Our family has developed a routine that sees me get up first and make the tea. It's become a tradition, and I feel that I'm doing my bit for the smooth working of the whole. Watch-keeping isn't just about measuring time-periods. It's about establishing a routine for the yacht.
Routine is vitally important on passage. It's a way of ensuring that you don't have to re-invent the wheel every day. It's like the heartbeat of the voyage. It keeps the necessary things in balance, makes sure they're done, and provides a warning if they are missed.
Filling in the log and marking the plot on the chart every hour is one example of an important routine. If it's done every hour, it will feel wrong if it's missed. And so routine contributes to safety.
In fact, some routines can become so important that they take on almost mythical symbolism. Pumping the bilges, for example, becomes a routine either at the start of each watch, or at least first thing during the forenoon watch. Miss it, and some people will mutter into their beards and pump three times for 'luck'.
The good old rotating three watch system always used to be marked by bells. One bell for the first half hour, two bells for the first hour, three bells for the first hour and a half, and so on, up to eight bells for the end of a four watch period. 'Ding-ding, ding-ding' meant you'd been on watch an hour, and you'd better make sure the tasks for that hour had been done.
It gave the watch-keepers something to focus on, and in an age before the wrist-watch, it made sure the routine ran smoothly. Buckets were important, too. In an age before piped plumbing, the buckets would need to be filled with rain water to replenish the drinking water barrels, or with salt water to aid the scrubbing of the decks. Sand buckets were used as a precaution against fire. And the officers' slop buckets would need to be emptied. The bucket, as much as the bell, marked out the ship's routine.
A new crew will have to learn the vessel's routine at the start of a voyage. They will feel awkward, out of place, not sure of themselves, in the absence of routine. So a watch-keeping system not only marks time and maintains safety, it also helps to integrate new members of a crew and binds them together through a shared routine.
Even totally inexperienced crew can feel much more at home if you give them a simple routine to follow, and it's really not a kindness to say to a new crew member: “Take your time to settle in. We'll not give you anything to do for the first day or so. Just get used to the yacht.” Give them a routine or a bucket, or the modern equivalent of a bell to ring! Ask them to make a hot drink for the crew every two hours. They will soon settle in.
After a while a more natural routine will start to emerge. We begin to find that one crew member is always willing to put the kettle on and make the tea. Another will get the fishing line out. Little routines, marking the passage, will develop.
And so watch-keeping will take on a new dimension. It won't be just about making sure the crew are called and the collision regulations are followed. It will be about developing a heartbeat, a sense of unity, of working together.
A good skipper will set out a clear watch-keeping system, gently encouraging, but also raising an eyebrow if things are missed, so that the yacht's routine is established, and the crew welded together into a single, comfortable, alert and safety-conscious team.
Richard Thomas holds a Commercially Endorsed RYA Yachtmaster and Cruising Instructor (Sail) certificate. He runs his own delivery business, www.yachtmovers.co.uk
He is available for deliveries, assisted passages, own-yacht tuition, and yacht management.
