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WatchkeepingNext Previous Beth and I work the ship 24 hours/day, of course. We used to stand 6 hour watches but have found it's easier (for us, anyway) to do 3 hours instead. We keep to the same schedule for the entire trip, though we occasionally will give the off-watch a little more sack time if we're not too tired ourself. We have a designated watchkeeper night and day. We set a timer and always stand up and look all around, over the top of the dodger, every ten minutes, and generally more often. I know people who sleep all night when they should be on watch, and I know people who set the radar alarm and trust it to see ships and stuff. This is NOT adequate! We've spoken with several ships' captains, and have had radio conversations with watchkeepers on ships, and believe me, these guys aren't expecting to see a yacht and could easily run you down (especially at night). Particularly vessels operated by marginal, poorly trained, or uncaring crews. Be careful out there.
March, 2002: Running wing and wing perhaps 1,000 miles NNE of the Gambier Islands. This big fellow was headed from Valparaiso to somewhere in Japan, if I recall correctly. You don't see ships often, but we always look around every 5-10 minutes to see if one is sneaking up on us. These guys are going between 15 and 30 knots, so that means they're covering a mile every 2 to 4 minutes. We've found that we generally spot ships between 4 and 8 miles away, which is pretty close. Therefore, you have between 8 and 32 minutes until you'll be run down (this doesn't take into account that you're sailing a mile every 10 minutes as well). In real life, my impression is that you have around 10-12 minutes from the time you spot a ship until they're too close for comfort (remember, you're not continuously scanning the horizon). Therefore, folks who only look around every half-hour or so (or worse yet, who go to bed at night while underway) run a very real risk of being run down by a ship. It happens occasionally. |
