I was sitting out on the deck enjoying coffee and the moonlit sky a little while ago. My thoughts drifted to when I was a youngster sailing before the mast in the merchant fleet.
A sea watch is 4 hours on and 8 hours off. At night, split among 3 men, you spend one hour twenty minutes on the wheel, one hour 20 minutes on standby and one hour twenty minutes forward on lookout.
Lookout was the best. That is if the weather was good. For an hour and twenty minutes you stood on the bow of the ship looking for lights on the horizon, listening to the low roar of tons of seawater being pushed aside by the ship’s prow and enjoying the night sky. Being in the middle of the ocean and forward of all lights, the night sky was beautiful. An added treat on a moonlit night, you could see the porpoise playing in the bow wave. Oh, once in a while you’d see a ship off in the distance and have to return to the here and now and report it. On most ships when you saw a light you rang a bell to report it. One bell for anything more than 12 points off the port bow, 2 bells for anything more than 12 points off the starboard bow and 3 for dead ahead.
It was a most enjoyable way to earn a living.
Short of the porpoise and surge of the sea, I enjoy the same peaceful starlit sky nearly every morning before sunrise. Life here in the mountains is marvelous.