For those of you who go out on the sea for days at a time, WHERE DO YOU SLEEP? I’ve always wondered…
Busted
You figured it out. There’s no place to sleep in the ocean. We knew someone would discover this sooner or later. We actually sneak ashore under the cover of darkness and stay at 4-star hotels.
Funny
but seriously, how does it work? Maybe this is a stupid question, but I’m clueless
Two people I have met
One has done three day trips without sleeping!
Ed Gillet paddled from California to Hawaii in a kayaak, I don’t know how he slept but if you google for his name you might find some info.
I’ve only done multiday trips that involved coastal paddles or crossings. Catalina Island is a popular trip in Southern California it requires about a 21 mile crossing and people usually do it in about 7 hours.
In "20 man"
berthing. Includes 2 toilets, 3 showers, 20 bitchy women and an occasion male shipmate climbing out of some non-rate’s rack at 0300.
Sponsons
For the SD-to-HI trip, I thought Gillett paddled a big double that he could actually slide all the way into and sleep inside. May have used sponsons for stabilization while sleeping…can’t remember what I read. It wasn’t like he just bent over in a narrow single and slept upright!
Jon Turk described some interesting sleeping arrangements on a 3-day crossing, in “In the Wake of the Jomon.”
Mine slept 108…
… just in that one compartment. The other 3000 were in similar.
Yet another
reason why I didn’t join the Navy. 
Not sleeping
Eric Stiller and Tony Brown crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria in a Klepper double by going five days without sleep.
Definitely not recommended.
Now that’s…
pretty hardcore!!!
Kayaks Are Pretty Much Coatal
vessels. They weren’t designed to be out with for multiple days, though folks have done that in making long crossings. I imagine that some of the native kayakers would raft up and take naps if necessary, provided good conditions. But the fact is when you sleep, you can lose ground, get off course by current or wind, or wake up in the water!
Of course in the pursuit of “adventure”, you have folks making major crossings. I don’t think it’s not surprising that they would pick something with a lot of stability like the folding kayaks (Kleppers). Nor, in some of the recent Atlantic crossings, come up with a “kayak” design that basically has a cabin for food/water water storage, electronics and sleeping. This “kayak” bears little resemblance to anything you and I would be seen in on a day paddle.
sing
Lindemann
Hannes Lindemann used a Klepper Aerius II for his Atlantic crossing, he could sleep in it. Impossible with my vela
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannes_Lindemann
Ed Gillet story
is at the AT Paddle website. Click on “Reviews” for the final link. Twas not a fun trip as far as I can discern.
Jim
http://www.atpaddle.com/index.html
Who said expeditions were fun?
Rewarding, but not the same as a vacation.
Peter Bray’s Kayak
When I was in Cornwall for training, I went to the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth. They had on exhibit Peter Bray’s kayak that had the tiniest of “cabins”. It was about the size of a coffin. This is where he locked himself in when the seas were big and he was unable to paddle.
It really was still a kayak. Paddled with a Euro blade - Lendal. It was just a bit longer than what is used traditionally in a kayak as the boat was a tad wider (and longer) than a regular sea touring kayak.
It truly amazed me that he was able to cross the Atlantic in it.
Suz
It’s a messy business!
Which leads onto…
Has anyone got any tried-and-true recommendations on the best way to have a crap in a kayak?
I prefer to not crap in mine.
I have taken a dump at sea from a kayak a few times. Can either just jump in the water and go, or lean out using a paddle float brace.
Here we go again!