Watch

Ship: Regina Maris
Date: October 28, 2024
Position: Bay of Biscay
Geographical Position: 45°31.35 N 007°37.12 W
Day’s Run: 195 nm
Total: 730.75 nm

Routine of a Watch

What does it actually look like?

On a boat, you have a „watch.“ Of course, you guard something-but what exactly are you guarding? What’s the procedure, and what do you do?

All legitimate questions, so here’s a little insight into our everyday life.

First, how do we actually wake up?

After all, we don’t have an alarm clock or cell phone to wake us up. You’re always woken up 20–30 minutes before your watch starts by someone who’s finishing their watch at that time. You then use this time to get ready, put on oilskins and head to the poop deck. The poop deck is home to the steering wheel, access to the wheelhouse, the entrance to the engine room and a few other important things. It’s the base of the watch.

Now to the actual watch-what’s going on and what are the tasks?

The „new watch“ should gather on the poop deck 10 minutes before the watch begins. Once everyone is gathered, there’s a handover. During this handover, the „old watch“ explains to the „new watch“ what happened in the last four hours, what’s changed during their watch and the current course being followed.

During the watch, we steer the ship, keep lookout, maintain the logbook and monitor the engine and other parts of the ship.

In addition to watch duties, we have our nautical training. We have an “Ocean College Learning Book” with assignments that cover different topics. These topics include „Safety,“ „Seamanship,“ „Navigation and Bridge Work,“ and more.

We complete these assignments to progress to the next level, “Leading Hand,” by the time we reach the Canary Islands.

Thirty minutes before the end of the watch, the entire next watch must be awakened so they can be ready to start on time.

Remarks:

Kaja: An meine Familie: Danke, dass ihr mir die Reise ermöglicht habt. Es ist wundervoll hier. Vielen, vielen Dank dafür. Ich hab‘ euch ganz dolle lieb. Ich melde mich noch einmal vor der Atlantiküberfahrt. LG Kaja

Max: Papa, alles alles Gute zu Deinem Geburtstag, ich hoffe, Du wirst schön gefeiert. Vielen Dank für das alles hier. LG Max (Sali)

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