I've pulled the 2 to 6 shift, which means that I have to get up at 2am and work till 6am then try and get some sleep before I have to go back to work at 2pm till 6pm. This might sound ok but it ain't, you don't usually get to bed until about 11pm as there's washing up to do after eating dinner, then it's hard to sleep as everybody else's still up because their getting a full nights sleep. Once you've finished your shift you can get your head down for a couple of hours but then you have to get up again for breakfast at 8am, and I paid money for this ??! But when all is said and done there's nothing like sitting on deck for the graveyard shift with the ship rolling beneath you and the sound of creaking ropes and yards overhead, bliss...
Once we get outside of the main reefs that surround Fiji the wind picks up and before long we're sailing in a force 4 to 5 with a 3m swell, this is fun. People are finding out if they have sea legs, most don't and have to be constantly told to use the downwind rail!
One of our duties on the 2 to 6 shift is to make the bread for the next days meals, now making bread isn't that hard but you try doing it when the cooker is swaying from side to side with the roll of the boat and every time you open the oven the baking trays come shooting out and try to kill you! Making the bread was one of the few occasions when I nearly blew chunks too, I had to have a little walk round deck before I went back into the galley and the smell of that yeast!
