What time is it?

[rhinorhino]

Just returned form a very pleasant cruise with a question.

What time do you keep your ships clocks on? GMT, BST or Local?

Why do Reeds insist on giving you the tide times in French time, I could not care less what time the French think it is.

I am tending toward using GMT/UT fior eveything (except bar opening times) on my next trip.

Thoughts?



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[Evadne]

I always use local time. It saves confusion when referring to bar opening hours, lock gate opening times, etc.
When referring to the almanac I have a dual time thingy on my watch which is always in GMT, so if I change time zones and get confused I can always refer back to that.

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[snowleopard]

i have a clock at the chart table clearly marked GMT and used for navigation. the ship's clock is set to local time and is used for watches.

tide tables for france are based on french standard time (an hour slow on local time in the summer). it's a nightmare - i've just come back from a 3-day trip to brittany & the channel islands and i'm working tides in BST, UTC and EST. major penalties for getting it wrong!

i have an old tide program (DOS based) which prints out tables for any port, i print one for each destination and write 'add 1 hour' or 'add 2 hours' on each. that also eliminates secondary port calculations.

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[StugeronSteve]

Local time for coastal, I tend to lean towards UT on x-channel trip.

<hr width=100% size=1>Think I'll draw some little rabbits on my head, from a distance they might be mistaken for hairs.

 

[john_morris_uk]

When sailing in very different longtitudes the only way I can keep track is to have a clock at the nav station kept to GMT with a big "Z" on the clockface. Otherwise all other clocks/watches are local. Missed too many closing times using any other method!!

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[dralex]

UTC on boat clock, local time on watches. DOesn't matter which system you use as long as the same clocks always show the same time variant and you know it. Also makes sense for any crew to know as well.

<hr width=100% size=1>Life's too short- do it now./forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[Sybarite]

Of course you do realise that the zero meridian used to run through Paris before the English usurped it. There is a brass strip running in front of the altar in Saint Sulpice which marks the spot (determined however by an English astronomer) There is a prism in one of the church windows which focuses the light on this strip. At different times of the year the spot of light falls at different points along this line and the spring equinox is indicated by a brass spot just in front of the alter. This was how they determined the Sunday on which Easter should fall.

( PS See also The Da Vinci Code)

John

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[TheBoatman]

Our ships clock is always set to GMT (sorry UTC) and never moved. Watches, mobiles etc are a different matter.

<hr width=100% size=1> Question?
Why can't these dam foreigners understand that GMT/UTC is based on Greenwich Time and print their times of lock openings, bar closings etc on that?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by TheBoatman on 31/07/2004 01:19 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[LadyInBed]

Digital clock at chart table - UTC
Ships clock - BST even in winter!
Watches - Local time
Well it works for me /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif
It’s the tide tables that you have to watch for, some UTC, some in Local time, then the French, bless them, just to help us Brits out on our Summer cruse, publish them in BST /forums/images/icons/wink.gif


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