I'm using Rub+Commander and I'm at the begining of 5th patrol. It's march 1940.
My history:
1 03SEP39 - 21SEP39 (19 days) 7 (7/0) 20811 (20811/0)
2 22OCT39 - 12NOV39 (22 days) 10 (10/0) 38744 (38744/0) U-Boat damaged (H.I. 85.1%)
3 13DEC39 - 03JAN40 (22 days) 13 (12/1) 61003 (47153/13850)
4 03FEB40 - 17FEB40 (15 days) 8 (8/0) 29961 (29961/0) U-Boat damaged (H.I. 100.0%)
So except the last one, about 3 weeks per patrol.
Every patrol takes at least 2 or 3 nights of real time. Sometimes it takes a week when I don't have enough time