On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:17:41 -0000, Skip Gundlach
wrote:

My apologies for the out-of-sequence posting. I was totally blasted
from
the heat and sleep deprivation (why that was in later posts). The
last one
will make more sense after this

Skip, in all seriousness I would caution you to manage your cruising
to avoid sleep deprivation. I've been there and done that, and it
will lead to errors in judgement, sometimes serious.

We did 4 or 5 all nighters on our trip north last month and on the
first one I did not sleep all that well on my off watch. Come morning
it was apparent to me that I was not functioning on all cylinders.
Even though we were getting a 3 1/2 knot boost from the Gulf Stream
and the weather outlook was promising, I made a command decision to
alter course for Port Canaveral and get a good night's sleep. It was
a tough call at the time, and no doubt cost us some time, but in
retrospect I think it was the right decision. It's like reefing - the
time to do it is when you first think about it.

There are no cruising awards for endurance, and the slip ups stay with
us for a long time.