On Jun 26, 6:08*am, Skip Gundlach wrote:
...and by the way, also very far off the beaten
track as to traffic of any sort, let alone shipping.
...
"That night we both slept soundly, far from the shipping lanes,
running along at over 5 knots. *Morning found us far enough south to
discard our winter clothes and start sunbathing."

I don't know about you, but I rely on the good sense of people like
Lin and Larry, having read much of their later stuff - and if they can
sail full bore while they both sleep, due to their area and heading, I
felt pretty comfy hove to in similarly thought out circumstances :{))
...

I'm not even sure where to start with this, Skip. I pretty regularly
hear folks who go offshore claiming that they feel silly running their
lights after day two or three off the coast because they never see any
shipping. However, the reason they never see any shipping is because
they never open their damned eyes. Yes, it is possible to go for days
without having any traffic at all in very remote places. However, it
is possible to have very close calls in very remote places. I had to
take evasive action about 1000 miles SSE of the Cooks once as we were
nearly run down by a fishing boat (not engaged in fishing) which had
no crew on the bridge or on deck. We've come across fishing boats,
fishing fleets, and small cargo vessels in some of the most remote
places left in the world. You may think that you were "very far off
the beaten path", but there was traffic out there.

Cherry picking bits and parts out of the sensational books and
emulating them is probably a bad idea. So, Lin and Larry say they
were drunk and stupefied and spent the night below. Hunter Thomson
claims that he was in a drug induced haze and driving his motorcycle
at absurd speeds for most of his adult life. These things make for
fun tales but aren't intended to be taken as how-to advice.

You are legally required to keep watch and so it everyone else. To be
sure when people think they are in remote places they often don't do a
good job of it. So, the poor fisherman who runs you down off the
coast of the US of A is going to loose his catch, and will likely find
himself being sued by you or your heirs when he gets ashore and may be
find himself put on trial by the state. You're welcome to trash your
boat or kill yourself and if your wife wants to go for the ride that
doesn't bother me either but have a thought for the poor buggers who
you are going to take down with you. Not keeping watch is bloody
selfish.

-- Tom.