Watches, The Seven Parts of the Day

In the old tradition, a ship's crew was divided into two watches who split the day at sea into seven watch periods and worked watch-on, watch-off. The watch periods were:

Middle Watch: Midnight to 4am
Morning Watch: 4am to 8am
Forenoon Watch: 8am to noon
Afternoon Watch: Noon to 4pm
First Dog Watch: 4pm to 6pm
Second Dog Watch: 6pm to 8pm
First Watch: 8pm to midnight

Bells were struck for every half-hour of each watch, with a maximum of eight bells.
Since 1915, all U.S. merchant vessels over 100 tons gross have by law divided the crew into three watches, working four hours on and eight hours off, and turning the dog watches into one evening watch.
Pleasure boaters have rung many changes on this traditional system, which make it more convenient for small boats sailing shorthanded.

-Taken from John Vigor's The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge

It's amazing how we accidentally fell into this rough pattern last year when we needed to. Damon's watch ended with fatigue at around 3am, and my watch ended in fatigue around 5am. Thankfully, Colin had slept through the night and was able to single hand the boat for a few hours while the entire crew slept.

This year, the first passage to Tangier's may take up to 48 hours, depending on how stubborn we are to sail without the motor. That means we will have to take turns sleeping while under way. The goal here is to mimic the success of last year's all night sail without the failure of Colin sailing alone. He could have fallen off the back of the boat, and we would not have known until we ran aground. And we need him this year in case we get stuck in another channel at low tide. (Apparently the islands have narrow and shallow harbor channels). Who knew that the solution for running aground is to mix one part Colin with two parts whiskey, add a dash of urine, and watch him work.

So let's organize the night better. The watches during the day are too regimented for a pleasure cruise, and Damon doesn't need to divide responsibilities like that unless the weather and seas become consistently rough and tiring. So, after talking with the skipper, here's the watch plan for this year:

First Watch (8pm to midnight) - Damon and Derek
Middle Watch (Midnight to 4am) - Jason and Greg
Morning Watch (4am to 8am) - Colin and Chris

These times don't mean there can only be two crew in the cockpit for each watch - just that there will always be at least two crew responsible for being alert during each watch. (no - this doesn't mean sober; just well-rested)

Getting to sleep that first night and not staying up late to night sail will be hard for me, I think, so I am going to take an Ambien after dinner so I can be fresh at midnight. In this type of situation, get sleep where you can and BE RESPONSIBLE, knowing that if your body "crashes" while on watch, somebody will have to wake up and cover you. Anybody is welcome to take one of my Ambien if they think they won't be able to sleep on their own - just not 4 hours before their watch.

THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!!

-Jason