"The Long Way" by Bernard Moitessier is also a great read. He ended up tripping a bit. Whatever you do leave "The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" on the shelf. It is the most depressing book I have ever read.
In my singlehanded tips book I recommend that you read both of the above. The line between genius and insanity has never been so fine.
Select to expand quoteFoolish said..
"The Long Way" by Bernard Moitessier is also a great read. He ended up tripping a bit. Whatever you do leave "The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" on the shelf. It is the most depressing book I have ever read.
In my singlehanded tips book I recommend that you read both of the above. The line between genius and insanity has never been so fine.
Welcome to the forum. Tell us more please.
It is not my forum. It is ours. "Foolish" just made his first post and is in Canada. It is common practice that we welcome newcomers to our forum.
Why the sarcasm??
Thanks for the welcome. Yes, I'm up here in Victoria, Canada. The only place in a cold country where we can sail year round. In fact I was just out on Sunday in 25 knots of wind and heavy rain.
Several others in this thread have pointed you to my singlehanded sailing book. You can download a slightly newer edition of the free version here:
www.sfbaysss.org/resource/doc/SinglehandedTipsThirdEdition2.pdf
It has already been downloaded more than 25,000 times. Parts have been translated into a dozen languages and the entire book into Russian. The most recent published version is up on Amazon.
In the book I've got a long chapter on the mental and emotional aspects of long distance singlehanding, including hallucinations, hearing voices, crying jags, etc. Even the famed psychologist Carl Jung was a sailor and he made statements appropriate to singlehanding that I found very appropriate: "It's something that we cannot tell anybody. We are afraid of being accused of mental abnormality - not without reason, for much the same thing happens to lunatics... Isolation causes an activation of the unconscious, and this produces something similar to the illusions and hallucinations that beset lonely wanderers in the desert, seafarers and saints."
I have experienced all of the things mentioned above, but I can't tell you whether I fall into the category of lunatic, seafarer or saint. If you read the Moitessier book along with the Crowhurst book, you will see what I mean about the fine line between genius and insanity. Have fun.
Select to expand quotecisco said..
It is not my forum. It is ours. "Foolish" just made his first post and is in Canada. It is common practice that we welcome newcomers to our forum.
Why the sarcasm??
cisco said..
It is not my forum. It is ours. "Foolish" just made his first post and is in Canada. It is common practice that we welcome newcomers to our forum.
Why the sarcasm??
Hey Cisco, don't worry about Hoops comment. He probably thought he was on the Kitesurfing forum. That's how some of the pole dancers and tea baggers talk to each other to show their affection. (gee, I forgot I'm a tea bagger to)
I once sailed with a skipper, we would do half a day on watch each then two hours on/off through the night, I'd do my watch, checking the charts, listening to music or books on the ipod, watching, he'd come up, I'd go below to commence my off watch, the first thing I would hear would be his snoring!!! He could never understand the problem I had with it 
. It's wasn't quite single handed (but it may as well have been).
Hey Foolish , thanks for your book !!! I have seen your yacht club in action running the Swift-shore , very impressive organisation and such a beautiful place.
enjoy !!
Select to expand quoteandy59 said..
That slow cooker looks interesting especially if you are generating excess power but I have no idea what a cioppino is??
cioppino = fish stew
Basically just throw in any seafood your have on board (fish, crab, squid, mussels, razorfish, etc), tomatoes, some herbs and spices to suit, wine, and hey presto!
I grab the opportunity to say thank you for your worthy book and the fact that you made it freely available to all of us to contemplate and enjoy!
It is your other comment, about the thin line between normality and madness, Moitessier and Crowhurst, which should be food for thought not just for us single handers but to everybody.
Fair winds
if your motoring wrap some food in foil and put it on the motor Ive seen those slow cookers in local camping stores
Used to put my meals next to the furnaces at Alcoa when I worked there years ago 1200 degrees soon warms them up
I dont think the slow cockers I saw were 12 volt they appear to keep warm them selves and keep cooking
