Starr Underway Watchkeeping Procedures

15 Apr Starr Underway Watchkeeping Procedures

We’re three days out of Honolulu and have covered 400 nautical miles. Since leaving the dock, we haven’t seen another boat—neither on AIS nor radar.

People often ask, “What do you do while underway?” The questions range from “Where do you anchor at night?” to “Do you play games to deal with boredom?” The truth is, there’s always something going on.

Here’s how we spend our time:

We run a watch schedule of three hours on and nine hours off. Off-watch time is usually spent catching up on sleep, reading, or writing. You’d be surprised how much energy gets used just managing the constant motion of the boat—lots of small muscles at work!

Margaret standing watch

We’ve had winds up to 25 knots and 2–3 meter waves from the east. It’s been rough enough that we had to block off the port-side engine room air intake to prevent water from being pulled into the engine room. The main deck has been awash much of the time.

Watch Schedule:

I stand watch from 6:00–9:00 AM and again from 6:00–9:00 PM.
During the evening watch (1800–2100), I dim the computer screens to protect our night vision. In the morning, I brighten them again for daylight operations.

At the beginning of each watch, we fill out the pilothouse logbook with all relevant information—position, conditions, system checks, and any notable events.

Pilothouse logbook. Entries are made at each watch change and if anything out-of-the-ordinary occurs.

We often listen to music or audiobooks via the exterior speakers, but no ear pods are allowed—our ears need to stay open to any alarms or strange noises aboard.

Vigilance at Sea:

One of our biggest concerns is striking floating debris and fouling the propeller or running gear. We have just one engine and one propeller. The engine is so quiet that from the pilothouse you can barely hear it. So we’re always listening for any subtle changes in sound. If there’s a drop in RPMs or a change in vibration, it could mean the propeller is fouled. In that case, we immediately reduce RPMs to idle and shift to neutral to minimize damage. Then assess the situation.

Patrick on watch. Standing watch demands the capacity for swift action, though seldom calls upon it.

On nearly every long passage, we’ve ended up with lines or nets wrapped around the propeller—usually at night when visibility is limited. The only solution? Get in the water and cut it away.

Traffic Monitoring:

We continuously monitor both of our radars and the chart plotter. One radar is set to a 24-mile range to pick up ships just as they crest the horizon; the second is set to 12 miles. Our chart plotter also looks out 24 miles. If a vessel is transmitting AIS (Automatic Identification System), which transmits on the same bands as our VHF radio, we’ll see it on both radar and the plotter starting at about 20 nautical miles.

In clear conditions, we may visually spot the mast of a ship at around 12 nautical miles. It’s rare that we’re surprised by an approaching vessel, AIS or not. We also use PredictWind’s satellite AIS service, which can show ships approaching from up to a week’s running time away.

Our Protocol:

If a vessel appears on radar or AIS, the watchstander calls either Patrick or me to the pilothouse. Our standard procedure: if the CPA (Closest Point of Approach) is less than 3 miles and the vessel is still over 8 miles away, we step in to coordinate communication with the oncoming ship.

At closing speeds of 30 knots or more, there’s little time to establish clear intentions. In our experience, radioing the vessel often connects us with a helmsman who may not speak English, so they usually bring in another crew member to help translate and coordinate.

Watchstanding Duties:

Each watch begins with filling out the pilothouse logbook, which contains key data for tracking the passage. Additionally, we maintain a separate engine room log, updated every three hours.

Rob and Patrick doing an engine room check

Engine room log

If anyone’s interested in the details, I’m happy to share examples of both logs to show what we monitor during a passage.

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