Planning to Singlehand to ????

[Dick Kobayashi]

Ok, we are at the very start of 2009 - the year of the single hander, I have decided. I checked my boat (25D) on its stands today and decided that I want to single hand to DESTINATIONS. I sail on Buzzards Bay, a nice piece of water. But most of my single handing has been in local waters and if for more than a day have been mostly overnighters. Now I have the lust to transit Massachusetts Bay to Gloucester, Isles of Shoals or similar or sail down to the Isle of Manhattan or similar. I have some questions about long duration (by my standards) singlehanding. They have to do with weather, fatigue and navigation. As to weather it seems to me that knowing the weather is easy (NOAA) but allowing enough time to hole up or beat bad weather is key. As to fatigue, I get tired being always "on". And in 25K+ winds which were exciting last summer I was thrilled but wornout after a while, and they were fair. Navigation is ok with a handheld GPS but might be more difficult in a strange harbor in poor conditions. I am comfortable reefing, am practicing heaving to with mixed results, and know how to use my tiller pilot in modest conditions. I suppose good foul weather gear is important if time in poor conditions is uncertain. I have developed great confidence in my CD25D. I know the boat will do well, it's me I am concerned about. I welcome any thoughts on stepping up to destination single handed sailing. Contemplating this will be my winter project. Thanks

[Neil Gordon]

Dick,

From my personal experience...

Coastal has its challenges if you're alone and can't sleep, because traffic can present problems quickly. I have about a 10 hour limit, expecially if I'm doing multiple days. Night presents its own challenges, particularly entering places I haven't been before, so I stick to daylight hours.

Weather is pretty easy as you can stay within weather windows as reported. Just be prepared for summer t-strorms. Yes, good foul weather gear! And as you say, allow sufficient time so you can take a weather or rest day here and there.

Navigation with a handheld and charts is sufficient if you plan in advance. Lay your courses out and enter all the waypoints you need, both for intended destinations and likely backups.

I did Boston to New Bedford and back for the rendezvous by myself, without incident. My longest sailing day was about 12 hours but most were well short of that. I anchored, picked up moorings, navigated in fog and the like over the course of the week. Just work on each individual skill and use what you need when you need it. And don't forget to plan.

[Sea Hunt]

Hello Dick:

I would commend to your winter reading a book entitled "The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat" by John Vigor. While entitled "offshore" it offers a lot of very helpful suggestions, recommendations, etc. that I believe would be applicable to "coastal cruising" which is what I think you are describing in your post.

It includes chapters on rigging, ground tackle, safety equipment, nav gear, self-steering equipment suggestions, dealing with bad weather, etc., among many other topics. It is an easy read.

The ISBN # is 0-07-134328-8. It is published by McGraw Hill.

[jerryaxler]

I agree with Dick. I can handle 12 hours easily for a few days, but it does catch up eventually. I think the key to long hours is a decent autopilot and a lot of advance planning. I travel early usually an hour before sunup and and plan to get into an anchorage before the late afternoon storms kick up here on the Chesapeake and LI sounds.As I've gotten older I do very few single handing passages now, but in my 30's and 40's I spent many a week alone by choice. It can be good for the soul.

[Steve Laume]

Aside from sailing the boat and navigation you might want to do some planing on food and beverages that are easy to access. Food you can make quickly and still keep an eye on things. A coffee thermos and or instant are a necessity for me.

A harness and tether, cause no one is coming back for you, Steve.

[Russell]

Without a doubt single handing is harder then sailing with crew, but in many of the points you bring up, it is not much different.

The destinations you are talking about are not terribly far, 24 hours or less. Fatigue will be the roughly the same if you are one person or two on such a short trip. If you are sailing 24 hours with a crew member, likely you will not sleep at all anyway, it takes a couple days for your body to adjust to be able to truely rest at sea. I find myself more exhausted after a 1 or 2 day trip then I do after a 4 or more day trip with crew or not. So reguardless of solo sailing, fatigue will be an issue and one you will have to cope with and learn to sail and make decisions while exhausted. The key is not panicing, take your time, be slow and methodical about everything.

Weather, again, on short trips, your weather information will be very accurate (reletively speaking). The key is being prepared to ride out and handle unexpected bad weather. You cannot always expect a good safe harbor to be nearby when something unexpected hits. And a lot of the time entering a harbor is more dangerous then riding it out in open water. You have a solid and seaworthy boat (I assume its been well kept), it can handle it, remember these boats have crossed oceans and seen weather far worse then you can imagine. Entering a "safe" harbor in bad weather suddenly presents navigation challenges, things to run into (land, shoals, other traffic), plus making navigation choices quickly in a harbor you have never been in. In open water there is sometimes far less risk. Plus on a short trip, any unexpected weather is most likely short lived, major systems which will last for days are always expected to some degree, but an unexpected squall may be only a couple hours long.

