I covered the more technical aspects of solo sailing relating to sleep schedules a few days ago. However, when reflecting back on the "scariest" moments I had during my crossing, there were a few incidents where I fell sound asleep for a couple hours. These incidents felt at the time that I had blacked out - not just fallen asleep but completely lost about two hours of consciousness in its entirety. This was in spite of having alarms set to go off between every 15-30 minutes so I could 1) assure sail trim was proper and 2) verify no boats or ships (or land) was in close proximity. Normally, in my 15-30 minute sleep cycles I would only be 90% asleep and many times awoke before the alarm went off. That said, when I awoke I wasn't fully conscious either; typically just acting robot-like to check the sails, do a horizon scan, check the AIS display and nod back off. At times I had intended to add into this task list to connect my iPhone to the sat phone and poll to see if Sal had sent a text message (about another 30 seconds) as we tried to talk occasionally after she got home from work but this was the middle of the night for me due to my time zone. This "extra effort" was well beyond my mental capacity much of the time, I think partly because I knew in advance that it would be successful less than 1 time in 10 as Sal has a busy and variable schedule. I suppose if I had deemed it "critical to the mission" I could have had better success. Typically this would have entailed another 30 seconds of activity with the last 10 seconds just waiting for the system to poll. That 10 seconds is super tough as there is nothing to do but to try to remain conscious. I certainly get a failing grade on that count.
So back to the "black out" episodes...
Reflecting back on my transit from the BVI's to Florida (through the Turks & Caicos and Bahamas) I also had a similar blackout event. When this first happened I viewed it as an aberration and chastised myself for a moment of weakness. Every night when I started this sleep-cycle process around 11:30pm I would have a "fully conscious" discussion with myself (not out loud) on the discipline required for the night as my nighttime self had a separate voice to rationalize shortcutting steps, i.e. "I'll just check the sails this time, the AIS will alert if we're on a collision course and who would be way the "F" out here on this course in a boat without AIS (and not maintaining a watch)"
So overall it was a pretty rational voice which takes a lot of discipline to counteract. (I had varying levels of success in dealing with my unruly, disrespectful, and disagreeable semi-conscious self)
On my crossing I had two instances where this battle between my conscious and semi-conscious self was temporarily silenced in its entirety. I awoke each time afterwards with a start; realizing each time that the boat had been underway without a captain. These moments of realization were truly scary for me. At all other times I felt mostly "in tune" with the boat and felt that I was mostly aware of a significant wind change or change in the boat's motion. In reality I don't think the "blackout moments" were 100% true because I was super-paranoid about running the boat aground when near land so I was always extra-vigilant on a tack that could put us aground if I fell asleep for a few hours. Ditto if I anticipated a weather change. So somehow the brain has a self-preservation circuit that can't be switched off entirely even though my conscious self felt completely disconnected from it.
I haven't read accounts of other single-handlers in modern times, just people like Slocum, Moitessier, and Knox-Johnston; but all of those were in a different age, although Sir Robin (Knox-Johnston) participated in last year's Route de Rhumb, a solo transatlantic race at the age of 72?
I suspect many current solo sailers don't publicize their methods due to potential litigation issues if an accident were to occur. But maybe I just haven't looked closely enough.
So this process, and my objective technical success, since I met my goal without any real mishaps while underway, I find internally quite rewarding even if an outside observer saw me as just a lucky firefly in a shooting gallery :-)
Interesting read. You'll have read many accounts of ocean crossings in which sailing vessels pass close to a commercial ship and attempt to make radio contact only to be unrequited. It would appear that a significant percentage of commercial vessels don't maintain adequate 'watch' crew either - despite it being a) their job, and b) having a crew large enough to manage it easily. Either that or they are just rude and don't want to speak to us mere sailors.
ReplyDeleteI have read many of these accounts Pete, pretty much all of them relating to a small craft trying to get the attention of a ship through visual means. I think the idea of a more-or-less continuous 360-degree visual lookout from ocean shipping is a pipe-dream of the yachting crowd. Fortunately, automation to the rescue in the form of AIS! This is a super-effective means of collision avoidance and many ships altered their course to avoid me without me ever calling them on the radio. Many obviously have some very mature software to assist with traffic management as it is very infrequent to hear radio calls to negotiate traffic separation even in very congested areas. I only made calls a couple of times when I was nervous about their intentions.
