Time and Tide . . . .

Rowana · Post by **Rowana** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:34 pm

I don't know about you lot, but I'm not a fan of changing the clock twice a year. Personally, I can't see what it achieves. We still get the same number of hours of daylight and darkness, and my sailing is more governed by the tides rather than the time of day. I also don't like all this adding/subtracting an hour here or there to get the times sorted. Confuses my old grey matter somewhat.

Anyway, this year I decided that the ship would run completely on GMT, or UT, or whatever they call it nowadays. It's still GMT to me!

So here's the routine -
My watch is on BST. Take it off when I go aboard.
Ships clock and GPS show GMT.
Read tide times directly from almanac, and forget any conversion jiggery-pokery. What you read from the book is what it will say on the clock.

Simple!! (Bit like me, then)

When I arrive in port, put on watch and I'm back to BST.

Anyone else use this system?

little boy blue · Post by **little boy blue** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:51 pm

no, but it`s an interesting idea. however, before i try it you would have to tell me how many times you missed closing time at the pub

sahona · Post by **sahona** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:40 am

I keep the "navigators clock" at GMT, use Dover Tables with the Tidal atlas, and, because the bl00dy thing gets it's knickers in a twist when using BST, the plotter has to be at GMT.
But, the "arrive before the pubs close" clock has to be local of course.

Rowana · Post by **Rowana** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:41 pm

little boy blue wrote:no, but it`s an interesting idea. however, before i try it you would have to tell me how many times you missed closing time at the pub

sahona wrote:But, the "arrive before the pubs close" clock has to be local of course.

Well, since I was filleted a couple of years ago to have the main pump sorted, and the resultant pills and potions that I have to take these days to keep it (almost) pumping regularly, I'm afraid that closing time has little interest to me. I am allowed an occasional glass of wine or bottle of beer, but I don't bother when I'm sailing. Due to the vast improvement it has made to my life since I had it done, it's a small price to pay, believe me!

Arghiro · Post by **Arghiro** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:22 pm

I used to have a seiko watch (sadly now demised) with independant analogue hands & digital display. That was soooo useful. Travel abroad, set hands to local time, but home time was on digital display so I didn't ring SWMBO in early hours etc. That would work well for GMT/BST time shifts.

I have a tide clock at home and considered one for the boat, but it isn't worth adjusting it for the different ports as you sail around. Plus applying constants to my home port time is no better than just looking it up in the tables!

sahona · Post by **sahona** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 10:17 am

Well, since I was filleted a couple of years ago .....

Eek - Spineless ! that was serious. - Sorry to hear of your ticker prob. At the moment I'm just popping pills, like a lot of people who's latent problems have been discovered by the various medical schemes around.
Suffice to say a few of us wouldn't be sailing if the medics weren't so slick, so, in spite of what they say about the NHS, here's to the quacks, thanks for the extra years.

Rowana · Post by **Rowana** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:38 pm

sahona wrote:
Suffice to say a few of us wouldn't be sailing if the medics weren't so slick, so, in spite of what they say about the NHS, here's to the quacks, thanks for the extra years.

Definitely

I was just puting it all down to getting older, and the fact that my job at that time was flying a desk. Went to see the quack about something else, and after he'd listned to my chest, said "Have you ever had any heart problems?" I said no, and had a medical every year for working offshore. He then told me there was a funny rhythm that might be something or nothing, and he was sending me for tests.

After various scans, x-rays, tubes poked in various places, Etc. Etc., they said I had a leaking heart valve.

I went in to hospital on a Monday, had the op on Tuesday morning, and was sent home the following Wednesday. They don't muck about! There are 2 theaters at ARI for heart and lung ops, and they were doing 2 ops a day in each! It was like a conveyor belt!

I wasn't allowed to do anything for 8 weeks, then went twice a week for rehab for the next 8 weeks. I've never looked back since. They can say what they like about the NHS, but I've had great service and can't fault them at all.