They held a party in Falmouth, England last weekend. Observers say it was the biggest party there in more than 30 years. The party was to welcome home Ellen MacArthur, who had just finished sailing around the world, alone, in a record time of 71 days and change.
Thousands of people gathered on land and thousands of boats of all sizes, kayaks to motor yachts, were in Falmouth Harbor.
MacArthur, who became Dame Ellen after her accomplishment, sailed a trimaran named BBQ in a solo circumnavigation. Her second.
A trimaran essentially has three hulls. That design makes it more stable, under most conditions, than a single hulled boat. It's less likely to tip over. However, when it does, it's not going to get upright again without some outside help, like a crane.
It's also very fast, mostly because it has less drag because there is less boat in the water and because when it heels (leans to one side in the wind), there is even less.
After confronting the world's oceans for two and a half months, she admitted to being overwhelmed by the emotion she felt from the crowds gathered to welcome her but not by the crowds or press.
After she completed her record setting voyage and her support crew came on board, she was able to get six hours of sleep. The largest block of slumber she had been able to enjoy since setting sail.
There are such things as autopilots for large sailboats, but you can't let rely on them for too long at a time. As wind conditions change, sails must be adjusted to get the most out of the wind energy. In addition, there are maintenance chores to perform and repairs to be made to keep the boat afloat and moving in the right direction.
How is that done? How do people function for months on naps? A story in AFP, a European news service, says that some people, like Ellen MacArthur, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison, seem to have a genetic bent making it possible for them to function without a full eight nighttime hours of sleep.
The story quotes Dr. Damien Leger of the sleep study project at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Paris as said that science can help others learn to do the same.
Dr. Leger has acted as a sleep advisor for participants in long distance yacht races.
He said that competitors in long distance sails learn to divide their sleep requirement into short naps, worked in between the chores. He said that sleep, food and physical preparations, along with courage and stamina, help them get through the test.
According to the Dr., sailors are advised to "stock up on sleep." That calls for sleeping as much as possible in the days before the competition starts and then trying to keep up with their sleep debt with cat-naps.
Such a schedule, he says, allows round-the-world sailors to total about six hours a day.
I remember reading a few years back, that surrealist artist Salvador Dali, when he was working on a painting, often was so inspired and eager to complete the work that he did not want to stop to sleep. However, he realized that he needed sleep in order to continue working.
He developed the practice of sitting down in a chair, with a tin pie pan on the floor at his feet. He then would lean over, put his elbow on his knee, and hold a spoon (I suppose a knife or fork would work as well) over the pie pan.
He then would let himself doze off and in the moment it took for the utensil to fall into the pie pan and make enough noise to wake him, he would sleep. He claimed that such instantaneous naps enabled him to then continue working for a while.
Of course, if you're at all familiar with Dali's paintings, with elements
like melting watches and fish that float on air, (neat but weird) the
falling-spoon-nap story may explain a lot.