routine part 1

Dawnbreaker
Lars Alfredson
Tue 18 Nov 2014 09:35

POS 41:40.243S 175:23.566E

The routine

 

Some of our non-sailing readers have enquired to ¨the blogger¨ about the routine and typical day on board.

It is like a baby´s life.  You sleep, you poop, you eat and sleep again!!!!     And you keep others awake at night. 

While at sea a night watch system is in place.  Shifts of 3 hours starting at 21:00 all night through 9:00.  You sleep when you can and your body agrees. 

Otherwise, it is a routine as with any house.  Weekly cleaning schedule, weekends off, meal time and chores schedule.

Breakfast is generally up to each one, as to accommodate the individual sleep/shift schedule.

 A coffee plunger and a toast and cheese is the basic starter of the day. 

Although some prefer a more substantial meal with yogurt, fruits, juice, eggs, muesli, cold cuts, cheese.

At sea the cook has to consider from gale force sailing conditions to flat and calm seas.  Therefore pre-cooking is important.

 What we call bowl and spoon meals that need only to be heated.  Usually not a culinary reference.  Cabbage and minced meat, stew with potatoes, beans and chouriço, stir-fried chicken with rice, pasta on a tomato sauce are some examples.

The crew tries to keep a schedule special for beer time and happy hour (not a baby activity).

A lot of reading hardcopy and ebooks, music and video watching on your PDA.

The most important activity is navigation and weather forecasting and strategy as New Zealand has a wild weather behavior pattern.  This makes it especially important to keep the boat and bunk tidy and all stowed away.  At any moment conditions change, pans fly, computers take off, the coffeepot goes ballistic.

Going to work requires a painful process.  Pending on weather and sea it goes through warm under layers, full Musto fowl weather gear, high boots, life vest and safety harness to attach to the safety lines on deck.  The only good thing you don´t need to commute or park. And when you off all you need is to shed off your working gear and hit the scene.


The blogger