This morning we were listening to the Scorpions “still loving you” with its opening line “Time. It needs time”. This led to a discussion about time. In the Canaries we are an hour different to Spain and Germany but the same as Portugal and an hour off GMT. And tonight the clocks change from summer time to “normal” which changes everything (except GMT).
But the great thing is that when we are at sea it all becomes irrelevant. The time is whatever we set the ships clock to. For the voyage from Spain to the Canary Islands I decided to set it to GMT just because it makes my navigation calculations easier. Manx mean time would have been as good.
Irrespective of what the clock says, we eat when we are hungry and sleep when we are tired. At night, when sailing, we have a watch rota but often we let the next person sleep longer if we are still wide awake – or the stars are so beautiful – or there are dolphins at play.
The last few months we have had a few “appointments”but mainly of the “get there a few days either side of Tuesday” or “see you in October” type. The “10:15 on Monday morning” type don’t exist and won’t work as a sailor.
At sea time is only important for log entries. Everything else is timeless. Just another example of the freedom you win when you leave “civilisation”.