Being in the 4 to 8 watch

Sunrises and sunsets each and every day, but also a wricked sleeping schedule.

Since leaving Öckerö, the midships watch has had the 4-8 watch. That means that we wake up 3.30 AM and then we dress for work on board. When the weather is fair, the stars are amazing.

From 4 AM and four hours from then, we work, we get taught, we laugh, and then end it off with some cleaning on the deck. The sun usually goes up by 7 o’clock, and the sunrises are often increadibly beautiful. At 8 AM our watch is over and most of us go to sleep by then, and wakes up by lunch at 12. Some people manage to stay awake those four hours, but not me. Until 4 PM when it’s time for our next watch, we have lecture.

The sun sets between 8 and 9 o’clock, but at the end of this trip that time will be much earlier.

At 8 PM we’re off and then we have to go straight to bed if we don’t want to have less than seven hours of sleep.

As you can tell, this is not how we spend our days at home, which makes it hard to get used to these routines. But overall, the 4-8 watch must be the absolute prettiest.

Klara Svensson, Midship