� Dogwatch 1 Dogwatch 3 Dogwatch 4 Dogwatch 5 Dogwatch 6

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There are certain rules of navigation which do not appear in print. These rules vary from sailor to sailor and can only be gleaned from experience at sea. As hard as we try to understand and exert some control over circumstances. Nature is more creative than we are, so we end up writing rules in response to surprise events.

The first of these is never to assume that the other crew has any idea of what they are doing. The art of writing a check for a boat is not the same as the art of operating one. Therefore, the prudent mariner looks for the scalloped mainsail, the fenders and docklines dragging in the water, and pieces of other boats hanging from the bow of the approaching vessel. These are the telltale signs that perhaps it is time to bend the col regs a bit and head for the hills, as it were.

Some other unwritten rules are, "just because it's out there doesn't mean it's on a chart (see dogwatch #3)", large freighters and tankers won't speak to you on the radio unless they absolutely have to", and "just because there is a radar rotating on the bridge, it doesn't mean the person charged with watching it is not asleep".