I am currently doing it in real time. SH4 in the S-18 with TMO and RSDC. The neat thing about it is that while it takes a lot of time to get from point A to B the navigation process takes over and keeps me busy. DR and Cel nav is a cool feature with Stellarium. One other thing that I've noticed is the cheer as when a contact is made after days or weeks. I badly needed to sink something...
I started this patrol last December and the patrol's date started December 8th, 1941. As of today (Feb 26th, 12) the patrol's date is Feb 2nd, 42. So my process is this: When I'm home I leave the game running at TC x1, surfaced, usually at 2/3 to save fuel. When I have to leave for work or other errands I check the chart and see how deep I can go and order either PD or 100 ft+ at 1/3. When I get back I check the surface for contacts, surface and set for 2/3. When I go to bed I do the same process and in the morning surface again. The submarine actually revolves around my sleeping schedule. There is no XO to take over so When I sleep the sub keeps moving but if a contact is made it'll have to wait for the skipper to wake up.
I realized later that until I get to a Gato or Balao class it will take a lot of time. Like MONTHS to get to 1943-44. So my choice now is if I decide to speed up things (using TC) the question is to when and for how long activate TC. The problem is that I got used in TC x1 because as I said before the navigation process keeps me busy until I detect a ship and hunt it down. If I keep as it is I am not going to play any other thing until like...4 years from now so that is my dilemma. To TC or not to TC: There is the question.
ps: BTW I got influenced on doing this from a story in Subsim's book. One guy in Europe did a patrol in real time in a Uboat. The cool thing in the story was that he was actually living in the boat i.e. telling facts that happened with his virtual crew.