slow. For that reason I will be getting a Bluetooth keyboard for it.

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cisco said..

frant said..
Thanks Cisco, I can actually write in sentences and paragraphs. Actually just did that one for you but I do find that when typing on a smartphone or ipad with only a few lines visible I just dont bother to hit the return key. Hope it doesn't offend you too much. If so apologies. I think you missed the last paragraph as well.

I am not offended and I understand what you are saying re small screens. I have stylus for my tablet which makes writing very slow. For that reason I will be getting a Bluetooth keyboard for it.

I had a bluetooth keyboard on the boat computer. Also have blue tooth connectivity from my AIS transponder to the computer and ipad. The keyboard and AIS would constantly interfere with each other. Now use a wireless keyboard for much better results.

It can be a real minefield to maintain connectivity between multiple devices in a marine environment.

Out of interest I counted over 20 GPS devices available onboard my boat. The main Raymarine GPS antenna, spare Raymarine Antenna (had water in its gizzards but dried out ok) The GPS antenna on the AIS transponder. The GPS antenna in the Fleetbroadband satellite dome. Spot Tracker that satellite broadcast GPS co-ordinates to a Google earth web page as per the S2H trackering devices 3 x GT-31 speedsailing USB devices. 1 x EPIRB. 5 x PLBs, 1 x handheld VHF with GPS 1 x Satphone with GPS, 2 x ipads with GPS, 5 x mobile phone with GPS.

I still fill out a written log with GPS coordinates at end of each 4 hour watch. If the nuclear holocaust took out the satellite system would never be more than four hours with a pretty accurate DR from last known location. Have paper charts but keep them rolled away.

I do a lot of short handed and single handed sailing.
Of course sleep is a problem on long legs. I find that I can manage a day and a night without sleep but after that fatigue tends to alter your rational thinking. Some people can go a lot longer and some not as long.
When I am doing overnight legs with my wife and it is just for the one night we don't sit watches and prefer to both stay up through the night. This way one can make a cuppa or something to eat while the other keeps watch but the best part is that two sleepy brains have got to be better than one.
I used to regularly sail non stop from Southport to Lake Macquarie on my own in one leg. The trip generally took me three days with a variation one way or the other of three hours. The first 24 to 36 hours were normally OK but as soon as I noticed I was excessively tired (which was probably sometime after I actually was) I used to set an old alarm clock for ten minute intervalls. On the alarm I check my horizons for lights, go below and check my course (these days its a matter of looking at the plotter in the cockpit) check wind and sails, check horizons again and then set the alarm for another then minutes. I never sleep in a berth when night sailing on my own. I think the tendency to be to comfortable and sleep through the alarm would be a problem for me.
Today I have AIS to help but the biggest problem I have ever encountered off the coast is bloody commercial fishing boats. More than once I have had a reasonably close encounter only to discover no one at the helm and everybody in the stern doing whatever fishing people do. The problem with the fishing boats is that unlike most boats they dont usually keep to a straight course so need constant observation
I like my food and unless the weather says otherwise I usually eat the same at sea as what I do at home. I have just purchased a thermal cooker and if it lives up to its advertise expectation will give me a viable alternative if I know bad weather is approaching. I also carry a variety of quick foods and am quite happy eating out of a can if I have to.
Having said all of that I have had a few times when I have made a goose of myself because of tiredness. A good example, before satnav and gps was on one occasion coming down past Coffs just after dawn and with land just visible, my dead reckoning told me I should be abeam of South Solitary Island. Sure enough, right on cue, up pops South Solitary Island. Some time later another South Solitary Island come into view. Of course the first South Solitary was North Solitary. The silly thing was, I was confused when I saw the second island and because there was and island where I thought there should have been I didn't bother reading the light sequence. Another example was anchoring at the top of Curtis Island going north at 2 AM. after several months in NSW and a straight run from Garys Anchorage. Looked at the sounder and dropped the appropriate anchor scope. Just as I was getting up in the morning the keel hit the bottom on the swell. It wasn't a real big deal and I winched myself out to deeper water but it could have been a lot different in another anchorage. The problem ???? I was tired and after months in NSW forgot to allow for the 2 to 3 meter tides in the north.
All of the boats that I have had are capable of being sailed from the cockpit. This includes reefing. I think that this is one of the most important things single handers should consider. You might get into a spot of bother if you are tired but you definitely will get into trouble sooner or later, if you have to go forward in heavy weather to handle sails or rigging or even things on deck that need attention. You might have the right harness and safety gear but it is just bloody dangerous to go forward in heavy weather when sailing on your own. It's one thing doing it on a crewed yacht where if you finish up in the water you have someone to come back and recover you but once you are separated from your boat and you are on your own you are in deep do do, personal GPS EPIRB or not.
Towing Dinghys. I don't do it unless I am doing a short hop in sheltered waters. My current boat is the first boat I have had with davits. They are great and make the dinghy problem almost disappear. I lost my last Zodiac when it inverted in relatively mild conditions and in spite of my best efforts I think it probably belongs to whoever found it now.
Anchor winch. This is a matter of personal choice but again my boat came with a nice electric winch. It just makes life that little bit easier when your on your own. Don't you love it when you buy a boat and someone has done most of the work for you.
We all know there are risks to long passages with overnight legs but people have been doing it for a very long time. It's a matter of managing the risks as best we can and in this day and age we have some nice technology to help us with that.
Another though for single handers, take something to do with you. I am an avid reader but my problem is getting hold of the books I like to read. With the internet and laptops/tablets et-all we have a lot of options. I think the internet is one very big plus for boaties. It allows us to do so much that we we not able to do so easily in the past.

