Watch Duty

Imagine you have to wake up every night for three hours to sail a ship, sail a huge ship with only a hand full of other people, have an eye on everything in case of an emergency, and then then go back to sleep. That is one of the core aspects of watch duty.

We are about 50 people on our ship, including the adults. Since we do not have an auto pilot, someone has to steer 24/7 – and everybody aboard has to participate in sailing the ship. That is exactly why we need watch duty. Every one of the 50 people is separated into one of four watch groups. Thus, every group has a size of about eight or nine students and about two or three adults.

Every watch has two shifts per day with a duration of three hours each. Therefore, group one has watch from 11am/pm to 2pm/am, group two from 2am/pm to 5am/pm, group three from 5am/pm to 8am/pm, and group four has watch from 8am/pm to 11am/pm. The adults, that are split equally between the groups, are assigned roles like “watch leader” or “co-pilot”. The co-pilot, short “copi”, is like an assistant for the watch leader, but they are also being trained for the position of being a watch leader. Even though we have a watch leader and one or even multiple copi(s), we are allowed to do most of the work by ourselves. Now that we are familiar with the ship and all the different tasks we have to do during our watches, we assign a “watch prince” or “watch princess” who organizes the tasks for that shift.

During each shift, many tasks need to be done. Usually, we work in 30-minute intervals, since it is not as boring that way. One person has to steer the boat while two people, one on starboard and one on portside, must watch out for other ships or obstacles. Additionally, we have to note our position and the weather every full hour, and every half hour, we must check if the ship is secure, note the temperature of our big fridge and freezer, and when our engine is running, we need to service and oil it. Every watch and their assigned timeslots has its pros and cons. For example, watch three, which I was assigned to up until now, has the privilege to witness beautiful sunrises and sunsets as well es astonishing clear and starry nights.

Our 6.5 months trip is divided into multiple stages. At the end of every stage, people are reassigned so that everyone gets to know everyone else since due to watch times, every group has one watch that they almost never see.

Overall, I think that the watch duty is a nice system with its pros and cons, and I cannot wait to experience being in other watches and their watch times. For the new stage that has just started, I was reassigned to group two, and I am really looking forward to the clear and starry nights even though I probably will not like having to work in the middle of the night!