Teacher Aboard

For those of you who are light sleepers, this is not the place to be. Your scheduled sleep is during the four hours following each of your two watches. As a crew member, your quarters would be forward in the bow called the foc'sle (forecastle) where there are upper and lower bunks for seven people. (And you guys probably complain about sharing your room with your brother or sister!) Each bunk has a light on the headboard, sheets, a wool blanket, and a curtain that you can pull across for privacy.

You also share half of a wooden foot locker and half of the space beneath the lower bunk to stow your gear. If you were to travel on board for six months knowing it would rain and the temperatures would range from freezing to tropical, what would you bring that would fit in these spaces?

My cabin is designed for guest crew and is located in the main salon near the center of the ship. (Here's a picture of your holiday sub, Dee Shugert, in the top bunk of the cabin.) The bunks are very much the same except there is no need for a curtain. These are staterooms, seven feet long by seven feet wide, with a small dresser and a door. In place of windows, a deck prism, which is a thick pointed piece of glass mounted in the deck above, gathers light and brightens the cabin. We also have a small fan. Compared to the crew, I have tons of space. On this trip I use some of the space for camera, computer and scientific equipment.

The captain and the two mates sleep in the aft cabin which is at the back of the ship. Each of them has a small room next to a larger common area which is furnished with a cushioned bench, a small table, and the chart table where the ship's navigation and computer gear are set up. The captain also has a small desk for working on ship's business.

Sleeping is serious business on a ship. It is important for safety and ship handling for everyone to be well rested. To set or strike (take down) a sail, sometimes you would need to climb high into the rig at any time of day or night. If you are standing on a slender line ninety five feet above the deck, I think you'd agree that rest would be a good thing! With all that said, sleeping isn't the easiest thing to come by. Consider that you must sleep during daylight hours or with the lights on in the main cabin. The boat usually rolls slightly side to side, and in strong winds it will heel (lean) making it difficult to stay in your bunk. If you are a crew member sleeping in the bow, it could be tough sleeping if Pride is plowing up and down through large waves.

Then, too, a boat is a noisy place with the sounds of lines and feet on deck above you, voices of crew members who are up and about (although they try to keep their voices low), and the rattling of pots and pans in the galley for cooking or clean up, or just shifting in their hideaways. On the way to Bermuda it was cold as the only source of heat was the stove. Of course, lately the temperatures have been in the eighties below deck at night. When you awaken for your watch, you have twenty minutes to be on deck. There is ONE wake up call and you are expected to be on time. Sleeping on a boat is a different world. All of our crew have sailed many times before and find all this to be quite routine. And you? It would be interesting if you made a list of all the sleep distractions I just listed. Then poll the class. All hands in the air, please. Drop your hand as something is read that would keep you awake. The last hands up are the champion sleepers! Do we have any qualified sleepers for crew?

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