Part 4
Today's lesson learned is really about the need to properly keep time; clue: it might not be wise to use that fancy GPS watch... To put the importance of this topic into perspective, I will first cover watch schedules, then explain why a GPS watch might not be the ideal choice.
"Watch Schedule'
is a term used to describe how the crew will split up the time to make sure someone is at the helm throughout a 24-hour period.
On our four gulf crossings, Jimmy and I have utilized three different watch schedules.
4-person crew, 4?-hour shift, 2-up, 2-down, same crew members per shift The first one was pretty easy for us since we were inexperienced crew on someone else's boat, and all we had to do was to follow their instructions. For this crew of four, each couple took on shifts as a pair. I think they were four-hour shifts, but it could of been six, I really do not recall. Just after sunset the boat owners let us know it was time to go down below to sleep while they remained up in the cockpit. They came down sometime in the night, while I was fast asleep, to wake us up to begin our first night shift. After several hours, maybe it was four hours, they showed up in the cockpit to relieve us of our watch. No thinking or setting alarms was required. It seemed to work pretty well, but I admit, it was difficult to stay awake the full shift, so it was good to have the two of us to nudge each other awake. This system worked well with two new sailors at the helm together to aid each other in managing the boat.
4-person crew, 2/4-hour shift, 2-up, 2-down, rotating shift partners
For the next two crossings, again with a crew of four, we used a staggered shift for the watch schedule. In this watch schedule there was also two people up in the cockpit, and two people below off watch. One of the four people would be off watch for four hours. At the end of the four hours, you would come up to the cockpit to be on stand-by for two hours. You could do what ever you wanted during the stand-by shift, even sleep, but you were to remain in the cockpit in case the helmsman needed some assistance. Then two hours later, you became the helmsman and have responsibility of the boat. The prior helmsman would head down for a four-hour off shift break, and your stand-by mate would just be coming back from their four-hour off shift break. Two hours later, the whole cycle would repeat.
One difference between this shift and the first one listed above, is the stand-by person could attempt to get some extra sleep while helmsman has full responsibility of the boat. This schedule does require all crew to be fairly competent in handling the boat since each person is essentially alone during the two-hour at-the-helm shift. Also with this rotation, you get to share the time in the cockpit with two different crew members.
2-person crew, ~3-hour shift, 1-up, 1-down So this brings us to the fourth crossing, where now it was only a crew of two for a trip that could last up to 30 hours. After a lot of discussion, we agreed to try a three hour shift pattern. Since each person will be required to manage the boat solo each shift, we went with a shorter watch to avoid fatigue. For an extra safety measure, we set alarms while on shift, either by phone or wrist watches, go off in 15-minute intervals. There is a general theory that when you see a fast ship on the horizon, you would be about 20-minutes away from a collision if on a direct course. We chose 15-minute intervals to be on the safer side. If you fell asleep during your watch, your alarm would wake you up. The alarm was also a reminder to do a scan of the horizon, looking for any lights from other boats, to verify your heading, and to look at the chart plotter to check your location and to read the AIS report to see where other vessels are out in the waters. On our short-handed crossing this past New Years' Eve. We left dock at 4:30 PM, and began the watch schedule at 9 PM. Jimmy took first watch, and I had three hours to settle in, sleep, then wake up in time to be at the helm by midnight. When I came on at midnight we agreed that I could stay on watch longer than three hours if I still felt alert enough to handle it, which I did. We ended up only doing this watch for 12-hours due to issues with fog and our lack of a radar. I am pleased with this three-hour watch schedule for a short-handed crew. The three hour shift, with an option to make it four worked well for us. The off watch person would set an alarm to get back up in four hours, but the helmsman could wake up the other crew member beforehand to make it a three hour shift.
Thanks to my awesome GPS watch, I have been late to my watch shifts on two different passages, leading me to believe that modern timekeeping devices may not be the best method of tracking time
On these overnight passages, most crew members are all operating a little fatigued. So when a shift is over, the crew member on watch usually is looking forward to it being done. It is not cool to show up late, even if it is only 5-minutes late.
Two important things need to happen to make sure you arrive to your shift on time. The first is pretty obvious: set your alarm early enough to wake up, dress, grab food and water (or coffee) and do what ever else you may need to do to get up into the cockpit to let the very tired person on shift to end their watch on time.
To do this properly, I do not suggest using a GPS watch to set that alarm! On two separate passages, my GPS watch automatically switched time zones. I had set my alarm to go off before my next shift and was very confused when others had to wake me up, even arguing that I still had more time to sleep. So on that next passage, I will have to come up with something different that will wake me up when sleeping next to a very loud engine, regardless of what time zone we happen to be nearby.
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