Among the bazillion other things to think about, don't forget that it can get flippin' cold out there. Sure it's the middle of the summer, but don't kid yourself.
Plan and prepare for a very disciplined sleep regimen. It takes about 20-25 minutes for that big container ship or barge towing lumber down from Seattle to Long Beach to A.) appear on the horizon, and then B.) squash you into atoms. Any sleep longer than 20-25 minutes is a calculated risk.
On both the 2007LongPac and on my subsequent qualifier in October 2007 I encountered ships both coming and going in a lane about 80 miles out. In all three cases if I hadn't been awake, I would have been at significant risk of collisions, yes, it was THAT close. In my return back to Morro Bay in 2004 I had to change course a o-dark-thirty, bleary eyed, stressed, in 40 knots of wind and big seas and mentally thrashed, in order to avoid a collision with lights that were way, way way up there in the air. In other words, I was kind of looking UP at them, not just OUT at them. Not good. No, not good at all.
Figure out a sleep plan. You have to get sleep, but you've got to discipline yourself around that issue.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"