Thanks everyone, good tips all around!
I recently went to 100% realism, and to my great amazement still seem to hit the buggers even

I decided to use the WO's contact info for the time being though, but still do my own plotting and maths. What's funny is that it's all starting to make good sense to me - though one really needs some P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E to get anything done
OLC's way of never stopping the electrics while at PD is a good one BTW, so I of course copied it right away

But how about going down to 100m and then stopping the works? I'm sure I've read and / or heard stories of captains doing that when resting their crews, &c...