Yacht deliveries, any interesting points, especially night watches?

Cerebus

Cerebus

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As a night owl (or apply other adjectives) I often used to volunteer for the dog watches.

Night sailing is very unique as many will appreciate.

Once, the only thing I could see was the pulpit nav lights relflecting in the huge troughs (and the binnacle compass).
 
Cerebus said:
As a night owl (or apply other adjectives) I often used to volunteer for the dog watches.

Night sailing is very unique as many will appreciate.

Once, the only thing I could see was the pulpit nav lights relflecting in the huge troughs (and the binnacle compass).
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The dog watches don’t usually refer to the middle of the night?

I wasn’t on a delivery when I had the scariest bit of sailing I’ve ever had. Motor sailing at night in pitch black with no moon, a squall came through with wind and rain making it impossible to even see the front of the boat and the nav lights. Think solid water hitting the boat. The scary bit was it was a stretch of water with lots of reported nets and pot buoys. Sitting in the cockpit wondering what on earth I’d do if we picked up a line or a net isn’t something I want to repeat.
 
Cerebus said:
As a night owl (or apply other adjectives) I often used to volunteer for the dog watches.

Night sailing is very unique as many will appreciate.

Once, the only thing I could see was the pulpit nav lights relflecting in the huge troughs (and the binnacle compass).
Click to expand...
First Dog is 1600 t0 1800. Second is 1800 to 2000. You may be thinking of the n8ght watches, first middle and morning.

The dogs were invented so the large crews had rotation and not the same one every day.

Depending on how many crew I've got on deliveries...often 3 of us....I generally go for 3 hour watches and shake things around a bit. Others prefer the same one every day. However, many years of 6 on 6 off makes me happy to experiment.
 
Many a night steaming across the North Sea there were lights everywhere sometimes at the change of watch the Brigadear would give a summery of whatwas happening.After a cup of tea a purusal of the chart all his dire warnings of collisions gradually melted away only in exceptional cases did a course change to avoid a collision needed to be taken……….nightwatches the best bit of coasting!
 
capnsensible said:
First Dog is 1600 t0 1800. Second is 1800 to 2000. You may be thinking of the n8ght watches, first middle and morning.

The dogs were invented so the large crews had rotation and not the same one every day.

Depending on how many crew I've got on deliveries...often 3 of us....I generally go for 3 hour watches and shake things around a bit. Others prefer the same one every day. However, many years of 6 on 6 off makes me happy to experiment.
Click to expand...
We’ve been doing three on six off for the last few days. However the owner joined us again in A Coruna and we’re now in the luxury of two on six off.

I’m with you over not minding very much and I often discuss with the crew what’s they’d prefer.
 
I'm not physiologically well-adapted to night sailing, but it was something we had to do and I enjoyed almost all of it. It may be one of our pleasures that is least appreciated by non-sailors. I used to take pleasure in the sense of isolation and the various sights, such as the lights of passing ships, the moon rising, or if I was lucky a visit from a fulmar in the glow of the stern light.

Some thirty years ago I set myself the task of trying to photograph the experience. I fixed myself up with a fast film and a mount with a G-clamp and wasted a fair bit of film. Here are a couple on our Sadler 29 somewhere in the middle of the North Sea. The second one was hand-held at a 1/4 sec exposure, trying to catch the view at the top of the boat's movement over the waves. I know they are terrible photos but I still like them.
'93 (55).jpg'93 (57).jpg
 
Sailing to Barbados, mid Atlantic, it was a very still night, calm, no wind, no cloud and even the swell was low and long. We dropped all the sails and just floated.

The firmament was bright and clear and reflected perfectly by the still sea. I laid down on the deck and hung my head over the side, looking outwards, and the illusion was of being in outer space.

A wonderful experience.
 
RunAgroundHard said:
Sailing to Barbados, mid Atlantic, it was a very still night, calm, no wind, no cloud and even the swell was low and long. We dropped all the sails and just floated.

The firmament was bright and clear and reflected perfectly by the still sea. I laid down on the deck and hung my head over the side, looking outwards, and the illusion was of being in outer space.

A wonderful experience.
Click to expand...
Could you hear the other crew snoring?
 
Cerebus said:
Night sailing is very unique as many will appreciate.
Click to expand...
Fairy-like experience, while sailing with rather weak wind, I see a luminous area over the water, at a distance.
While approaching slowly, the blueish light appears to form a band, a few hundred of meters in size.
Once I get there, there are blueish luminescent globes all over the place, the water begins making a slosh slosh noise, like if it was pea soup, I had to take up and clean the wind steering paddle which had become still as the creatures sticked to it, I did not dare to touch them. My best guess is it was a colony of ''Noctiluca scintillans'', maybe.

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Picture from
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