We had it during the Haitain vacation in 1993 on the Kootney. During the weeks transit from Vic to hawaii we had to have a certain portion of the pkg complete, one had to put in a bit of extra work to achieve the goal, but with some hard work and beers, was easily achievable!
Quality of life on ship.....
- Thread starter CallOfDuty
- Start date
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
I hope I'm not steping off topic but can someone provide more information on the 1 in 2 rotation, I know you work 7, off 7, work 5, off 5 but I'd like to know what exactly people do in their off time. It seems like the 1 in 2 can be overwelming, working half the day. So in your off time you have to eat and sleep obviously, it doesn't seem like there's enough room to do others things like relax and watch tv, shower, and laundry. I'm going to assume most people get up 30min prior to their shift, if thats the case then you will never get more than 6 and half hours of uninterupted sleep. If someone could share their own schedule for how they spend their time when off I'd appreciate that.
trigger324
Member
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 460
SoF said:
i'll let you know what i do off watch, mind you i'm a combat type and other ships/departments may vary somewhat. i'm not sure what you are getting into.
basically, you can do whatever you want when you are off watch, just as long as you're done your cleaning stations, mind you, "whatever you want" is only so much when you're at sea lol
you'll end your watch and go eat if you want to, but before you turn in, you will do your cleaning stations, that may take you a half an hour to an hour, depending. then, if you want to work out and your ship has facilities you like using go ahead. you can grab a shower, read a book, watch tv or a movie, play a game, go outside for some sun weather permitting, hang out in the cave and just talk to people, whatever it is you feel like doing. you can even go straight to your cart. but chances are you won't get any uninterrupted sleep what with the ship moving in a sea state for example or any number of reasons for that matter. whatever sleep you get you take. you adapt to that.
personally, i do my laundry on watch, although not everyone can, they often try to.
i get up an hour before my watch. that way i can shower, grab a snack or a meal depending waht time of day it is and then go do my thing. that way i'm not rushed.
it took me a few months at sea to come up with that complicated schedule. you'll figure out what is your best fit.
trigger324
Member
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 460
Navy_Blue said:
no, you weren't the last...ask anyone from Iroquois on the recent deployment about cinderella leave. we had it 3 times!! :
trigger324
Member
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 460
SoF said:
oh, you'll look like a zombie...
SoF said:
Your body will adjust and will adapt a plan. The watch that is on normally wakes up the oncoming watch 30 min prior to watch turn over, unless you put a "shake" in at an earlier time. When you get off watch, you have good old cleaning stations, each department has predetermined cleaning areas. Once their clean your usually on your own time to do as you please(read, work out, sleep, etc) I would normally try to work out on the shorter time off. As wel ltry and do the laundry while I was working or paid the laundry people to do it for me. After awhile its almost like that movie groundhog day, all appears the same!! Most of my time on the west coast was in a 1/2 rot, other wise it was 1/4, think did a 1/3 on one trip. Best watch ever is a 1/2 modified where during the long 7 hr watch, you split that!! oodles of sleep.
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 230
Techs and operators have very different roles on board HMC Ships, however the sailing posture will dictate how busy any given trade will or will not be.
I lived in the NCIOP's mess during one NATO and they were complaining about all of the time I apparently had off while at sea (meaning I had more opportunities to go for a coffee, watch the evening movie etc while on watch). The only thing I stated is that I'd rather have time off alongside than at sea.... the discussion ended there!!!
Operators now (with the exception of the NAVCOMM's) get SPEC 1 pay, therefore there is little pay difference between the operators/techs. Additionally, whereas the operator courses (QL3/QL5) are shorter, they tend to be posted on board ship for a longer period of time and thus get their sea pay increments a lot sooner than the techs who do a 18-24 month QL3 and QL5. Furthermore, operators normally get promoted much faster than techs do, thus more $$ at the end of the day.
Now, once you are at your 20/25 years and are looking for another career, the techs definitely have more job options on the outside than the operators do. Most CSE/MSE trades can easily go to their provincial "Society of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists" and get their CET certification with the trades training that they have completed on the inside.
There are many different aspects to this discussion. In the short term an operator trade may be appealing, but in the long term choices are also nice to have.
That's my 2 cents.
I lived in the NCIOP's mess during one NATO and they were complaining about all of the time I apparently had off while at sea (meaning I had more opportunities to go for a coffee, watch the evening movie etc while on watch). The only thing I stated is that I'd rather have time off alongside than at sea.... the discussion ended there!!!
Operators now (with the exception of the NAVCOMM's) get SPEC 1 pay, therefore there is little pay difference between the operators/techs. Additionally, whereas the operator courses (QL3/QL5) are shorter, they tend to be posted on board ship for a longer period of time and thus get their sea pay increments a lot sooner than the techs who do a 18-24 month QL3 and QL5. Furthermore, operators normally get promoted much faster than techs do, thus more $$ at the end of the day.
Now, once you are at your 20/25 years and are looking for another career, the techs definitely have more job options on the outside than the operators do. Most CSE/MSE trades can easily go to their provincial "Society of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists" and get their CET certification with the trades training that they have completed on the inside.
There are many different aspects to this discussion. In the short term an operator trade may be appealing, but in the long term choices are also nice to have.
That's my 2 cents.
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 460
Techs vs Operators.....
Wait for MOSART, there will likely be a little shaking up going on in the Comms world.....
If we were smart we would have Techs/operators as one, kind of like what they had in back in the old radio days....
Life at sea is exactly like groundhog day!
Wait for MOSART, there will likely be a little shaking up going on in the Comms world.....
If we were smart we would have Techs/operators as one, kind of like what they had in back in the old radio days....
Life at sea is exactly like groundhog day!
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
Sub_Guy said:
I guess you have to do what Bill Murray did in the movie near the end; make the best out of the situation.
Couple of quick questions...What sort of exercise equipment is there onboard ship, more specifically weightlifting equipment?
Also...I'v heard about $1 beer vending machines onboard the ships, are these on all of the reg force ships?
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 410
trigger324 said:no, you weren't the last...ask anyone from Iroquois on the recent deployment about cinderella leave. we had it 3 times!! :
Huh? I only remember having it once, in Casablanca. Leave expired at 02:00 IIRC. Souda Bay was kind of like that, but you could still opt to take a cab from Chania after the 03:00 bus left for the ship. Every other port was leave expiry at 07:50.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 260
Its one thing when leave expires for the entire ship at 2am or 4am or what ever. It is quite another when your 24 or 25 have a wife a kid and are told that the you need to be back by midnight. Meanwhile the pub your leaving has the other OD's drinking there faces off till sun up. Only difference between you and them is about a month on a posting message. Will never complain about a leave expire time I'll go with the flow. Cinderalla leave in its original intent was not cool. I do think they need some sort of incentive to getting training done and out of the way in a timely manner though.
A
aesop081
Guest
Thank god the AF doesnt work like that.....if i had to be back in my hotel at midnight when everyone else is partying it up, just because i'm not an A cat yet.....i would be one unhappy person
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 230
SoF said:
Groundhog day... but for those of us who do 1-in-2 watches, it sometimes feels like groundhog day twice a day!!
There are normally a couple of bikes and treadmills on the ships. The larger the ship (ie the tanker) then the more space is available for equipment. There is usually enough onboard to keep in shape.
Don't all units have a vending machine??
