Safety on board

To make a long story short : I'm not wear a life jacket and normally I
also not use a life belt (harness).  This because if you go over board
as single handed sailor, even if you are connected with the boat trough
a lifeline, there is only a very little chance to get in again. If the
boat is driving with 7.5 knots (around 14 km/h) and depending on the
condition you are in it's almost impossible to climb back.  Also because
of the fact that a kind of accident or crucial situation triggered the
whole situation. In case of man over board, there is anyway no chance
left, due the fact that the boat is driving under auto pilot an will
continue going straight with or without you. The only (possible)
solution is to wear a remote control which allows you by pushing a
button to bring the boat in a circle movement. I have such a remote
control, but I never tried if the boat with full sails really would
start to drive circles, somehow I don't believe that this would happened.

Here a list with the most dangerous things on board of a single hull yacht :

1. Cooking tea (to fill a cup with hot water with a running and jumping
boat is extremely difficult)

2. Chopping onions / cooking in general (everything moves and you never
know exactly what happened as next)

3. Walking around in the cabin (this is something we pay normally to
less attention, therefore it contains a high risk of being hurt - mostly
then broken ribs resulting)

4. Darkness (everything you do during the night is extremely dangerous)

5. Hit by a piece of equipment (i.e. boom) (this normally is the result
of a mistake you did before)

There is also a technical part of safety, which means that you have to
know very precise what kind of weather (in our case wind) will be during
let's say the next 48 hours, you have to know how much sails your boat
is able to wear, you should exactly know what the capabilities of your
auto pilot are and so on.

In our case out here my experience is that as single handed sailor you
normally preparing every step much more precise then on a boat with
crew. Because I'm alone I really have to be prepared if something goes
wrong and then I have to have a solution for this problem. This ends in
a very careful step by step working attitude. And the goal is always to
minimize the risk as much as possible.

Uuups...few squalls are coming up in front of us - let's prepare :-)

Nice evening to everybody from 04.13.017 S / 30.27.352 W