# 2 person watch schedule



## jsgsail (May 19, 2004)

Any suggestions for a 2 person crew on how many hours to be on and off watch,2-3 day trip. I''ve read 3 on 3 off, but would like to hear some personal experiences

Thanks


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## ughmo2000 (Feb 12, 2003)

Doing the Baja Bash the two of us did a 
4 on 4 off schedule. Anything less than four hours off I don''t think you''d ever catch up on your sleep. Only 4 hrs off was hard enough after several days.


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## jack_patricia (May 20, 2001)

J, Ugh''s own experience aside, I don''t think it''s possible to generalize with others about what watch schedule fits a given crew. I''d suggest you start by considering two basic preferences that you and your other crew member have: what are your natural biorhythms re: sleep and what is your attitude(s) about day-time watch skeds.

To illustrate, my wife and I don''t find it necessary to have a firm watch schedule at any time, but especially so in daytime. Conditions change and some days are more tiring than others, something needs to be fixed, weather f''cast downloading times change, perhaps breakfast takes longer to prepare or there were several sail changes the previous night...there''s just lots of ebb & flow at the personal level some days at sea. OTOH we always have a *designated* watchstander conning the boat (meaning the person knows s/he alone has the watch). Always.

Second, we happen to have individual physiological preferences that fit nicely with one another. Patricia has always been someone that desires an early sleep in the evening. I''m no night owl but I can stay alert later than she can. And it''s not uncommon for her to awake during the night, quite alert...but she needs more sleep than I do and so the daybreak watch isn''t her cup of tea. What this normally shakes out to is:
Pat- early evening watch
Me - after I do the dishes until about midnight
Pat - Midnight - 0300
Me - Thru the dawn and early morning

And even so, the exact times we change watch depends much more on how we''re feeling than any specific point on the clock. For us, this is just how it works most easily, and I''d suggest you ask yourselves how it might work for you.

Jack


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## jsgsail (May 19, 2004)

Thanks,

We''ll start off 4/4 then adjust as necessary,

Jeff


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## ughmo2000 (Feb 12, 2003)

Once again Whoosh comes up with some suggestions worth listening to. 

Good luck with your passage Jeff!

Cliff


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

My wife and I on a recent cruise did this.I did the Midnight till dawn watch usually about 7:00AM she took the watch after fixing coffee and some grub. Then I would get a few hours of sleep and wake to eat lunch and take the noon to 6:00PM watch and do some maintance which she would have to take the wheel sometimes. I found she needed a little more rest than me and so I felt good about taking a bit more of the watch time than her.So it was an even split and I have a nighttime gig where I take a pillow and blanket and wrap up and if I lay in a spot where I can fix on a star cluster I can tell if I am holding my course or not and I get some rest with maybe only some zig zag but with GPS it is not a big deal. Or like Capt. Ron says just pull over and ask directions.


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