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Lucifer · 11-26-2005, 07:28 AM

Interesting all the different jobs we have!
I'm a Merchant Marine Officer. Typical Day (at sea)
11:30 pm - get woken for watch by the ordinary seaman (OS) of the 3rd mate's watch 8-12
11:45 pm - on the bridge, get COFFEE!!, talk to the 3rd mate, look in the radars, check the ecdis, gyro compass, let eyes get adjusted to the dark, look out all the windows for other ships, talk about what to expect in the next four hours (what ships are around, course alterations, radio call in points, etc)
11:50 pm - Sign in the Logbook, and plot our position on the chart. The ship is now mine. Big responsibility for this huge hunk of steel, it's million dollar cargo and the 30 sleeping souls on board.
11:55 pm - call the engine room, check the clocks have the same time in their control room as we have on the bridge
For the next 4 hours, I mainly keep lookout the windows, shoot the shit with my wheelsman, watch for the lights of other ships that may come close to us, plot our position on the chart every 30 minutes and make log entries every hour, alter our course as necessary to avoid other ships, big rocks, land, etc., call traffic control on the VHF radio and let them know where we are, sometimes if I feel particularily bored, I will fill out the weather code sheet and call it in to the coast guard.
3:30 am-ish - get things ready for the 1st mate to take over at 4 am. Make fresh coffee, make sure the charts are updated with latest position, courses and alterations.
4:00 am - off watch now, I watch tv for an hour or so depending on how tired I am and sleep till 11:00 am when the 8-12 watchman wakes me for lunch.
11:50 am - see above, except now it's daylight and I can do chart corrections while on watch, when I'm not avoiding other ships, big rocks, land.
3:20 pm - dinner break. 1st mate comes up and relieves me of watch, so that I can come back and relieve him at 4:50 pm so he can go to the galley and get his dinner.
4:50 pm - relieve the 1st mate for dinner for 30 minutes.
5:20 pm - get my dinner and watch tv and go to bed, cause there'll be a knock on my door at 11:30pm to start another day.

If we are in port loading or unloading cargo, I'm in command of the deck and the cargo operations for the hours between 12-4, and I'm available for overtime for the two hours preceding my watch and the two hours after if the other mate's need a hand, like for leaving/entering port or taking the ship up rivers, etc.
My ship is about 650' long and works on the Great Lakes.