FAQ
For technical information on the boat and my equipment, there is a dedicated page here.
| Sleep | Food / Water | As I sail alone, when on passages longer than 24 hours, I need to sleep. It’s unfortunate, because I’d rather just be able to stay awake for many days at a time! It is highly unsafe, for me, and for others to simply put the boat in autopilot and go to sleep for eight hours. Therefore, the only alternative is a staggered sleeping pattern, technically termed Polyphasic sleep. Across the Bay of Biscay (3 days) and from Lisbon to the Canaries (10 days), I was able to properly test this method of keeping watch and sleeping. It involves 20minute ‘cat naps’, with a kitchen timer to wake you up. This sounds horrible, and for the first 48hours it is - You need to be awfully tired to get into the routine. Generally the first 2-3 days of solo sailing are immensely difficult. If you can get past those, it’s as they say, ‘plain sailing’. | Food and water is simple. I carry no watermaker, so all water is carried in bottles. Food is canned, pasta, eggs specially prepared to last long periods, very little fresh produce, and lots of things that are sweet. I personally find it hard to eat properly… I can be somewhat lazy when it comes to food. I cook on a gas stove that isn’t gimbaled. It’s very painful. |
| Toilet | Boredom |
| Bucket… And chuck it. I do have a toilet (heads), however the seals need replacing, and I think I’m going to take it out anyway - It’s a waste of space on such a small boat. | Boredom is a strange thing. I seem to be so occupied with simply looking at the sea, or keeping the boat sailing, I rarely get bored. I do get anxious whenever I get close to port, because I’m so close, and the boat is so slow! After a long day, or several days, the last 10nm is incredibly painful. |
| Costs | Sponsorship |
| Expense is always relative to everyone, but consider that a small, good boat is less than a decent car. Also consider what you are willing to give up for the boat - If you have a car, do you really need it? When I purchased mine, I had no car, very few expenses, and lived frugally. It is of course a great upfront expense, and I’m not really a great believer in getting an enormous loan to buy the boat - What’s the point if you’re going to have monthly payments, and your aim is extended sailing? How will you afford the repayments? Go small go now, is the general maxim for small boat voyaging. Your greatest expense once sailing will be marina fees, or breakages. Get good anchoring equipment. If I had my time again, I’d buy my boat in America - The market is enormous, and for EU citizens, the American dollar is weak. | Well, if I were an expert on sponsorship, I guess I would have my secretary or ground team write this up… Sponsorship is really hard. I’m not breaking any records, so that makes things even more difficult. I’ve sent maybe a hundred letters, with very few response. I think the best you can hope for is making proposals to companies you somehow have a relationship with. Dropping cold letters on any old business is I think absolutely futile, unless you’ve got an incredible track record, prior publicity or somehow got the attention of someone with a similar passion or a crazy idea. The generous sponsors I have, are primarily individuals and small companies. I am by no means living the high life - What I get is used carefully. |
| Weather | Website/Tech |
| So far, I have found the most reliable weather forecasts coming from Weatheronline and Windfinder. I sometimes use Passageweather, which is an online viewer for GRIB files, including animations. I have also used the Weather Routing services of Commanders Weather, which are excellent. | This website is a product of my own work. The design was sponsored by Massive, of Sydney. The Tracking section was hand built, and is still under development. Hosting is sponsored by Serversaurus. The remote Atlantic podcasting was done via voicemail drop boxes and manually added after each phone in by my good friend Marty who managed the site while I was at sea. |
