Strategies for Proper Lookout while single handing?

[Captain Smollett]

I am planning several multi-day (3 days - 2 weeks) cruises along the East and Gulf Coasts.  It got me to thinking about "keeping a proper lookout" while underway while single handing.  That is, I don't want to stop and anchor every night.

What strategies do you use for maintaining a proper lookout?  Staying out of known shipping lanes, cat-napping 10-15 min. at a time, radar alarms (which begs the question - who among this group is using radar?), shorten sail/heave-to?  Others?

[dasein668]

"keeping a proper lookout

Well, if you are single-handing and ever sleep or leave the deck, you are not "keeping proper look out". No matter what. The nav rules state (US):

Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.

(emphasis mine)

Not that that stops people from doing so, and all of the things you mentioned are good ways to maintain "best under the circumstances look out..."

[Amorous]

Coastwise I use the "drink alot of coffee and don't lay down" method for overnight sails and the "cat-nap" method during daylight.  It's pretty easy to stay inside the shipping lanes on the east coast but the fishermen run nets from about 1/2 mile off the beach straight out for a couple of miles during the night.  The lights and radar reflectors on the bouys screw with you a bit until you realize that te actual nets are set deep enough to not be a danger.  
Offshore I just stay away from shipping lanes and go to sleep when I feel like it and hope for the best ( easier than it may sound ).

[starcrest]

you pay your money and you take your chances.I stayed up all nite to keep look out and slept during the daytime.no one said this was a safe game to play.some times people go out there and they are never seen or heard from again.the next best thing would be to have radar with collision alarm

[Jack Tar]

I have read some people use kitchen timers to wake up evey 10 to 15 min. I would think that after a while you would sleep through it. If you get that tired and to the point of not being able to stay awake then your a hazzard to yourself and those around you.  If your costal cruising dont do it. Too much trafic.

[starcrest]

on my first crossing to hawaii on the ariel the way there was double handed.at the last second a friend of a friend showed up wanting to go.since this was to be my first such crossing I figured I shouldnt go alone.half way in the middle I awoke from a deep sleep and actually forgot that I had left .....I saw my friend in the cockpit.... the vane gear doing its thing.... the compass  on course.... and that was a real mind game.I forgot that I had actually left on this voyage,the same thing happened on the return.... I woke up tied up the the slip and forgot that it was over.

[mariner3302]

I heave-to and show only my anchor light. Cat nap 20 min's to a 5 min look around then in the day get about 3 hours in the morning and then start all over.Far as Nav Rules, that is while underway. Heaved to is not an underway condition. Since I am at least 25 miles offshore, it makes me rest ok. I don't have radar, but when I do it will just increase the peace of mind.

[CapnK]

What I do/think locally. Strategy would be different elsewhere, I imagine that there are places where its not smart to sleep at all until you've run far off the coast, and out of shipping lanes. Anyway, my take... :)

Most smaller boats will be fishing boats, & have someone at the helm, you'll be seen, with one possible exception - first thing in the morning, some of those captains, once they leave the breakwaters, set the autopilot and kick back while the boat runs out to the Stream. So early morn keep a weather eye for any traffic which might be on a collision bearing.

Other than that fishing boats won't be much of a concern - inshore, they'll cluster around live bottom or areas with structure where the fish will hang out. Lots of these are marked, the boats there are trolling or bottom fishing. If trolling, they'll be making 7 kts max, most guys troll at 4-5. Offshore boats will head out to where the water is a certain depth and/or temperature, and troll there at similar speeds.

The larger vessels - tugs, freighters, those're the ones to really worry about. What I've read is that they can be hull-down over the horizon to on top of you *if traveling at speed* in 20 minutes. So most folks I've read like to look around every 10-15. Me, too. That said, there are other considerations.

A friend of mine who was a career tug capt told me that they would not run a string of barges inside the 10 fathom line, because the catenary of their towline hawsers will run as deep as 60'. So you won't see them in "shallower" waters. From what I have seen of freighters, they like to run outside in the deeper water too, which makes sense. Pointless to risk running aground, right? They also tend to straight-line cruise - efficient for them is travel in a straight line, ie a big 'un going from Chas to Cape Fear won't come far inside of (if at all) a straight line between the 2 harbor mouth sea buoys. It's usefull to get a map where you can visualize the stright-line courses from other possible ports, as a way to have an idea where traffic may be likely to be found.

So, in effect, you have a "lane" of water in the near-shore environment where the chances of meeting a large, fast-moving, restricted maneuverability type vessel are a good bit slimmer. Here, that 10 fathom curve is waaaay offshore, and I don't think that there is any reason a large ship is going to travel from G-town to the Cape Fear - the closest inshore straight line 'tween 2 ports. From G'town, if going north, a ship might lay a course to round the sea buoy off of Cape Fear, which is many many miles out. Anywhere inside that area, the chances of meeting such a vessel are neglible, right? So less of a worry.

