Duties and amusement on night watch?

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Oscarpop

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We are planning out first long sail next month and we reckon on about 60 hours.
We are going to do 3 hours on and off day and night with a crew of 3.
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.

Also any other hits and tips much appreciated. I already have a kitchen timer :)
 
I hate 3 on and 3 off. Four or even five much more pleasurable, especially to counter the excitement of the early watches where everyone wants to "be there".

And be ready to vary as necessary.

Night watches need no entertainment in good weather as so beautiful. Bad weather then the adrenaline is there. Indifferent weather, then convo and songs. I have never had autopilot before recently - I can understand how that could induce boredom.

And it depends where that 60 hours is taking place!
 
MP3 with plays / comedy programs (assuming alone on watch) for me. It may be that you could be less rigid about working out a shift pattern for this length passage - with 3 then you should be able to get a reasonable amount of sleep in one dose so long as all 3 can stand a watch alone (one can always be on call).

Otherwise, what with food, other traffic, navigation etc., watching the stars, sailing the boat, being mesmerized by phosphorescence etc. it can sometimes be hard to be bored!
 
Plenty of chocolate or cheese snacks to munch and cup a soups are handy, as are warm clothes even in ' summer '; an entertainment radio may be useful - if it doesn't block out the VHF - but I have never bored of night watches, dawn being the favourite bit.
 
I hate 3 on and 3 off.
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So do I . Far too long! 2 hours is about my limit. I am in fact happier with very short watches. We have done them as short as 1/2 hour during the night in unpleasant conditions.
When we have had four crew we have usually had two people on watch and two off but then split the on watch period into smaller chunks with one member actively on watch and the other resting or dozing in the cockpit alternating at quite short intervals.

Worst time for me is the period from about 0100 until daybreak. Sometimes that period seems to go on forever.

We have never found the need for any entertainment despite night watches being boring in the extreme.
 
I recently did a longish trip with three of us. 3 hours on and 6 off worked well; 2 hours on and 4 off would be OK. If time below gets much shorter then after cup of tea and widdle it's hardly worth getting in bunk. Maybe one of your crew needs an accomplice on watch but there might be a quieter patch of the sea to break him in.
I had an MP3 player with those worthy Melvyn Bragg radio 4 programmes on science, culture, philosophy etc. Worked well cos not too long and varied topics.
 
Depends where you are: Negotiating your way through pots, a fishing fleet or other traffic you don't need any other entertainment. Offshore with nothing around I usually have a little star atlas and a dim torch. Having lived most of my adult life in a city I could stare at the night sky offshore for hours. Which is just as well...
 
With such a short passage i wouldnt be so formal. During the day most will be awake anyway to enjoy the trip. Just do the 3 hour watches during the night, maybe 9pm to 6 am.
 
VicS said:
We have done them as short as 1/2 hour during the night in unpleasant conditions.
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That's not a watch, its a break. Though I can see that being very good for stressful times. When in Army, I knew chaps who could go off duty and sleep in thirty seconds and feel good twenty mins later. Not me I am afraid. That's why I said vary depending on crew and conditions. Though that has made me think on how it could be varied more often; I think it comes down to conditions and crew capability - just don't set a rigid structure.
 
Just don't let anybody wear earphones on watch.

Being alert to changes in various noises, the VHF, other ships horns, etc is an essential part of being 'on watch'.
 
As others have said, as usual, it depends upon the weather conditions and on where you are. In good weather and "safe" water, there are few things better than having the ocean to yourself. It doesn't have to be an ocean, of course. I enjoy overnight passage making when the crew (SWMBO) has been dispatched to her bunk for the night. The hourly routine is running the log, coffee, treats, pee (it's an age thing) and listening to an MP3 player. Time passes only too quickly. In more difficult conditions, it would be good to have a clearly established "call the skipper in the event of..." list.
 
Oscarpop said:
I assume reading a book is out of the question as any light will ruin vision.
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A good watchkeeper should always have a red torch so as not to damage night vision. Its also a good idea to be able to switch the internal lights to red if you expect to do a lot of night operations so as to allow you to move about the boat but still see when you come outside.
The key to watchkeeping is routine. Divide your hours into tasks so that at even intervals you check your heading, mark your position on the paper chart, calculate your actual speed, fill out the log etc etc, so as your not idle for too long and that your still paying attention. 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.
 
There is an excellent book about sleep called "Body Time" by Gay Gaer Luce...The body`s natural sleep cycles are about 1 hour and 50 minutes long...and if they are interrupted before the cycle is complete can lead to worsened performance when awake....so we try...when on a night passage to let the off watch person be in bed for about 2 hours and 20 minutes....or about 4 hours 30 minutes....depending on weather and general level of exhaustion........allowing time for winding down and getting to sleep . We have found this much more generally conducive to feeling alert and `well` on watch than adhering strictly to 2, 3 or 4 hour watches...
As to `amusement` on watch.....the hours seem to fly by...the log is filled in every hour...and there seems to be hardly a dull moment with nothing to watch, listen to (boat, weather and sea noises), or adjust around the boat in between.
 
michael_w said:
I've never been a fan of dawn at sea. It's usually grey, cold and hours till breakfast!
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May I humbly suggest adopting a 'hobbit-like' eating routine:
- First light appears; Pre-breakfast of coffee with bacon sandwiches
- One hour after true dawn; Breakfast proper, consisting of devilled kidneys, sausages, bacon, fried potatoes etc.
- Mid-morning; Light second breakfast, perhaps a kipper with brown bread and horseradish
&c.

It is amazing how quickly the morning hours pass and how little other shipping is observed...
 
Pye_End said:
MP3 with plays / comedy programs (assuming alone on watch) for me. It may be that you could be less rigid about working out a shift pattern for this length passage - with 3 then you should be able to get a reasonable amount of sleep in one dose so long as all 3 can stand a watch alone (one can always be on call).

Otherwise, what with food, other traffic, navigation etc., watching the stars, sailing the boat, being mesmerized by phosphorescence etc. it can sometimes be hard to be bored!
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If you're working a "3-on-3-off" watch system with three crew, then there will always be two on and one off. The normal sleep -cycle is one and a half hours, so the possibility of sleeping through two cycles on a moving boat is slim. I would suggest 3 hours on and 6 off, with 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.
 
SAPurdie said:
May I humbly suggest adopting a 'hobbit-like' eating routine:
- First light appears; Pre-breakfast of coffee with bacon sandwiches
- One hour after true dawn; Breakfast proper, consisting of devilled kidneys, sausages, bacon, fried potatoes etc.
- Mid-morning; Light second breakfast, perhaps a kipper with brown bread and horseradish
&c.

It is amazing how quickly the morning hours pass and how little other shipping is observed...
Click to expand...

Is your valet never allowed any time off?:D
 
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