Good Morning Early Birds!

[waterboatman]

Wednesday. Not too cold out, no rain either. Wonderful!

Got to Stroud yesterday, but didn't get to the museum. Had to get back for an appointment. Might go today.

Have a happy day everyone.

[1ozzy]

G'day Boaty, up earlier today?
Mrs Oz arrives home today, been myself and 19yo son here for five days.
Thinking I should do a last minute whip around. Place looks surprisingly good, probably should get rid of the empties though.

[waterboatman]

Afternoon oz. Sorry about the delay in replying, been dealing with emails. I'm up a little bit earlier today. 2.30 AM! Woke up and no chance of getting back to sleep.

Getting rid of the empties is top priority mate, otherwise it's tongue pie and cold shoulder for dinner!

I'm sure you will be pleased tobhave her back safe and sound mate. :o}

[1ozzy]

Sure will be Boaty.
No need to worry about dinner though,,,got that organised.
I'll bet my loving son doesn't open his wallet for re-stocking though.
But he has done a heap of washing and sorting though, surprised just how helpful he has been. Must have "kicked him up right" whilst he was young.

[1ozzy]

Anyway, I'm going to disappear for a little while and be useful for a change.
If I don't make it back, have a great day Boaty.

[waterboatman]

Sounds like it mate. I reckon he thinks that's enough for his contribution. :o}

[stuey]

Ahoy, yawhl (bit of a nautical joke there). Minus 19 here with the wind, chill so heading for for the port side of me bunk as me timbers are shivering and it's just struck ten bells. Does anyone really understand the "bell" system in naval terms? I've looked it up and still don't understand. Anyway, the smoking lamp is out.

[waterboatman]

Have a good evening oz. ;o}

Morning stuey. Me timbers have never been so shivered! That a tad nippy that is! Where are you?

The bells system. It is how the crew on watch mark the passing of there 4 hour watch. one bell every half hour. :o}

[waterboatman]

Ending up with 8 bells for the end of the watch. At sea you don't do shifts, you do watches.

[stuey]

In the Toronto area, WB. But does every ship always have a dog on board to do a watch?:)

[waterboatman]

Not all of them. Some don't have any animals at all. Some ships have a cat that is supposed to keep the rats down.

[stuey]

By the way, I do watches and clocks.

[waterboatman]

The dog watch is the 2AM to 6AM. no cat watch though!

[waterboatman]

Make or repair them? A skilful job!

[stuey]

So what is the "dog watch" on board ship?...Very confusing.

[waterboatman]

See two above. ^^

[janbee]

Morning boaty xx ozzy xx and stuey. We have a nice smattering of folks from around the world this morning.

[waterboatman]

Morning jan xxx Yup GMEB International! :o}

[stuey]

Yes, we crossed posted. Here is a short excerpt from a Wiki article regarding time at sea...fascinating, to me anyway. Goodnight, WB. John Harrison (3 April [O.S. 24 March] 1693– 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought after device for solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long-distance sea travel in the Age of Sail. The problem was considered so intractable, and following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 so important, that the British Parliament offered the Longitude prize of £20,000 (£2.75 million). Harrison came 39th in the BBC's 2002 public poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[1]

[1ozzy]

Hi Stuey G'day Janb.
Geez Stuey the worst I've had to contend with is -8c.
Can't imagine what -19 is like.

A rather humid day here today @36c.
Don't mind the warmth, hate the humidity.

[waterboatman]

That's right Stuey. That is to do with navigation rather than watch keeping. If you have an accurate timepiece you can work out how far East or West you have travelled. For North and South a sextant was used to measure the angle between the horizon and the sun. accurate time was, and is, essential for an accurate sun shot. It's all computerised now, but I can still use a sextant! :o}