Duties and amusement on night watch?

[prv]

Don't make the watch too short or your sleep time will be too short. Not enough sleep will be as dangerous as anything else.

+1

Stavros and Pelican (and probably most other sail-training ships) use the traditional 4-hour pattern, with three watches. Daytimes are everybody-up, though there's usually a few hours kept free in the afternoon for those off-watch to have a kip if they wish. This routine works indefinitely - at least, I've done a three-week voyage and didn't feel like I was being sleep-deprived. I would be inclined to use something fairly similar for an extended passage on a yacht, assuming I had three competent watchkeepers - though I admit I've never done a passage on a yacht longer than about 36 hours, so I don't speak from experience there.

I don't find too much trouble in standing a four-hour watch (in all weathers on the ships; on a yacht I can see that shorter watches may be necessary in bad weather). The last hour maybe begins to drag a bit, but then you're off for a half-decent sleep.

Pete

 

[prv]

the person coming off-watch remaining available for an agreed amount of time to be "on-call", take care of position fixing, log-keeping and domestic issues such as food etc., if necessary.

Assuming you're not tied to the tiller by a flighty boat with no self-steering (in which case I suggest one person on watch is not really enough), I would say that all those things are jobs for the watch. Doing something other than sitting there is a good way to pass the time and stay alert. Certainly plotting the hourly fix is very important to me as a way of dividing up the time.

Pete

 

[cliff]

I hate 3 on and 3 off.

So do I. Apart from that 60 hrs is not a long sail - only 2½ days or 3 days, 2 nights. now 9 days, 8 nights is a reasonably long sail and worth getting into a good routine which in my case is I do the night watch - 22:00hrs to 06:00 hrs (more like 18:00 through to 08:00 next morning what with scran breaks etc) leaving the motley crew to look after the daylight sailing bit.

 

[affinite]

Audiobooks are good, as long as they don't send you to sleep!

+1 oh and my favourite Norah Jones CD

 

[Seajet]

I find 4 hour watches work best, I usually sail with one crew.

I also try to get across the Channel in daylight nowadays ( not too difficult in ' a boat which averages 7 knots and is capable of low earth orbit ' ) if one sets off early, tides permitting of course.

Navigation always used to keep me busy, now AIS is quite entertaining, I was very impressed / slightly infuriated by a chum's I=Pad 3 with this and a better GPS than my dedicated plotter !

 

[cryan]

Navigation always used to keep me busy, now AIS is quite entertaining, I was very impressed / slightly infuriated by a chum's I=Pad 3 with this and a better GPS than my dedicated plotter !

As mentioned in another post AIS is not a nav aid nor does it give you exact positions (or often details) of other vessels. Even if you are using an electronic chart plotter you should still plot your position on a paper chart every hour as the beauty of electronic aids is you never know when their going to decide to stop working. They are Nav aids not Nav replacements. If your out of site of land with no nav then you should probably pick a religion as it won't be long until your using it.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I've done 6 on, 6 off on a survey vessel. That is probably the worst of all worlds - a long watch, followed by just not enough sleep! It also has the drawback that you're always on/off watch at the same time of day, and if you're unlucky it can mean you don't see much daylight! That's actually a serious issue with two-watch systems. The watch-keeping was below decks in a totally enclosed instrument room, as well. At least, except for the short periods on the stern deck battling with an instrument cable a kilometre or so long, while waves washed up the stern ramp!

 

[laika]

Navigation always used to keep me busy, now AIS is quite entertaining, I was very impressed / slightly infuriated by a chum's I=Pad 3 with this and a better GPS than my dedicated plotter !

As mentioned in another post AIS is not a nav aid nor does it give you exact positions (or often details) of other vessels.

You might not want to rely on it exclusively but AIS *is* a nav *aid*. I certainly don't think Seajet is advocating relying on it, just noting that it makes for entertaining viewing (additional information on vessels around you). It's also handy for getting you ready to keep a special eye on the stuff which is too far away to see by eye if there is a risk of collision but the CPA is giving you a heads up on.

 

[cryan]

No AIS. Is not a NAV aid it is purely designed for security purposes when ISPS was brought in post 9/11. If you see a ship visually it might help identify it. Its not real time and certainly not accurate as depends entirely on operator input. In close quarters the AIS input is at the bottom of a very long list of tasks for the watchkeeping officer. Interestingly one of the arguments against its introduction was that people would use it as a replacement for good nav practice and it has proved so with several shipping incidents traced to watchkeepers using AIS for collision avoidance.