My apologies to cisco in advance if the paragraphs and phrasing is not correct.

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andy59 said..

scruzin said..

frant said..
Seems that a lot of people have an interest in short handed/single handed sailing. Do you race or cruise? How do you manage watch keeping and sleep deprivation and still maintain shipboard harmony and safety at sea. How is your boat set up so that you can solo handle sail systems. How is your navigation system set up and what redundancy do you have in those systems and why? What provisions and catering techniques do you employ?
Treat me as a newbie, I have so much to learn.

I cruise single handed, but I've never single-handed overnight so I can't comment on sleep deprivation. I routinely sail 10 or 12 hours single-handed though and my top tip is to get yourself a reliable timer and to get into the habit of setting it to go off every 15 minutes. That way if you get distracted or nod off, you'll be rudely reminded. The old-fashioned mechanical kitchen timers, such as shown below, are ideal.

As for setup, obviously you'll need a reliable autopilot (or self-steering system), and ideally all lines will come back to the helm, or at least very near the helm. Ideally you never leave the cockpit when single handed (unless to go below). In my case, I installed an extra electric winch at the helm to avoid the need to go the mast to raise or reef my main sail.

Andrew Evans has a free guide, "Thoughts, Tips, Techniques & Tactics For Singlehanded Sailing" which is definitely worth a read:
www.sfbaysss.net/resource/doc/SinglehandedTipsThirdEdition.pdf

I did a review on my blog, which also has a few more tips of my own:
blog.arribasail.com/2013/05/techniques-and-tactics-for-single-handed-sailing.html

Thanks for that link Scruzing. The only problem is now I can't stop reading it and I am supposed to be working!

Hi Andy, thanks for the link. I have downloaded the file but not looked at it yet but with 80 pages I am sure it has some useful information.
Like a lot of sailors I am an avid reader so look forward to seeing what it has t offer.
Cheers, Rick

It depends on whether you are coastal or offshore outside the continental shelf.

Coastal solo sailing for legs of 24 hours or more is high risk. Sleeping for 15 minutes does not combat fatigue so you are just going to get more fatigued. I suppose it depends on what your risk tolerance is but coastal shipping, pleasure craft and those fishing boats are out to get you. Two handed is my minimum for long passages i.e. over 24 hours or 100nm. I'll also try to leave about midnight after a good rest so that I am alert until dawn, in that period where the biorhythms are at there lowest ebb. Once daylight comes most of us get a 2nd wind and are fine until night when we hit the fatigue limit.

