Category: Overnight Ocean Passages

Overnight ocean passages usually refer to traveling by yacht for one overnight or more.

I typically do my best thinking when I’m alone at the helm, mostly on overnight passages. There isn’t much going on when you’re out at sea. I check the radar for a 4 or 6-mile range. I check the chart plotter and can see other ships, sometimes 20 miles away. I scan the horizon with my binoculars. And then, I just sit there, doing nothing, for the whole three hours. Or, until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

I don’t watch TV on an overnight passage because I don’t want to be too distracted. I can’t read at sea because I get seasick. (Weird, I know. I live on a boat.) I knit, but only in the daytime. So, night watches are when I do my best, or worst, thinking.

I can write amazing stuff about my thoughts, or I can make myself crazy. I’m not always in charge of which, but I do my best to stay positive and not think that every distant light is a pirate vessel approaching. I think about man-overboard drills and plan them out in my head. I think about putting reefs in my sails. I think about bringing my grandchildren onboard with me for a few weeks every summer. And I think about the awesome food I can create with the ingredients I have hidden in various lockers and bilges around the boat.

So happy reading, and I hope you enjoy finding out what keeps me awake at night, on our overnight ocean passages.