 

[Koeketiene]

Apart from keeping lookout and tending the helm/ autopilot can you please impart how you keep yourself entertained during night watches? I assume reading a book is out of the question as any light will ruin vision.

Audiobooks on iPod.

 

[capnsensible]

As mentioned in another post AIS is not a nav aid nor does it give you exact positions (or often details) of other vessels. Even if you are using an electronic chart plotter you should still plot your position on a paper chart every hour as the beauty of electronic aids is you never know when their going to decide to stop working. They are Nav aids not Nav replacements. If your out of site of land with no nav then you should probably pick a religion as it won't be long until your using it.

How does it give you CPA and Time to CPA then?

There are many ways of successful navigation offshore that doesn't require electronics or religion.

There is little point providing a rigid rule for when fixes should be applied, once an hour mid Atlantic is daft and maybe not enough if negotiating a difficult inshore passage.

In my opinion.

 

[capnsensible]

I've done 6 on, 6 off on a survey vessel. That is probably the worst of all worlds - a long watch, followed by just not enough sleep! It also has the drawback that you're always on/off watch at the same time of day, and if you're unlucky it can mean you don't see much daylight! That's actually a serious issue with two-watch systems. The watch-keeping was below decks in a totally enclosed instrument room, as well. At least, except for the short periods on the stern deck battling with an instrument cable a kilometre or so long, while waves washed up the stern ramp!

6 on, 6 off was a part of my existence for 17 years! Submarine patrols of over 90 odd days....

 

[prv]

Its not real time

If your avoiding action depends on accuracy to the nearest ten seconds (the slowest update rate except for a moored vessel) then I would suggest that you're cutting it a bit fine!

Pete

 

[capnsensible]

Don't have a problem with 3 hour watches. My wife and I have done plenty on transatlantics. Tad interesting though on the first two when we had to hand steer with the normally broken autopilot.

Sailed through Gibraltar Straits Monday night, 3 of us, 2 on 4 off.

Have done a transatlantic with 3, one 8 hour watch a day. Easy.

Point is, there is no 'mine is better than yours' here, lots of routines work as long as everyone in the crew is correctly briefed on when they are going to be on watch well in advance and understand their responsibilities. My top tips!

 

[snooks]

I just images every detail I'd like to have in my perfect boat, from the hull design, deck gear, internal stowage, sail wardrobe, places to sail to, how to get there equipment we'd need, things to do on the way etc etc etc,

Watch over before you know it.

 

[prv]

Have done a transatlantic with 3, one 8 hour watch a day. Easy.

That's an interesting variation I'd not come across. I can see the appeal - no real night watches for most of the crew, and if you are the night owl then you don't have to do anything all day. But I don't think I'd want to be the night person constantly, and seems like it would be difficult to add any rotation (dog watches etc) when the watches are so long. Presumably you stuck to the same watches all the way across?

Pete

 

[Iain C]

Apart from keeping lookout and tending the helm/ autopilot can you please impart how you keep yourself entertained during night watches?

An extensive collection of gentleman's literature from the ship's library?

 

[prv]

An extensive collection of gentleman's literature from the ship's library?

Ten years ago I did sail on a boat that had a "pornography locker". Two of the lads on board had an ongoing competition over who could buy the most extreme grot-mag in each port we stopped at - Gosport being the obvious highlight.

Probably fortunately, we were only day-sailing, with no solitary night watches requiring "entertainment".

Pete

 

[Seajet]

As mentioned in another post AIS is not a nav aid nor does it give you exact positions (or often details) of other vessels. Even if you are using an electronic chart plotter you should still plot your position on a paper chart every hour as the beauty of electronic aids is you never know when their going to decide to stop working. They are Nav aids not Nav replacements. If your out of site of land with no nav then you should probably pick a religion as it won't be long until your using it.

Cryan,

I'm happy with the principles of navigation thanks, having done a fair few cross Channel trips before the days of yacht Decca let alone GPS.

I suggested AIS as something amusing and in its' way informative to watch; it may not be the answer to everything but is still more use than religeon !

 

[captainboo]

Cryan,

I'm happy with the principles of navigation thanks, having done a fair few cross Channel trips before the days of yacht Decca let alone GPS.

I suggested AIS as something amusing and in its' way informative to watch; it may not be the answer to everything but is still more use than religeon !

Did you mean Religion or Raymarine ?