ReplyDeleteSo I picture the "watch" on a ship to mostly consisting of someone watching their chartplotter. When they are doing a visual lookout, I would also guarantee that it is mostly forward as with the speed they travel, anything beyond 45 degrees from the bow (that does not show up on AIS) is of very little potential consequence. To illustrate my point, why bother looking behind you if you are traveling forward at 20 knots? What could run you down? A navy ship? Another ship running at a greater speed with faulty equipment? I assume they all have systems that allow them to detect if they are not transmitting. Also, they additionally have radar, so nothing big could sneak up on them (other than a stealth navy ship).
My advice is for all ocean-going private yachts to have AIS Class B. Most do already, but not all. There should also be circuitry to detect if it is not transmitting properly. Some captains call for system verification by radio but not many.
I never had any of my VHF radio calls go unanswered. So everyone should also carry a waterproof VHF handheld. They are very inexpensive and I suspect way more effective at getting a boat's attention at sea than firing a flare. Modern electronics can truly save the day.
I'd be curious to see how many recent stories, say, in the last 10 years, there are that someone was trying to get the visual attention of a ship at sea. What led to that circumstance? I would assume they did not have a way to call on VHF and a very odd chain of events leading to that situation.
But what am I missing? Seems like a great opportunity for some research and an article for publication.
I have read many of these accounts Pete, pretty much all of them relating to a small craft trying to get the attention of a ship through visual means. I think the idea of a more-or-less continuous 360-degree visual lookout from ocean shipping is a pipe-dream of the yachting crowd. Fortunately, automation to the rescue in the form of AIS! This is a super-effective means of collision avoidance and many ships altered their course to avoid me without me ever calling them on the radio. Many obviously have some very mature software to assist with traffic management as it is very infrequent to hear radio calls to negotiate traffic separation even in very congested areas. I only made calls a couple of times when I was nervous about their intentions.
ReplyDeleteSo I picture the "watch" on a ship to mostly consisting of someone watching their chartplotter. When they are doing a visual lookout, I would also guarantee that it is mostly forward as with the speed they travel, anything beyond 45 degrees from the bow (that does not show up on AIS) is of very little potential consequence. To illustrate my point, why bother looking behind you if you are traveling forward at 20 knots? What could run you down? A navy ship? Another ship running at a greater speed with faulty equipment? I assume they all have systems that allow them to detect if they are not transmitting. Also, they additionally have radar, so nothing big could sneak up on them (other than a stealth navy ship).
My advice is for all ocean-going private yachts to have AIS Class B. Most do already, but not all. There should also be circuitry to detect if it is not transmitting properly. Some captains call for system verification by radio but not many.
I never had any of my VHF radio calls go unanswered. So everyone should also carry a waterproof VHF handheld. They are very inexpensive and I suspect way more effective at getting a boat's attention at sea than firing a flare. Modern electronics can truly save the day.
I'd be curious to see how many recent stories, say, in the last 10 years, there are that someone was trying to get the visual attention of a ship at sea. What led to that circumstance? I would assume they did not have a way to call on VHF and a very odd chain of events leading to that situation.
But what am I missing? Seems like a great opportunity for some research and an article for publication.
I've only been reading sailing magazines and blogs for a couple of years and most of the tale I've heard are quite recent, but then we only hear the instances of 'near disaster', not the thousands of 'nothing bad happened'.
ReplyDeleteSome of the stories of big ships not answering radio calls were from the 2015 ARC. I've also heard of big vessels not transmitting an AIS signal, and on the west coast of Scotland there are lots fishing boast that don't use them - that's the same folk who lay their pots all over the place with little more than a plastic bottle as a marker bout. There will always be exceptions to the rules, I guess.
An interesting observation about large vessels is that their radar is positioned so high up that small boats simply don't appear a) as significant blips or b) once inside a perimeter of a mile or two.
Then again, reading blogs and magazine articles would lead you to believe that lost shipping containers litter the seas and are constantly being hit by yachts. They're a problem that needs addressing, but perhaps not something you need to lose sleep over.