Datum: 25rd November 2021
Author: Max
Position: Atlantik
Nautical Position: 15°58.8´N 045°39.3´W
Etmal: 153 NM (total voyage: 4647NM)

Today I got woken up by a fire alarm. That was quite annoying because I wanted to get as much sleep as I could. Anyways – this is not what I want to talk about this time. I want to talk about the „WATCH“ system on board the Pelican.

We have Watch for four hours a day, the B- Group at night and the A- group during the day. Every week we move back one Watch, that means if you had Watch from 08:00 – 12:00, afterwards you have from 04:00 – 08:00. You then have this new time-slot for another week, until we switch again. But not only do the times change, also the duty- officers change (Chris, Simon or David) and every three weeks the watchleaders swap.
Our tasks during the watch:

Helm:
When you are helming (steering) you are told a course by the officer which you have to stick to until you are relieved or the course is changed. You usually stay on the helm for 30 minutes. Steering under sails is much harder than steering under engine, because you´re way slower and the ship is thrown around more by the wind and waves.

Lookout:
We need two people on each side (starboard and port) looking out for ships, buoys or any other phenomenas. Usually you stay there for 30 minutes, but if there aren´t enough people on watch, there is a possibility that you are stuck in your position for a long time, because the helm is more important than the lookouts.

Cleaning:
In every night Watch you have to clean something, like the green mile or the mess room. Then there is another type of cleaning it‘s called „Point of contact cleaning“. You have to clean everything we touch during the day and disinfect it. This is one of our hygiene rules against corona.

Met Obs/ Log book:
You only have to do met ops once per Watch. If you have met obs you have to observe things about the weather, which we pass on to the goverment offices and they use it for weather forecasts, for example.
In the log book you write down simple stuff like your position, speed, swell and any other weather conditions. That‘s not for the goverment, it‘s for the ship.

I hope I could give you some kind of idea of our watch system, have a wonderful day and spread love, Bussi :*

P.S. von Clara M: Mami, ich hab dich mega lieb und vermisse dich sehr!
P.P.S von Max: Ich grüße alle, die ich kenne!