Skipper's diary

From wacky watches to pirate boats, Simon Warner shares some eye-opening excerpts from his transatlantic diary

- Simon Warner

The startline

The start was manic – nearly 200 boats jostling for position… not that it really matters on a 2,700 mile course but I admired the principle and gleefully joined in the pointless battle of skill, nerve, and who had packed the least baked beans.

The watch system

Such was the importance of the watch system that great debate ensured as to how we should organise ourselves. A number of ideas were put forward:

• Royal Navy Short Watch System – 3-hour watches plus a nominated ‘Mother’ each day, who would cook meals and keep everyone in check

• Socialist Watch System – do a watch when you feel like it, let others pick up the other watches

• Capitalist Watch System – pay people to do the night watches you don’t want to do

• Siesta Watch System – no one on watch between 1 pm and 4 pm under any circumstances

• Swiss Watch System – a complex system involving overpriced unreadable chronometer clock dials and large amounts of milk chocolate

After a tense discussion, we elected to follow in Nelson’s footsteps and go with the Royal Navy System.

Things to do on watch

• Check colour of sky (if blue, put on sun cream, if grey put on raincoat, if black turn on navigation lights)

• Check colour of sea (if blue, increase sail, if white, reef sails, if green, shout ‘Land Ahoy’)

• Go down into the warm and dry below and pretend to read the GPS plotter while rifling through the cupboards looking for sweets