Off shore it is a different game altogether. Crusoe's experience of getting within cooee of another vessel outside the continental shelf is extraordinarily unusual. I've done a fair bit of time out in deep ocean and my experience is that it is rare to see another vessel, even rarer to get within a few miles of it and for it to want the same 34 ft of water I am in almost impossible. In the English Channel or maybe in the Atlantic between Rotterdam and New York you have a problem, off NSW you don't.

On our recent trip to Lord Howe we did not see another vessel from outside the coal carriers off Newcastle (say 50nm offshore) on our run to Lord Howe and on return our first sighting was a Newcastle coal carrier. We left Lord Howe within an hour of 3 other yachts, didn't see them at all. I usually don't keep watches off the continental shelf and in heavy weather prefer to have the crew down below rather than exposed on deck.

Having said that, I enjoy being at sea at night and will stay on deck and even have a snooze on deck just cause I like it.

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MorningBird said..
It depends on whether you are coastal or offshore outside the continental shelf.

Coastal solo sailing for legs of 24 hours or more is high risk. Sleeping for 15 minutes does not combat fatigue so you are just going to get more fatigued. I suppose it depends on what your risk tolerance is but coastal shipping, pleasure craft and those fishing boats are out to get you. Two handed is my minimum for long passages i.e. over 24 hours or 100nm. I'll also try to leave about midnight after a good rest so that I am alert until dawn, in that period where the biorhythms are at there lowest ebb. Once daylight comes most of us get a 2nd wind and are fine until night when we hit the fatigue limit.

Off shore it is a different game altogether. Crusoe's experience of getting within cooee of another vessel outside the continental shelf is extraordinarily unusual. I've done a fair bit of time out in deep ocean and my experience is that it is rare to see another vessel, even rarer to get within a few miles of it and for it to want the same 34 ft of water I am in almost impossible. In the English Channel or maybe in the Atlantic between Rotterdam and New York you have a problem, off NSW you don't.

On our recent trip to Lord Howe we did not see another vessel from outside the coal carriers off Newcastle (say 50nm offshore) on our run to Lord Howe and on return our first sighting was a Newcastle coal carrier. We left Lord Howe within an hour of 3 other yachts, didn't see them at all. I usually don't keep watches off the continental shelf and in heavy weather prefer to have the crew down below rather than exposed on deck.

Having said that, I enjoy being at sea at night and will stay on deck and even have a snooze on deck just cause I like it.

Hello Morning Bird, just a couple of things regarding our off shore sightings. There were 2 of us on boat and one of us was always on deck, theoretically keeping an eye out. We also had the radar on the whole time. I would say that without the radar we may not of had as many sightings. Even though some one may be in the cockpit they probably don't have 360 deg clear vision 100% of their shift/watch like the radar does. We picked up some of the big boys on the AIS receiver as well, but like the radar it depends on what the range setting is, as to whether they appear on the screen. We never had to take evasive action for any of the sighting so I suppose we could have stayed below decks and still reached our destination unscathed and unaware of our fellow seafarers.

For me and when I'm on watch, the radar is my most useful aid for avoiding close encounters. It can pick up small runabouts, jet skis and broaching whales as well as the big fellas. But it needs to be tuned correctly. Some times after I see an image on the radar screen it can take a while to actually locate the source of the image by eye.

Oh yeah it also great when you seen another sail boat heading in a similar direction to you and "The Race is On". The radar helps check your progress in the race and whether you need to get off you ass and trim the sails

It's so great to have someone on here that knows everything about everything. A true keyboard warrior that has taken on the task of letting us all know about how much he knows.
Apologies if any of my punctuation or grammar was incorrect on this post.
Enjoy your sailing!

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Franrick said..
My apologies to cisco in advance if the paragraphs and phrasing is not correct.

Apologies not necessary. It is just too hard to read so I am not reading it.

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hoop said..
It's so great to have someone on here that knows everything about everything.

