I would guess that you have probably already thought of taking on a crew person, at least for the longer legs.
Having someone else to take watches and chat with would probably make a much more enjoyable trip for you.
Try a little searching around on google, there are sites that list "crew wanted" positions as well as people looking to crew.
As my very limited sailing experience progresses, I get more and more comfortable in situations that used to make me anxious.
Last weekend, while racing the little boat, the RC told me that on several occasions he could see my entire keel out of the water.
I remember when this happened, as I was just about to lose the helm (no doubt there wasn't much of the rudder in either) before crew eased the genoa.
Earlier this year, that would have been it, we would have gone in, but after this summer's experiences, we just sheeted back in after the gust passed and kept on racing, chit chatting the whole time.
I guess the point is that you will probably get used to it (singlehanding) if you keep at it. I'm just getting to the point where I can almost helm by feel, without checking tell tales etc.
We race against much better sailors that somehow just know where the faintest wisp of wind is coming from and can run their boat on almost an unconscious level in most conditions.
We are slowly creeping up on them in racing skill, but have a very long way to go. I would expect that as we get better and better, we will be less and less anxious sailing in tough conditions, which will
let us enjoy the sailing more, once we have the confidence that both ourselves and the boat can handle most conditions we that we encounter.
I know how mentally tired out we are after struggling (as a crew) in shifty, gusty conditions for less than a day. I can only slightly imagine on how stressful it is to be by oneself, far from shore and with
no options other than to carry on to the next port for days at a time. I would also expect that as you get more confidence in yourself and your boat, it will become less stressful and rather than having your mind filled with tense,
anxious thoughts as you persevere through tough conditions, you will be able to relax more and enjoy the time alone as a kind of meditation period in the natural world.
Once relaxed, your body will probably get out of survival mode and your appetite and sleep cycle will normalize.
You've probably seen Chuck and Laura's (?) blog and series of videos on youtube. On seeing how long it takes for them to get any where, at first I thought, "wow, they are really slow, they should put up more sail", but later I realized that
by sailing with very little sail, it probably is much more relaxing and enjoyable for them to poke along and get there when they get there.
There seemed to be common recommendation of taking some time on shore to relax and have a few drinks to regain your motivation.
I think this is good advice. My girlfriend used to get very nervous about racing, but after each race (especially after races that had her exclaiming least once "I hate this!") we would meet up with the other racers for some rum and cokes.
By the next weekend, she would be hesitantly looking forward to the next race. She has now progressed to the point where formerly she demanded we drop the spinnaker if there was any chance of gusts or big shifts, to a point now, she wants to keep it up.
In the last regatta, we were under spinnaker (she was flying it) and were closing on one of the better racers near the finish line. It was looking like we would overtake the boat ahead when the foredeck called out to drop the spinnaker because a big gust was coming up rapidly from astern leaving a wake of broached boats behind it. For the first time ever she refused: "No!, keep it up, we can pass them!". I was impressed, but then I looked behind us and saw what the foredeck
had seen and called the drop. We finished less than a boat length behind the other boat, but were pretty happy to not have the chute up when the gust hit. One of the other boats in the regatta broke it's mast in that gust.
So the moral of this story is to perhaps put yourself on a post traumatic episode regimen of rum therapy and soon you will be regaling us with stories on how you are flying a spinnaker single handedly in a gale.
Good luck -Tim________________________________
From: groundhog groundhogyh@...
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: vega weather helm
Wow, very interesting story.
After reading the emails in this thread, i agree with some of the others and might add
a bit more of my thoughts.
Your first (i assume) big outing on the boat was straight out into the atlantic. Maybe you would feel better with much shorter hops from one vacation type spot to the next. That way you would have lots of people around you, more often. And in the mediteranian maybe better seas (im sure there are big storms there too).
There are also "Rallys" where a bunch of boats with low experience can group together to hop destinations together. One such is out of the Chesapeake to the bahamas, where the chesapeake is a gathering spot for boats from all over the north before the last jump out to the atlantic. Cost for joining is like $1200 though.
