A lot of variety of conditions and sail angles for mine and it gives a very good idea of what it is like to be out there alone, and just have to deal with things.
80% of my qualifier in 20 to 30 knot winds with the last evening a storm around 35-40 knots, with rain. I took pictures and videos mostly when it was lighter. Just a couple of repairs. A block and a shackle and at some point one of my reefing lines got stuck between the sheave and the boom end so I couldn't shake the reef off easily. Other than that mostly uneventful.
So great set of conditions to test the boat and myself as it also ranged down to zero knots of wind off Half Moon Bay where I drifted for hours which had me super bored...so I started calling people on the satellite phone and read users manuals (yes it was that bad...). I thoroughly enjoy night sailing and I got some wonderful stars and moonlights - a real treat.
Autopilots worked fine and I learned to trust them so much that I was fine going to sleep and let them drive the boat. I hesitated but then just reasoned 'well, this is going to be lasting for a few days so I will have to sleep, might as well trust you now...'. In a lot of instances, they did a better job at driving than I did because I got tired and they didn't.
No big science to sleeping. I had read about a million studies...but I did not know what would work so I decided to sleep when I was tired and when my eyes would close. Couldn't sleep the first night as I was so pumped up to be out there and not tired at all after a good week of prep...but slept after that about 5-6 hours a day. I tried 30 min, 45 min and 60 min naps and preferred 60 min, although could do 45 quite easily as after a while I would fall asleep in about 5 seconds. I did what Jim Quanci taught me. When the sleep timer would go off, I would just wake up (I slept in my full foulies given the conditions which made the boat very wet below deck as well) check wind direction and speed to see if any sail configuration or trimming change was required, looked around the rig and deck to see if anything needed fixing or adjusted and looked around to see if there was any ship or obstacle in sight, and then would just go back to bed. I came to actually really like that timer because it didn't mean I would have to get up and relieve someone's on watch...just that I popped my head out and would continue with my happy sleepy journey afterwards. Wish I could do that every morning...
Leaving for the qualifier. Given the conditions out there, I started wit a reefed main and a #4 jib.
Photo credit: Lucia Bendick
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