What,.....Is Albert Einstein on the forum???

Pretty sure my paragraphs and phrasing were spot on! As well as my punctuation and grammar.
Thanks for trying to correct me though.
Just out of curiosity, what made you think I was talking about you?

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cisco said..

hoop said..
It's so great to have someone on here that knows everything about everything.

What,.....Is Albert Einstein on the forum???

Gee Cisco, I was hoping you would continue to help frant out with his posts. My attention span is not that good and I was unable to read the posts until you put some paragraphs in. It reminded me of the old school days when the mind would start to wander 10 seconds after the teacher opened his mouth. Communication would have to be one of the biggest down falls in all aspects of life and is critical on a yacht (well mabe not solo sailing). It's a pity when some one may have something worth contributing and isn't quite getting the delivery right.

I've just learned that there's now a paperback version of Andrew Evan's single-handed sailing book with the slightly different title "Singlehanded Sailing - Thoughts, Tips, Techniques & Tactics" and with even more content than the online version.

www.amazon.com/Singlehanded-Sailing-Thoughts-Techniques-Tactics/dp/0071836535

So for those of you who prefer good ol' fashioned paper and ink to bits and bytes, check it out. Of if you just want the additional content, there's a Kindle edition too.

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cisco said..

hoop said..
It's so great to have someone on here that knows everything about everything.

What,.....Is Albert Einstein on the forum???

Cisco, of course we have Albert Einstein on the forum.

As a matter of fact we have more than one Einstein on the forum.

Of course he doesn't use his real name and is masquerading as other people.

It's good that we have a few people on the forum who are experts on everything, how else would us mere mortals learn anything.

Of course, we can tell it really is a reincarnated Einstein as just like the original, the few on our forum are never wrong and don't like it when they are challenged about their opinion.

One of the reincarnations actually seems to think he (or she) owns the forum.

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Crusoe said..

cisco said..

hoop said..
It's so great to have someone on here that knows everything about everything.

What,.....Is Albert Einstein on the forum???

Gee Cisco, I was hoping you would continue to help frant out with his posts. My attention span is not that good and I was unable to read the posts until you put some paragraphs in. It reminded me of the old school days when the mind would start to wander 10 seconds after the teacher opened his mouth. Communication would have to be one of the biggest down falls in all aspects of life and is critical on a yacht (well mabe not solo sailing). It's a pity when some one may have something worth contributing and isn't quite getting the delivery right.

Gee Crusoe,

Who says there is no communication when sailing solo ?

I have had a few nice conversations with myself after a few days at sea.

On more than one occasion I have had harsh words with myself and the occasional argument with myself. I get a bit worried when I argue with myself as sometimes I loose the argument. lol.

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hoop said..
Pretty sure my paragraphs and phrasing were spot on! As well as my punctuation and grammar.
Thanks for trying to correct me though.
Just out of curiosity, what made you think I was talking about you?

It sounded like a jibe at somebody. I didn't think it was about me but could have been over my paragraphing comments.

Taking pokes at people on the forum never goes well unless it is clearly and obviously done in jest and that is why I avoid it. If I am having a joke with someone, the emoticons on the left are handy to express the intent. As in "all cool" and as in "still friendly".

With the paragraphing thing, I am not being the grammar or spelling police. I am just saying that a solid block of text is really hard to read, well for me at least. Maybe I am slightly dyslexic.

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Franrick said..

I have had a few nice conversations with myself after a few days at sea.

On more than one occasion I have had harsh words with myself and the occasional argument with myself. I get a bit worried when I argue with myself as sometimes I loose the argument. lol.

Talking to yourself is fine. It is when you start answering back you need to be worried.

Before emotions it was just a simple Haha or a Lol!

Back on topic:- David Lewis' book "Ice Bird" is a good read. Being a Doctor one of the specific reasons he did the journey was to study the effect of isolation on the human psyche.

"The Long Way" by Bernard Moitessier is also a great read. He ended up tripping a bit.

Whatever you do leave "The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" on the shelf. It is the most depressing book I have ever read.