December 4, 2009
Aboard No Boundaries
We have had all sorts of interesting experiences as we embark on the cruising life. In the University of Cruising, Watch Management is a required course.
Before we ever owned a bluewater sailboat, we read a lot of books about cruising. Several of them elaborated on the watch system they used. Everyone seems to tweak it in some unique way. Because we admire the Pardeys so much, we were pretty sure that we would want to follow their lead with four-hour watches. The idea of four hours of sleep in a row sounded so good that we sort of ignored the fact the while one person is sleeping, the other is awake and all alone in the cockpit for four hours. That is quite a different matter.
Most other cruisers appear to have landed on some version of three-hour watches. A few stick with two. We read and talked and let that whole idea wander around in the back of our minds for years. Until we actually began to cruise, it was all hypothetical. When we left Cape May one day in July last summer, the notion of watchkeeping came front and center.
We had cruised all day with a following wind of sufficient force to build up 8-foot waves. For Larry it was not the first time. In 2003, he and his son Phil took the boat north along this same path, and they had run overnight just as we were about to do. For me, it was all new. We were motoring as the sun set, because light and variable winds earlier were not conducive to successful sailing (and because we actually wanted to make progress toward our destination). Even though the increasing breeze at sunset might have been good for sailing, we were in agreement that it would be easier to manage our first overnight run without sails. As we talked, it soon became clear that no matter how much we admired the Pardeys, neither of us was ready to spend four hours in the dark cockpit all alone. We decided to work on two-hour watches and see what happened.
The first time I set out to sleep for two hours on the pilot berth, I had a hard time falling asleep. I didn’t feel particularly nervous, but I was not accustomed to that setting. One of the issues was the little light over the nav station. I remembered that a friend had long ago sent me a sleeping mask for airplane travel, so I pulled it out and used it that night. I still use it. It makes a great deal of difference to have my eyes in complete darkness. I was surprised at how rested I felt when it was my turn to be awake and alert.
The next morning dawned beautiful, and it was beautiful all day as we ran south of Long Island all day. The sunset was glorious, and just about 2100 I went below to sleep as Larry took the first watch. I was just laying my head on the pillow when I heard the roar of a wind gust and the boat tilted dramatically to starboard. I lay there a minute or two and continued to hear the wind roaring. When another gust tried to lay us over, I decided that sleeping time was over. I put on my lifejacket and hurried up the companionway. We both worked very hard for the next hour as we adjusted sail and sought a course that would give us smoother sailing in winds that I later learned were crowding 40 knots. At the time, I simply refused to look at the windspeed indicator. I did not want to know.
This time, when I went below, I was nervous. I hated leaving Larry alone to deal with the wind that was so much more ferocious than it had been during the day, and I dreaded being the one to deal with it when he went to sleep, but the reality was that it would be stupid for both of us to wear ourselves out at the same time. Sharing the load meant that somebody had to be sleeping, getting the rest and refreshment that would support good decision-making when awake. I slept.
Since then, we have done several overnights. I must confess that running overnight is not what drew us to cruising, but running overnight makes cruising better. The fact that we can do this allows us to get to distant places more quickly. It also reduces the amount of time we spend running in and out seeking anchorage. We move more directly to our destination. While some will observe that we miss some sights, others will recognize that we see the sights we want to see more quickly. Furthermore, running overnight allows us to go far out to sea where there is much less likelihood we will run aground or hit something. Out beyond twenty nautical miles it is much less crowded.
I won’t say that we have landed on our permanent plan yet. We very much aspire to a three-hour watch system that gives each of us a daytime nap as well. We are not yet orderly enough to plan that well, but we are getting there. We know it is critical before we attempt any long passages. Fifty hours is only a starting point.
for now, we might be earning a solid C in Watch-keeping 101 in the University of Cruising. We need to acquire a bit more discipline and skill before we can hope for a better grade.
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