On longer trips when sailing mostly coastal, you identify ahead of time bail out points. You might for instance come on this board, say "I am sailing from X to X, does anyone have local knowledge on what harbors are on this route which are easy to enter in bad weather and what should I watch out for?". Invest in good pilot books and charts. I like Reeds for pilot books, for charts you should reguardless own full paper charts for your entire route (reguardless if your laptop or plotter has them already). Even if you have no plans to stop in X harbor, if you are passing it, you should have the chart, you never know. The Maptech chartkits are perfect for this and a tremendously good value.

Preperation is important, but thats reguardless of singlehanding. I think the key to singlehanding is experience with it. There is people who have sailed extensively, crossed oceans and seen amazing gales, who are scared of singlehanding, because they have never done it. Just like someone who has never done an overnight sail, or an offshore sail, until you do it a few times, its scary. The problem with singlehanding is you do not have someone else with you who has already done it to put your confidence into. Your first long sails will be scary, your first bad weather solo will be, your first exhausted landfall having to navigate strange waters with your capacities not at their best will be too.

But the more you do it, the less scared you will be. You will make mistakes, but you do that with crew too! You will learn from them and make better decisions next time.

Being a scared sailor makes you a conservative sailor, and when singlehanding being conservative is important. For instance I always sail with less sail then I could use. I always set out with a reef set reguardless of forecast. I study charts in detail and give shore, reefs, shoals a huge distance.

You have a terrific boat for singlehanding just about anywhere. I have a friend (not a board poster) who has singlehanded a CD25D throughout the US east coast and the caribbean, living aboard full time, for the last ten years. He does it low tech too. We also know from this board someone who has sailed a CD25D to austrailia and someone who has sailed one to Ireland, neither have said the boat was anything other then capable. I assume both experienced fear, but who has not? Fear is what keeps people from going places they want to go. When you sail to these places, if it is 24 hours or 24 days away, your initial experiences will involve fear and questioning your ability. But there has to be a first time for everything.

Do not push your fear aside, allow for it and expect it. All the things you bring up are things that still bring me fear after thousands of miles singlehanding, but that fear is countered with experience, which gives confidence too. Your first 40 knot gale offshore will terrify you, your second will as well, but less so, your tenth you will say "oh geez, not again, how annoying" but deep down still be scared even though you know you will make it through.

I tell many people, when I was shopping for a boat, I had many criterea, but the top one was: "When things get so bad that it seems the world is about to end, and I can do nothing more then curl up in a fetal position in a bunk, I want a boat that will take care of me (assuming I took care of it in the fairer times)." That is why my boat is named after my mother. Well, you have such a boat. You likely have the navigation and sailing skills too but just lack the confidence because they have not been tested yet. But that lack of confidence will likely make you pay more attension to detail then the guy who has too much confidence because he has done it 1000 times.

The trips you are planning are not particularly dangerous or risky, the best thing you can do is invest in more and better safety gear. Spend the winter buying and studying charts, talking to people who know the locals you plan to visit and dreaming and looking forward to your adventures next season. Just dont forget to tell us all about it when you do it!

Sorry for being long winded, had a few too many rum punches tonight!

[Sea Owl]

Dick;

Go for it! I singlehand daysail a lot, and this fall finally got to overnight in Sea Owl. What a great experience! I too am looking forward to a couple of 'destination' trips with overnights as an expansion of my sailing experience this year.

First one I am thinking of is simple - Sandy Hook Bay to Long Island where another CD-er has his boat, if I can coordinate a weekend that works for him. He came over to Atlantic Highlands in Oct, and had a great time, I am looking to reciprocate.

There are obviously a lot of really experienced sailors on the board to help you plan - use them, plan a short easy overnighter to start, and have fun!

Best of luck and fair winds!

[Warren Kaplan]

TIME!! Build in enough extra time in your trip so you can lay over a day or two or three if condtions turn sour.

There's an old saying; "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans!"

The pressure to make that long sail "today" because you have to be back in the office "tomorrow" can make prudence fly out the window. Along with everything else that has previously been said by the other posters, you can't rush it. You sail when its prudent to sail and you stay in port when its not. You have to build in time for lay days especially as your planned trip gets longer in distance.

[Duncan]

That was you I saw in the MBY mooring field last summer, right?

I think if you can handle Buzzard's Bay, you can manage most anything!

Not much to add here, except to say that I try to leave lots of margin for the unexpected. I guess that means always having reserves. Single handing makes me act much more conservatively than I usually do.

- have back-ups for your back-ups.
- make plans and rules, not decisions (you get tired as time goes on)
- I like my "cockpit bag" with drinks and snacks, and spare clothes.
- I keep things handy by the companionway, so I can just reach in
- I always wear my SOSpenders, and tie in, if I am sailing alone. (I'd probably drown, getting dragged along by the boat, but it makes me feel better anyway)
- no such thing as 'good enough', it's either good or it isn't. (I let someone rig my mast once, and the "professionals" forgot one lock nut on a turnbuckle. Two days later, a forward lower shroud let go when the turnbuckle eventually spun off. I was lucky enough to be able to tack fast, etc. But now, when I check the rigging, I don't glance at it - I put my hands on each fitting, and recite, "clevis pin all the way in, cotter pin ok, lock nut-tight, turnbuckle tight, etc.". Takes a few minutes, but then I don't spend hours wondering or worrying.

