The Two Sides to being at Sea

One aspect of a career at sea is mind numbingly boring and a killer of the soul and the other an acceptable occupation. One can make a trip go like a snail on a global tour or drags on into eternity with the clock ticking backwards and the other can fly by. And the weird part of it all is that a seafarer never really knows till he joins the vessel how the trip will pan out. It is possible to have completed an excellent trip that passed before it had even started, yet another trip on the same vessel maybe be the time when clocks stand still.

What makes the difference is dependant on so many factors and influences, some external others internal. For one who is ticking off days on the calendar and wanders why life moves so slowly, it could be that all he is thinking about is the loved one back home and that he wants to be anywhere else except stuck on a floating steel can with a bunch of loutish seafarers. Then again the sailor that is fully enjoying life and who wouldn't know which day of the week it was may suddenly find that he has completed the trip quicker than he thought.

Reasons for reverse time travel could be due to the individual seafarer's state of mind: that he does not want to be there. He may hate all of his fellow seafarers or he may actually hate the job that he does. And for those for whom time flies rapidly past this may be influenced by a romantic affair ashore that he may see when the ship is in port, or he may actually be having fun with his fellow workers or that he may actually enjoy the job that he does.

But external factors also contribute to this. For example, the amount of times that an individual may get ashore and how many port calls there are during the trip. If the ship spends three weeks at sea doing nothing apart from steaming in one direction, with no breakdowns and nothing to break the monotony then for sure the trip will stretch out like an elastic band under tension. Hopefully without snapping: which can often happen when people get bored!

Generally most seafarers will stick to the reasoning that if there is a good crowd on the boat then the trip will not stretch out abnormally. If there is a bad crowd then every day is another day at the bottom of the mountain that is still to be climbed. People make a trip, not only because drinking buddies are available but simply for reasons of having a laugh and a decent conversation when eating meals or staring out to sea. Rapport and laughter to tide one over till the next day are so important for people to feel contentment and without which life passes in slow motion.

People ashore who have little or no idea as to what a life at sea is like often assume that sailors sit around playing cards all day. Apart from trying to convince these poor wayward souls that many ships would be hard put to even locate one card it is necessary to say what they do do! What do seafarers do when they are not working, eating or sleeping? Drinking would be an acceptable answer but even that holds little truth.

The idea of having a hobby at sea is something that most seafarers at one time or another would like to have. When packing their bags back home they stuff it full of worldly projects that they have full intention of completing during there three months away. It maybe something as simple as an 'Airfix' WW11 plane: a little box of bits, a tube of superglue and some tiny tins of appropriate colored paint. It may even be the hardest and largest replica of the QE11 that has taken the fancy of one and that is carried as hand luggage with difficulty but with purposefulness till the ship is reached or it maybe a project like learning Chinese, Spanish or A-level Cooking. It maybe even something that is necessary like studying for the Engineering Exams that were failed last time around. But whatever the project or hobby is, that was dreamt up whilst at home, it invariably remains gathering dust in the bag that it was brought in.

It takes a special type of person to pursue a hobby whilst at sea. Chief Engineers and Captains tend to have the best bash at hobby pursuance due to the fact that they can normally dive in during normal working hours. Other Officers find it hard though to concentrate or to muster the energy and enthusiasm to study or follow a hobby during their rest time. Ships work with often unreliable working hours, ships roll and move about and rest times are usually periods for shutting the mind down and doing something inane like sunbathing or drinking.

The most common of means to fill periods of 'time-off' is still through reading. Many a novel is worked through by all onboard as these are easy to put aside or to forget for a day or so and equally as easy to pick up where it was left off. Books are a great pastime for many. Video's are now probably the second most common of past times on ships with Televisions and Video recorders being fitted to most cabins as a matter of course.

Whilst off watch is one thing but whilst working is another. It is important to note that half of the time onboard a vessel is spent in work mode so how life pans out during work time will also influence the speed at which a trip will pass by. For example an Engineer who finds that he is not given the responsibility that he should have or where the vessel has no operational problems (maybe brand new) then the Engineer will be bored whilst on-duty. A navigation Officer who only tracks across the oceans without entering a busy shipping lane and without many port calls will find that he just stares out of the bridge windows day in day out.

The Engineer has become an Operator, a watcher of machines and this is not what they have been trained for. Engineers are there to get there hands dirty and to fix and dive into broken machinery. There is nothing more soul destroying than watching gauges flicker, alarm boards wink, and engines turn when there is a full tool board that remains unsullied. Navigators are meant to be alert and constantly calling up data and the rules of the road, not like it can be were the biggest job of the day is to mark a position on an otherwise unblemished chart.

So the two sides of a life at sea are dependant on so many factors but the main influencing ones are the people that you sail with and the work that is being done. It is not good for mental well being of seafarers to join their ships and to immediately start ticking off days on the calendar. This is not supportive for others or for themselves. It is best when packing the bags prior to joining to forget the German Language Books and the twenty foot model of the Lusitania and instead to gather together some decent reading material. Find some books that are of interest, some crime or adventure easy reading material, stuff them in your bag and set off to the ship with an open mind.

Set off without large plans and just enjoy each day for what it is. Even go as far as throwing the calendar that is hanging in your cabin into the bin - who cares what day it is when half way across the ocean? Of course keep the pictures of the ladies that usually adorn these calendars - just chuck away the dates that are at the top or the bottom of them.