Things have changed quite a bit around here without the auto-helm. It seems that sailing takes a bit more effort and attention than we were used to. We all miss Otto. Life With Otto:
We were doing 2 hour watches through the night. Two hours on watch was not bad - you checked for ships, made sure that the course was good and mostly just let Otto do his thing.Most of the time you were free to look at the stars, moon, read a book or even take a quick nap. Easy cheesy - then you get a nice four hour sleep before the next watch. Life WIthout Otto:
We went to 1 hour watches 24 hours a day. It is much more physically demanding to have to steer and navigate full time so we shortened the time. This gives us each a full two hour block of time for sleeping. Now during a watch you are generally doing some serious stuff. You have to be aware of the course, speed, weather and you have to steer. Sometimes you get lucky and the sails are all balanced and the seas are not too rough and you can lock down the steering wheel and sit down for a rest now and then. Most of the time however, you are actively sailing and it can get pretty intense. At the end of the hour I'm really ready for some rest and generally try to sleep during that time. We are all getting pretty tired and our routines are weird. Two hours is not much time to get done all of the things one might like to get done while off watch i.e. cooking, eating, cleaning, reading, radio work, etc. But we are adapting.
We were doing 2 hour watches through the night. Two hours on watch was not bad - you checked for ships, made sure that the course was good and mostly just let Otto do his thing.Most of the time you were free to look at the stars, moon, read a book or even take a quick nap. Easy cheesy - then you get a nice four hour sleep before the next watch. Life WIthout Otto:
We went to 1 hour watches 24 hours a day. It is much more physically demanding to have to steer and navigate full time so we shortened the time. This gives us each a full two hour block of time for sleeping. Now during a watch you are generally doing some serious stuff. You have to be aware of the course, speed, weather and you have to steer. Sometimes you get lucky and the sails are all balanced and the seas are not too rough and you can lock down the steering wheel and sit down for a rest now and then. Most of the time however, you are actively sailing and it can get pretty intense. At the end of the hour I'm really ready for some rest and generally try to sleep during that time. We are all getting pretty tired and our routines are weird. Two hours is not much time to get done all of the things one might like to get done while off watch i.e. cooking, eating, cleaning, reading, radio work, etc. But we are adapting.