Do you get to sleep?

Hello!

I got this question many a-times and it is a very good question. Sleep deprivation is probably one of the most difficult aspects of this race - and probably any offshore sailing.

We don't know how long it will take us to close the distance between San Francisco and Hawaii as of course, it will depend largely on the wind conditions - and our tactical navigation choices. A sailboat typically does not go anywhere fast without a little push from the wind. Becalmed is not a great position to be in if you're in a hurry. You'll be at the mercy of the current...Murphy's Law dictates that you will be drifting away from your destination. Elise is a fast and light little boat. We should be able to do just under Mac 1 most of the way. We estimate that it will take us a little less than two weeks to get there.

Staying awake for 10 days would be quite a feat and this is a record we do NOT intend to break. Since the crew will comprise of two people, and after muchos debates about how we could solve this seemingly impossible equation, we devised a very clever scheme. If you know anyone who has thought about this before, let us know. It might jeopardize our patent application.

First, we looked at the possibility of anchoring at night. This would definitely slow the boat down but we figured that if we are super awake during the day, we will make better decisions and catch up. No, the difficult part was when we started to look at how much chain we would need to carry to reach the bottom in a 3,000-meter deep ocean. The volume and weight occupied by the chain was quite huge. In fact, it was us, or it. Training the anchor chain to hoist sails and helm was quite an endeavor. No, the solution must have been elsewhere.

We thought about heaving-to, and gently drifting in the moonlight, listening to the fish. This was our most romantic solution. We then remember Murphy's Law and realized that drifting away from our destination would not be a good thing for the race results.

We will ALTERNATE, take turns. Hehe. One person will be sailing the boat while the other one will be, well, doing anything he or she wants to do. Sleeping will probably be right there at the top of the priority list, along some other very basic biological needs such as checking e-mail.

In some cases, we will need four sets of hands to perform very skillful tasks (changing sails would be one of them) - sailing is an art. Have you noticed the many color patterns on the beautiful spinnaker paintings? And they sell for outrageously high amounts of money.
At the start, we will also want to have two people on deck so we can both be on the pictures.

After that, we will think long and hard about how we should split our time, and most likely will start our watch pattern soon after the start. We need to get into this new rhythm fairly quickly and our bodies will require some adjustment. It's just like being jetlag and changing timezone every day. It can be a bit confusing for your internal clock.

9 to 5 didn't get many votes. Most likely we will opt for two patterns: one for the day and one for the night. Why? So we can always tell which is which. No, seriously - during the night, it would be good to get more sleep in-between watches, even though it will be harder to stay awake, for the one that's on watch. And you can't jog around the boat to keep your eyes open. Weight at the bow will probably slow you down. We haven't finalized our schedule yet, we are just too happy to have found a solution - but I expect that our watches will be longer during the night. We will probably define the night as being from 6pm to 6am. The day will last from 6am until 6pm, regardless of what time the sun sets...

During the day, I suspect that we will switch pretty often (every 2 or 3 hours maybe) - this is a race, we need to stay concentrated on sailing the boat FAST. Our focus may decrease over time...especially over dinner time. They might last a couple of hours longer at night.

Speaking of food, my favorite topic I must say, people asked me whether we would take our meals together. I'll admit that living in two different time dimensions can be construed as being antisocial. And in fact, it is. This is really the driver's decision...mission #1 is not to slow down the boat. If taking a fork to your mouth, making sure that it doesn't hit your nose, chewing on some mystery food_that_did_not_get_any_fresher_in_the_heat before swallowing this delicious concoction takes your mind away from the spinnaker for one second, it's bad. Really bad. I mean, during that time, your alter ego may have had time to get a camera out and take a picture of you in a totally idle position while on watch.

Also, you need to pick a timezone on board. Sailing to Hawaii will get us through several timezones but we want only one between us, since we will already be living on two parallel time dimension, no need to complicate things further.
It is often good to pick the one you are going to. You may have to communicate with these folks more often that the folks you are leaving behind.
Plus it gives you the impression that you're already super close.

Even our genius solution will make us tired. The sun will make us tired. The cold will make us tired (at night, of course, we didn't think that the sun was cold). The wind will make us tired even though it's a really good way to be tired. The salt from our surrounding will make some really nice dressing.

In my previous passages, as soon as I was off watch, I would do the minimum necessary, maybe a bit of nav (that's navigation for those in the know), get something to eat - anything - pour coffee all over my bed because of some accidental jibe. After that, I would get rid of my sailing gear, keep it close to me so I could put it on in a flash in the event of an emergency (going to the bathroom during your sleep time is considered an emergency since most of the time, you wait until the last minute, hoping that you'll be relieved...from your non-watch duties in time. Having to get out of bed is never a pleasant thought). The minute I curled up on my berth, I'd be fast asleep.

If anyone wonders if it is difficult to adapt to a 2 hour up, 2 hour out schedule, eg. manage to fall asleep within a 2-hour, no worries. The problem will be finding enough energy to stay awake for two hours. The wind there helps a lot too.

We will be up to the challenge though. I know it. The thought of all these children sick with sarcoma will be enough to keep us awake all night. And as we get the weather report in the morning, we will check updates from the BeatSarcoma vault and find out that we are truly racing one step closer to the cure.
Find out more about the disease here.
And donate here.

So long,
Captain Rehab, er...no, sorry. Captain Ahab.