I have a 30 foot Morgan and have sailed it around quite a bit single handed and with crew. I haven't traveled single hand further then being able to return home within a few hours. I am wondering if any salts here have sailed single handed from the Chesapeake bay area to the Caribbean. If so I would love any advice or tips and to know how long your trip took and how it went.
Posted Sep 29, 2016, 9:17 PM UTC
You won't want to hear this, but if you are talking about open-ocean sailing round-the-clock, my only advice is don't do it. By international maritime law, and by plain common sense, every boat must maintain an active watch at all times. I've not single-handed on passages, but in my experience you need to do a full-scan of the horizon every 10 minutes because a fast moving ship going opposite to you will go from over-the-horizon to near enough to make brown stains in your underwear in about 10 minutes. If your eye level above the water plus the height of the target is, say, 50 feet, then you can see the target about 8.7 statute miles away. But this is in ideal circumstances. We need to build in safety margins, so even if it's not foggy or otherwise limited in visibility, let's say that we're confident we'll see that ship 6 nautical miles away. Container ships and cruise ships are frequently travelling in the mid-20s while you are doing 5 knots, so we'll use 30 knots as the combined closing speed. Therefore you will meet each other in 12 minutes, kabaam!
I'm assuming you don't have radar, nor do you have an AIS transponder, so there are two ways to avoid a collision: 1) You spot the other vessel and avoid it, or 2) They spot you either visually or with their radar (you should at least have a radar-reflector hoisted to your spreaders) and they avoid you. Problem with the latter is you are depending on a bunch of low-wage ship workers to do the right thing, and in my experience and those of others who've gone offshore, this is a bad wager. The onus for your safety is really on you.
So, that means you can have very, very short cat-naps with a reliable egg-timer jarring you awake every 10 minutes, you spend a couple minutes scanning the horizon, and then repeat. It will get hellish really quickly, and by the end of the second night you are seriously drained and sleep-deprived. This can lead to disaster, and even falling short of that, it is just no damn fun.
Your best bet is to find someone to join you. Your second best bet is to go from the Chesapeake to Florida via the ICW, and restrict your travels to day-trips. From there, you can island hop where at most you might have to go one night at a time before anchoring at a friendly isle and resting. You can do a single night.
Here's a decent article discussing at greater length some of what I've said above: https://howtocruise.wordpress.com/tag/singlehanded/
Best wishes and fair sailing.
It's like you don't know anything about the guy your username references.
every 10 minutes because a fast moving ship going opposite to you will go from over-the-horizon to near enough to make brown stains in your underwear in about 10 minutes.
15-30 minute naps + an AIS receiver with alarms solves this and costs $350 $300. And this is the standard for the hundreds (thousands?) Of single handed recreational ocean crossings completed safely every year.
I'd strongly suggest a radar as well, which can be had for $500-1000 used if OP has a compatible chartplotter. AIS is great and all, but if the goal is total risk mitigation, high traffic areas have all kinds of non-AIS-transmitting things to hit: fishing boats, ships that "forgot" to turn on their AIS, oil platforms, islands, ...
I personally sleep through my 15 minute watch naps a lot better knowing if somehow I don't wake up on schedule (ie. alarm device fails), I've still got a fighting chance of avoiding a land collision.
land collision
Haha, I think this is going to come down to a difference in ocean singlehanding and coastal/great lake. You're a whole different breed.
Hey, lots of stuff to hit on the way to Peurto Rico.. :p
Joshua Slocum sailed when the seas were virtually empty, so there is no parallel there.
As for an AIS receiver, that will work fine for anyone monitoring AIS, but as I said, if you want to put your life into the hands of a low-paid Filipino sailor who doesn't give a flying fish about some 30 foot sailboat, then enjoy your beauty sleep. I've seen ships on the high seas that operated as if they don't even see you. The only person you should rely on is yourself.
The only person monitoring your AIS receiver is you. :)
If we accept that the main danger is from large container ships, the vast majority should be transmitting, and your AIS receiver will notify you of any dangerous targets. It works very, very well if the vessel is transmitting (as required by maritime law when over 300 tonnes).
A transceiver doubles your odds by giving the approaching ship a chance to avoid, but as you say - the only person you should rely on is yourself.
I still suggest that islands, rigs and other platforms, and smaller vessels add up to significant risk and highly recommend radar.
Agreed on all. That last sentence is the main risk that relying on an AIS receiver presents; that plus the crap crews of rust-bucket ships with lousy crew who aren't monitoring properly.
Slocum encountered plenty of boats. 3 during his first Atlantic crossing if I remember correctly. My friend who crossed singlehanded last year said he saw none.
said he saw none
BECAUSE HE WAS SLEEPING!
Maintaining a consistent watch schedule is important, but an AIS receiver and radome can be had for less than $1000 on the used market.
Curious what the OP's budget is.
AIS receiver is a half-measure. See my longer response to another user. You can go that way, but it violates maritime law and it puts your safety in others' hands who don't give a shit about you. Kind of like letting your Tesla drive you.
Oh, I agree. I wouldn't make an overnight passage single-handed without radar.
Three levels of precaution-
10/20 minute watch schedule with persistent, reliable timer
Radar (or at least radar detector) and radar reflector
AIS receiver (transceiver even better)
Sounds solid. Exhausting stuff, though, but maybe something for the young adventurer!
Easy route but long is down the ditch (ICW). Plenty of cruising guides for this.
You can certainly do offshore but if you haven't done a multi-day nonstop trip (and it sounds like you haven't) this is a bad idea. Likewise for the "coastal" route - after Norfolk there's not another good stop for around 240nm, and you go around Hatteras. Tricky weather and the gulf stream comes close so you can't go further than about 20mi offshore around Hatteras, the place you really want to be offshore.
I'd recommend trying to find experienced crew, hiring someone like Paul Exner to go with you, or doing the ICW.
I island-hopped from Miami to Puerto Rico and beyond, singlehanded on my 1973 Gulfstar 44 motor-sailer. I did a lot more motoring than sailing; going ESE and SE in the Caribbean is a pain.
The nastiest hop was from Turks and Caicoes to Luperon Dominican Republic; got my butt kicked on that one.
Some info on my web page http://www.billdietrich.me/PlacesCaribbean.html But my info is 5-10 years old in many cases.
There is a Facebook group for cruisers on just about each island in the eastern Caribbean. And some for the overall Caribbean, such as https://www.facebook.com/groups/caribbeannavigator/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/cocotelegraph/