The only times I've been separated from a boat (multi or mono) have been in regatta situations. It was therefore easy to signal someone for assistance.

ronald appears to be sailing in the North Atlantic either by himself or with limited numbers of other boats, where it might be less likely to gain assistance if something were to happen. In cases like these, you have to me more self-reliant.

My only "self-rescue" was in a different sport - scuba diving in the late 80's. My idiot friends (two boats) all took off and left two of us on a reef about 6 miles offshore. The "I thought they were with you..." excuse.

So, it was a relatively long day for us (eventually got picked up by a commercial dive boat about 2 miles west of us). And, being it was scuba diving, I had no self-rescue gear (gps, vhf, food, etc). What I continue to reflect on was the psychology of the event...

The first few minutes were the disbelief. No Boat? can't be. WTF?

That morphed into a mild panic-like state. Too many JAWS movies to be sure... I guess this could have evolved into full-blown hysteria if you let it...

Once it was determined that (1) those guys really were idiots, (2) yes, we're on our own out here and (3) it will be dark in about 5 hours, I just sort of changed into an acceptance of the situation and started a slow swim toward land with my dive partner.

Only shear panic situation was a commercial freighter that got awfully close and most likely never saw us. Thoughts of getting sucked in and chewed up in a giant propeller ran through my head. It was close enough that the vibration of the engines was pulsing through my chest. I'd say we probably passed within 100 feet or so of this giant cargo ship.

After that, it was just an afternoon swim/drift westward with the hope of eventually running into land. After about 2 hours we sighted a boat and waved our dive sausages until they saw us.

But my idiot friends did buy drinks that night so I guess it all worked out.