Sunshine watch 

Date: 21th of March, 2024
Geographical Position: 36°28.0′ N 043°05.4′ W
Etmal: 172 nm
Total: 9855 nm
Ship: Regina Maris

In every watch we have a morning/day and an evening/night watch. In Bravo, the feeling of the students and the jobs that have to be done really differ based on the which watch you have. 

Bravo Day: 

During Bravo day watch we have all the meetings, which take place on board. That’s the reason why it feels like time passes a lot quicker. In addition, after heads and showers are done, you don’t have any actual duties besides sailing.

This is why we usually just cut up some fruits and listen to the music we want, since Mathieu does not really mind what kind of music we play. He will mostly only make fun of you if it’s any kind of rap.

When we are lucky, we even get to listen to him playing the ukulele. When he does, you forget all the problems or struggles you had in your mind beforehand and just listen to him playing while time flies past. 

The Bravo day watch, we also call the sunny watch. This is due to the fact that every time Bravo comes on watch, suddenly the sky clears and the sun comes out. I often came into the situation, where I got told that I needed my Musto gear in order to stay warm and dry, because it was apparently rainy and windy.

By the time I then came on watch, it was sunny and I had to take everything off again. The few times we didn’t have good weather, we saw whales which already happened twice since Costa Rica. These two times were the only ones where the sky was cloudy enough to cover the sun.

About Mathieu:

Mathieu is a person that sees sailing as a sport and therefore you have a watch officer who is really passionate about it and wants to motor for the least amount of time possible. It’s his profession, but that’s also why he often does things on his own.

If you already know how to sail and what to do you can easily give him a hand but when you’re a bit unsure on what to do, he does it faster then you can watch. This doesn’t mean that he won’t explain something to you if you asked him. He will just sometimes go down and brace the square on his own.

Bravo day watch is my personal favourite, because of the good weather, the sailing aspect and it doesn’t feel like four hours of watch due to all the meetings and your duties. 

Fun fact: Bravo is currently holding the speed record with 11.1 knots. 

Bravo night:

Bravo night watches are very special and are not comparable to any other watches. First of all, no one is awake, so besides from your watch, the whole ship is silent. Not only the people are silent, but we also have no machinery running like the generator or the water maker.

This is why the only thing you are hearing is the waves splashing gently against the hull of the ship and the wind in your ears. When you’re lucky those sounds will even be topped by the stunning voice of Mathieu singing one of his legendary songs in the middle of the night. 

Normal activities you’re going to do comprise of: Preparing food and eating it (the leftovers of the day before), telling dark stories, listening to Mathieu telling story’s about his exciting youth, having a debate about absolutely anything with the whole watch or playing “Werewolf” with the helms men being the story teller. In the old Bravo watches, baking was typically on the agenda, but this was sadly forbidden with the change in captains. 

On top of the romantic setting nature creates with the waves, the beautiful night sky and the soft wind, Mathieu really gives his best to make it even more special. He has a sweet little picnic lamp in his cute back pack together with a picnic blanket and our self made bravo flag.

On top he used to sow little accessories for every member with patches on them to display their role on watch. This was kind of our watch uniform. 

Sail handling:

Sail handling in Bravo Night watch is not the biggest issue, due to the fact that you try to make the sails as safe as possible before it gets dark, because sail handling in the dark can be extremely difficult as well as dangerous.

First of all it’s dark and no one is awake to help, so you’re only six people. So during night, safety has priority over speed. Still you can’t reduce all the risk so when we for example, see a squall on the radar, we have around ten to five-teen minutes to reduce sail area as quickly as possible.

If we are really in a hurry we also have the possibility to ring the bell and to call an „all hands on deck“ manoeuvre in the middle of the night, but thankfully that has not yet happened. 

Still, during my time in Bravo night watch, we had the risk of getting hit by a squall so we reduced the sail area to only the main sail and the fore stay sail within ten minutes. Luckily, because of this, we slowed down fast enough, in order for the squall to pass in front of us.  

Bravo night watches are the nights you’re going to remember.  

Daily summary: 

Today was the first really rainy day on the way to the Azores. In the night we rolled a lot because we had to take down the sails for two hours. That made sleeping a bit difficult. Now we’re sailing again and we have normal school. 

P.S.: Thomas: Basler, mein Freund. Hoffe dir gehts gut! Alles Gute und bis bald ✊