Last, for overnight travel - stay awake at night, doze in the cockpit with an alarm clock to waken you at regular intervals. Weather, wind, course permitting, you can heave-to for a while to rest (and put on a strobe - "vessel not under control", right?), giving yourself more time to spot potential hazards, and slowing yourself down making the "sighting window" a longer one. Then cat nap the next day, later in the morning after the fishing boats have run out for the day, and/or in the early afternoon when the fish aren't biting.

That's what I do, and would probably do some variation of wherever I was sailing.

The big ships look deceptively slow - you'll see em a long way off, and they don't appear to be getting that much closer until they close within a couple of miles. Then they are gone and by, in just a little while out of sight again. Always aim towards their stern. ;)

[Pixie Dust]

I worry about this.  Overnight passages are a concern to me, esp. singlehanding.  I have not had to do this yet, but the day is coming.  I am such a night time sleeper, early to rise and high energy during the day.  When I worked midnights, I could never sleep during the day.   Walking Zombie!
I know how I am without sleep, I have trouble thinking clearly.  I like the heaving too with a timer idea.   That might work for me. 
Kurt is right.   Barges always look like they are creeping along, then they blow by.   I have learned to give them lots of respect!

[s/v Faith]

Sleep is overrated..... good thing we have this forum, so we can practice staying awake all night...  ;D

[CapnK]

LOL, Craig. :D

Connie - I bet it will come to you fairly easily. :) Especially if you drink coffee in the evening instead of in the morning. ;) The hardest time for me is that last hour before the sky starts lightening up in the east. Once there is a little light, I don't generally feel sleepy again until the sun is well high.

[Pixie Dust]

What are you saying Kurt??  Trade in my evening glass of wine for a cup of coffee!!??    ;)   
I agree.. that might be the ticket.  Especially if it means staying on the boat vs. swimming from behind trying to catch up.  I will put that in my "to try" book.

[starcrest]

there is an old saying,,,,any time a fishing boat would run thru our chum line......"YA GOT THE WHOOOOOOOOLE OCEAN'I think someone on the Andrea Dorea yelled that out to the captain of the Stockholm

[Pixie Dust]

Sleep is overrated..... good thing we have this forum ;D

So is sanity!   :D  I have a t-shirt that says so.  :))

[Solace]

I posed this question to our local contender for the Round Alone races. Derek Hatfield maintained that you more or less have to get used to 20 minute catnaps. 20 minutes, because that's how long it takes a freighter to make its way from the horizon to you.

As far as shipping lanes go - the thought of containers bobbing just below the surface freak me out.

[CapnK]

"YA GOT THE WHOOOOOOOOLE OCEAN'I think someone on the Andrea Dorea yelled that out to the captain of the Stockholm

LOL, Eric. :D

Solace - shipping containers <shudder>

[starcrest]

actually my protocol was to sleep in the day time and keep watch at nite.nite ends when there is a glow in the eastern horison....usually a polaris lattitude sight then offf to dream world.

[Captain Smollett]

actually my protocol was to sleep in the day time and keep watch at nite.nite ends when there is a glow in the eastern horison....usually a polaris lattitude sight then offf to dream world.

Did you sleep a few minutes (15-20) at a time, or just take the plunge (while single handing)?

I have no problem staying up at night and sleeping during the day.  I'm nocturnal anyway.  I am routinely up until 4 am. as it is, and could easily make that 'all night' if I did not have to get up at 8 am.

While underway with my wife along, we compliment each other's sleep habits perfectly for watch-keeping.  She's early to bed, early to rise (I'm often still up when she gets up to get ready for work), and I'm a night owl (or bat), nap during the day type.

[starcrest]

actually I stayed up all nite but remember during the summer the nites are short.whenever I got tired I slept whenever I needed too.One time on the first way there I had a real mind game.I slept so well that one day I woke up from  deep sleep and I completely forgot that I had left.I went into the cockpit only to find the boat still on course,sailing by itself with everything functioning.I looked all around and said ....what the....what am I doing here.....how did I ......then I remembered I was on my way.a similar thing happened on the way back.I woke up tied to the slip....I at first I said to my self.....another day of no wind.then I went into the cockpit...I saw all the boats tied up....then I remembered....I was back. then there was the time on the triton.at the last 75 miles or so instead of heading to morro bay the wind shifted and it was faster to go  (head up)to monterray bay.on the way down the coast  from monterray to ventura I ended up motoring 2 times for 35 hours at atime non stop.that coast is harsh and inhospitable with few places if any to safely anchor off the coast. besides I was not willing to anchor in 300000000 feet of water any way.after motoreing and steering by hand like that I became extremely exhausted and do not care to motor off of a coast line like that again.there was and old guy named Jack ,I guess he was near 300 years old,he single handed his 30 foot trimaran from catalina to hilo,he was there when I got there.It took him over amonth ,because his strategy for single handing was to lower the sails and sleep at nite.ifya aksme,thera aint no proper stratetegy for jumpin outofa plane. yaz payz yerz moneis,and yaz takesyaz chances.but not to worry,,,,,no matter how far off shore you go.....your never more than............5.......miles.........ffffrrrrrrrooooommmmmmmm......

[Zen]

There are old Sailors and there are bold sailors...

maybe that guy got to be 300 yrs old, by doing things his way...

remembering he was only 5 miles from.... :)