during my 1x patrol last year i had a great time. (see
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...ight=1x+patrol )
fortunately i was only at sea for something like 14 or 15 days as i had departed a french base and ran into a huge convoy about 8 or 9 days out and exhausted all torpedoes.
one problem i encountered... i had multiple saves, one per hour to be exact, and i think that having multiple saves caused my clock not to jive with day/night cycles in the game.
for example, not 500 miles off the coast of france, it would be beaming daylight yet the game clock showed 2300 hours local time!
some suggested that this was a result of the extreme north latitude longitude - however i was not north of the BF squares.
secondly, when the clock would show 1130am it would be pitch dark outside with a full moon.
my recommendation to anyone attempting a 1x patrol would be to start your patrol as close as possible to the real time. for example; if it is 8:00am where you live... make sure to leave port when it is 8:00am in the game, this way your life is a little easier - when it is time to sleep in the game it will be time to sleep in real life etc.
secondly, for saving, i wouldnt save hourly due to corruptions.
save once per day, and should a fatal crash occur hours after your save, use time compression to catch up to the current real time, then resume 1x compression. this helps reduce the risk of corrupt saves and strange errors.