Where do you sleep on a long passage?

[hoppy]

As a solo sailor with perhaps a crew joining me on the occasional long passage, I was planning to make the forward cabin my sail locker dingy storage and use the aft cabins on long passages.

Now I have a girlfriend who will be joining me for most of next year I'm starting to think I should use one of the aft cabins for storage instead. Part of my original thinking was that the forward cabin might not be good to sleep in when beating into the wind, but I expect that the time I'll be needing two cabins for sleeping on a passage, it will be during the Atlantic tradewind crossing and the forward cabin will be fine.

Where do you sleep?

[vasko]

I usually sleep in the cockpit....   tooo worried to go and sleep down under... if the weather is really.. really, really  bad and I have someone trustworthy on the helm I may go down and take a nap on the couch, but that is the maximum distance from the cockpit that I would go on passage... 

[hoppy]

I'm working on the assumption the watch is experienced. On my first night sail I was with my cousin who did the clipper race leg from Australia to China a few years ago, so I knew he knew what he was doing so I was not worried.

[vasko]

then... I would suggest stern cabin with more space to stand in front of the bed and smaller locker and window to be able to communicate with the person in the cockpit if required ...  stern is always less bumpy ...   

btw: are you really sure that you need a Atlantic crossing ? all friends that I have and has done it.. no one is exited about it... just long  days...  you have still a lot to explore in the western med...    

[so36idavid]

Forget the forward cabin (V-birth), it's an E ticket ride in any kind of seaway. The aft cabins are ok, they tend to be noisy when motoring. For me the best place to sleep underway is in on one of the seats in the middle of the boat. Either on the bench seat or we drop the table to form a larger lounging space. The motion at the middle of the boat is much more gentle than in the ends. You should install lee cloths so that you're in a cocoon and don't roll out on the other tack.

If it gets really rough, toss some cushions on the floor and sleep on top of the keel. The lower the better. 

[ianpowolny]

My wife and I don't do so many long passages but we have found that sleeping is only possible in the stern cabins or saloon couch. One of the stern cabins is normally a store so we move all the gear from there to the forward cabin when overnighting. Ian

[On y va]

With down wind sailing, the front cabin is actually ok. When alone, I mostly sleep in the cockpit or if it is quiet enough, on the salon floor on one of these blow up beds. Not the one kids play with in a pool, but a proper blow up spare bed one, with a cloth like top. The salon floor is the best place to sleep in the whole boat actually.

[jdl01]

For me, it has always been 'which bunk can I get up/out of the fastest and safest' if something goes wrong or requires immediate attention. This means the salon benches in cooler or poor weather climates or the cockpit in the tropics - assuming there is a long enough bench seat. I sleep feet forward with a quick release fitting on the aft end of the leecloth.

[chuckr]

Hoppy depends on what you mean by long passage. When we sailed across the Caribbean from Panama to Jamaica and from the Bahamas to North Carolina they were about 5 days each and we slept on the saloon settee when not on watch


When we crossed the Atlantic I made space in the rear berth and slept in the rear berth as the noise in the foreward berth kept we awake and better sleeping aft.  Patty did not like it and continued to sleep on the settee.  We stored the dink and a lot of stuff that would normally be in the aft berth in the forward berth.


As we cruise all summer if we do an overnight I generally don't sleep but if I do I always sleep on the settee.  Patty may nap in the settee if she naps.  I have napped in the cockpit on an occasional overnight if the it is nice and Patty has the helm. She does not like the cockpit to sleep in. 

[rxc]

In bad weather on a 43DS, the best spot is in the main cabin, wedged in between cushions. If you have a small cabin somewhere, then that is the place, with all sorts of cushions to wedge you in place. The V-berth is a nightmare in bad weather.

In good weather, any place is fine.

[aria1]

The ride in the bow will be interesting.  Think roller coaster.

without lee cloths, sleep athwart ship. 

Stick to to the middle or the stern. 

[dilligaf]

we sleap in the aft stateroom where there is much less bouncing and better sleeping conditions and we are on 6 hour watches during that time
Daylight hours we may sleep in the cockpit for naps but for nothing more. Off shore we will also use a static line at all time. a little confining but worth the offset