The watch system we use on Phoenicia is a “Swedish Watch”. On a Swedish Watch, the 24-hour day is divided up in to three 4-hour shifts and two 6-hour shifts; 5 shifts in total.
The shift times are as follows:
[08:00 – Breakfast]
Shift 1: 8:00-12:00 (Prepare lunch)
[12:00 – Lunch]
Shift 2: 12:00 – 4:00
Shift 3: 16:00 – 20:00 (Prepare dinner)
[20:00 – Dinner]
Shift 4: 20:00 – 02:00 “Sunset Shift”
Shift 5: 02:00 – 08:00 (Prepare Breakfast) “Graveyard Shift/Sunrise Shift”
The Teams are:
A Team “Viking Watch”: Steinar, Diderik, Sheimaa and Yuri
B Team “Phoenicians Watch”: Philip, Maran, David and Remi
Sea Team “Chess Watch”: Charlie, Max, Dirman and Aziz
The benefit of having three teams and five shifts is that each day you will be working at a different time than you did the day before. Every team gets their fair share of sunsets, sunrises and lie-ins and also their fair share of night shifts, cooking and washing up! On top of this we have “Happy Hour”, a weekly treat where the whole crew gather around the helm at 4pm Wednesday to enjoy some sweet treats and soft drinks. However, having only had one Happy Hour this leg, we have collectively decided that next week’s happy hour will be cancelled to be replaced by a birthday party!
So far there have been some great efforts in the kitchen: Maran baked a creamy tuna and sweet potato pie, Yuri rescued some nibbled apples to make a pie, and Max made an Italian/Asian fusion of pineapple and coconut risotto with red curry paste to tie it all together.
As the sun rose yesterday morning, the Sea Team (aka Chess Watch) took over the 08:00-12:00 shift. On our fifth day on the water one thing had been noticeably absent from the menu: fresh fish. We were beginning to worry that we had entered another fishing drought, until discovering our lures were no longer attached to our fishing line and that they had clearly been snatched away by a big fish. We were encouraged and disappointed in equal measure. According to our on-board experts, we need to achieve a speed of 3.5 knots and above in order to get fish to fall for our lures; a speed that, up until recently we had been struggling to achieve.
As soon as Dirman learnt that he was on lunch duty, he strolled over to the stern, pulled on the fishing line and with a big grin on his face, pulled up a large dorado. It was big enough to feed the whole crew and within 2 hours of hauling in the catch, we all had a nice portion of fried fish, rice and salad for lunch.
Comments