Anyway, you'll have fun - for some reason, I am never bored when I am single-handing.

[Boyd]

Go for it. I find it a very relaxing and rewarding experience. Besides the already great suggestions, I would add:

- learn to heave to so it is second nature type skill and use this often. Its the single most necessary skill after navigation. Its how you take a bathroom, or lunch break, or just sort things out. Best of all if you get confused about where you are, heave to. There are nobody on the boat to kibbitz about what your doing so enjoy the silence while you sort things out.

- have two GPS with waypoints programmed in for both your planned course and alternates. If one quits then the back up is there for instant use. Keep binoculars in arms length at all times. There is nothing more stressful than entering a new place and the *#%& GPS runs out of battery.

- keep a simple paper log of landmarks, bouys, etc. and note the time you passed them. Keep this in your jacket pocket all the time. If a GPS gives it up then you can revert to your charts for DR. Have twice the number of batteries you think you need.

- never enter a harbor for the first time at night. Plan on arriving at your anchorages in daylight, unless you want practice at kegging off at night when your exhausted.

-Have a hot meal and 8 hours sleep every night. This is especially true the first night out. Fatigue kills. You will be amazed at how cumulative tired can become and how easy it is to make a bad judgement.

- dont have a fixed schedule. A deadline is the most dangerous thing on a boat. You will get there when you get there. You can always stay in a safe spot till the weather changes.

- if you have an air card and a laptop then you have the entire resources of the internet and e-mail. Very handy if you want to see weather in the form of GRIB files or keep up with your e-mail if your going to be a day late getting home.

Check out this FREE software its great for wind direction and speed anywhere on the planet.

http://www.grib.us/

Check out this site, brought to you by the Navy for wind and wave projections:

https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/index.html

This site will give you a weather forcast for 8 days anywhere on the planet, just click on a spot on the map:

http://coolwx.com/cgi-bin/getglobe.php?lat=map.globe

- tell someone where your going and when you intend on coming back.

Single handing has made me a much better sailor overall and I actually prefer it over having a crew.

Boyd
s/v Tern
CD30 MkII
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

[winthrop fisher]

hi,

thats a fun starter trip....

when i do single handed sailing 3 hours on and off is a must any thing can happen out there, day or night....

make sure you have all the tools for ever thing on board, things break....

like others have said add extra days to your trip....

and add extra food as well....

go for a swim thats what i all was do, its fun....

i love siting on the bow when under way and letting the waves hit you, and if you do that be careful you don't go over board and al was stay tethered to the boat...

winthrop

[Russell]

For sleep, I personally do the 20 minute nap thing, I rarely sleep for hours at a time unless far from shipping lanes, and even then its highly risky to sleep longer then 20 minutes. Even with radar alarms, AIS, etc..

I have a loud digital egg timer. I sleep generally in the cockpit if weather permits, alarm sounds after 20minutes, I get up, check horizon, check radar, look over course and sails, then back down for 20 minutes. It takes awhile to get used to this and actually fall asleep, but by the second day out you do pretty good. Note I do not only do this at night, I do my naps durring the day as well, get as much rest as possible.

To each their own of course, but to me sleeping hours nonstop is too dangerous.

[Joe Myerson]

Hi Dick,

Like you, I've got a 25D based on Buzzards Bay, and, like you, I do most of my daysailing alone. All the advice that others have given is very sound. Warren's comment about giving yourself plenty of time is, IMHO, one of the most important.

Here's another tip: Load up your boat the day before you're scheduled to leave. Spend that night on your mooring--not only will you be able to leave before the crack of dawn, but you'll also discover what little things you might have forgotten to pack.

Heaving-to is a crucial skill. Daysailing on Buzzards Bay has given me plenty of practice (you, too, no doubt). Rather than starting out in the morning with a reefed mainsail, I usually leave before the afternoon southwester has started to blow. This means suddenly having to tuck in a reef (or two) while underway. So I probably heave-to three out of every five days under sail.

The key, I believe, is to reef your headsail down to around 100 percent and keep the main as close to the centerline as you can. A 25D will heave-to with more headsail, but it will tend to turn more broadside to the wind, or even to sail a bit downwind. That can be uncomfortable in a chop--and one of the beauties of heaving-to is to get comfortable.

Like you, I'm hoping to get some destination singlehanding in this coming season.

Good luck,

--Joe

[Bill Cochrane]

Have a few more rum punches next time you post; that was an excellent piece on single-hand sailing.

Best regards,

Bill

[Dick Kobayashi]

Thanks, and esp to Russell for that meditation on single handing. I will have much to think about (meditate on perhaps) during the balance of winter.

Joe, I know what you mean about being broadside with the wrong sail configuration on heaving to. When you have a reef in the main - how much jib are you flying to get CB to heave to in the right attitude?