Do you have weather fax capability out at sea?
groundhog
Having someone else to take watches and chat with would probably make a much more enjoyable trip for you.
Try a little searching around on google, there are sites that list "crew wanted" positions as well as people looking to crew.
As my very limited sailing experience progresses, I get more and more comfortable in situations that used to make me anxious.
Last weekend, while racing the little boat, the RC told me that on several occasions he could see my entire keel out of the water.
I remember when this happened, as I was just about to lose the helm (no doubt there wasn't much of the rudder in either) before crew eased the genoa.
Earlier this year, that would have been it, we would have gone in, but after this summer's experiences, we just sheeted back in after the gust passed and kept on racing, chit chatting the whole time.
I guess the point is that you will probably get used to it (singlehanding) if you keep at it. I'm just getting to the point where I can almost helm by feel, without checking tell tales etc.
We race against much better sailors that somehow just know where the faintest wisp of wind is coming from and can run their boat on almost an unconscious level in most conditions.
We are slowly creeping up on them in racing skill, but have a very long way to go. I would expect that as we get better and better, we will be less and less anxious sailing in tough conditions, which will
let us enjoy the sailing more, once we have the confidence that both ourselves and the boat can handle most conditions we that we encounter.
I know how mentally tired out we are after struggling (as a crew) in shifty, gusty conditions for less than a day. I can only slightly imagine on how stressful it is to be by oneself, far from shore and with
no options other than to carry on to the next port for days at a time. I would also expect that as you get more confidence in yourself and your boat, it will become less stressful and rather than having your mind filled with tense,
anxious thoughts as you persevere through tough conditions, you will be able to relax more and enjoy the time alone as a kind of meditation period in the natural world.
Once relaxed, your body will probably get out of survival mode and your appetite and sleep cycle will normalize.
You've probably seen Chuck and Laura's (?) blog and series of videos on youtube. On seeing how long it takes for them to get any where, at first I thought, "wow, they are really slow, they should put up more sail", but later I realized that
by sailing with very little sail, it probably is much more relaxing and enjoyable for them to poke along and get there when they get there.
There seemed to be common recommendation of taking some time on shore to relax and have a few drinks to regain your motivation.
I think this is good advice. My girlfriend used to get very nervous about racing, but after each race (especially after races that had her exclaiming least once "I hate this!") we would meet up with the other racers for some rum and cokes.
By the next weekend, she would be hesitantly looking forward to the next race. She has now progressed to the point where formerly she demanded we drop the spinnaker if there was any chance of gusts or big shifts, to a point now, she wants to keep it up.
In the last regatta, we were under spinnaker (she was flying it) and were closing on one of the better racers near the finish line. It was looking like we would overtake the boat ahead when the foredeck called out to drop the spinnaker because a big gust was coming up rapidly from astern leaving a wake of broached boats behind it. For the first time ever she refused: "No!, keep it up, we can pass them!". I was impressed, but then I looked behind us and saw what the foredeck
had seen and called the drop. We finished less than a boat length behind the other boat, but were pretty happy to not have the chute up when the gust hit. One of the other boats in the regatta broke it's mast in that gust.
So the moral of this story is to perhaps put yourself on a post traumatic episode regimen of rum therapy and soon you will be regaling us with stories on how you are flying a spinnaker single handedly in a gale.
Good luck -Tim________________________________
From: groundhog groundhogyh@...
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: vega weather helm
Wow, very interesting story.
After reading the emails in this thread, i agree with some of the others and might add
a bit more of my thoughts.
Your first (i assume) big outing on the boat was straight out into the atlantic. Maybe you would feel better with much shorter hops from one vacation type spot to the next. That way you would have lots of people around you, more often. And in the mediteranian maybe better seas (im sure there are big storms there too).
There are also "Rallys" where a bunch of boats with low experience can group together to hop destinations together. One such is out of the Chesapeake to the bahamas, where the chesapeake is a gathering spot for boats from all over the north before the last jump out to the atlantic. Cost for joining is like $1200 though.
Do you have weather fax capability out at sea?
groundhog
that I used to be a beta