Smart phones at sea

[gadget123]

I've just got a new all singing all dancing smart phone to replace my old ?10 nokia. The obvious thing you have to do with these phones is turn of data roaming before you get a huge bill, although there is another feature that caught me out.

This phones have the ability to update the time to using the local phone signal, make sure you turn it off if you are going to use your phone as an alarm clock. Because as soon as your phone gets a sniff of signal from a country which has a different time to ship time it will change it for you.
Fortunately I got caught out the right way and got halfway to the bridge before looking at my watch and realising I was an hour early

[Randomist]

Yup, been there before

[size4riggerboots]

Plus, do get insurance so that when you have left it charging on your day bed and then knocked it onto the deck and then dropped a chair leg on it when you returned drunkenly to your cabin after a night ashore, thereby shattering the screen, you can get them to give you a new one.

Wish I'd taken my own advice.

[Ducki52]

Day bed? As opposed to a night bed?

[Faust]

Never heard of a day bed?

[Hatchorder]

In "every" cabin you have a day bed as well as your normal bed. It is always at right angles to your normal bed and it is partly there to provide you with somewhere to sleep if the motion of the ship is so bad you cannot sleep in your normal bed. It is a sofa but long enough to lay out on. I say "every" because no doubt there are some ships that people will say have not got them but I was never on a ship that I did not have one, even in the cadet cabins.

When conditions are really bad you can get a towel and make it damp and lay it across the bed to lay on to stop you sliding up and down or across the bed. Cold and uncomfortable to start with but you can get off to sleep if it is your third night without sleep. At that point you start to feel giddy and have a permanent headache and cannot think straight.

Ian

[Hatchorder]

Never heard of a day bed?

As many of these guys have never been to sea I don't suppose many of them will have heard the phrase before.

[thebrookster]

I have definitely had one cabin that certainly did not have a day bed, and it would have been a physical impossibility to fit one. That cabin was long and thin, in fact the width of the cabin was that of a double bed (single bed fitted), and just long enough to fit a bed, an average desk, double wardrobe then bathroom door.
Not that I complained about that cabin, it had the singular saving grace of being oriented athwartship, so in rough weather with bad rolling I was pretty much the only guy who got any sleep

The other ship I was in two cabins at different times, the crew cabin had a soft seat that I suppose could count as a "day bed", but the officer cabin I had on the second trip (that ship had three engineer cabins, but only carried two engineers, not counting c/e) had a two person sofa in an opposite orientation to the bunk.

Another trick the filipino's suggested to me (not tried this one out though) was to put books/bags or similar down both sides of the mattress (underneath that is) to create a "V" in the mattress, which you could sleep in. I have no idea how effective this might be, but the theory certainly seems sound!

[Lewis]

Just put them on the deck. Can't fall any further if already their (in theory).

[size4riggerboots]

If it had stayed on the day bed it would have been fine! The phone being on the deck was where the problem came from, chair leg meets phone screen = bad combination!

My day bed has a handy feature - the back actually velcros to the buklhead, so if you want a decent width bed to lie on you can take it off and voila, full width (ish) bed thwarships. Alternatively you can wedge the triangle shaped back under your mattress, thereby creating a nice v shaped bed to nestle in. (helps if you put a pillow on the other side of you against the bulkhead too)

[Steve]

I say "every" because no doubt there are some ships that people will say have not got them but I was never on a ship that I did not have one, even in the cadet cabins.

Of course.

Some ships have folding bunks where the day bed is in the same orientation, the bottom of the folded bunk is the back of the day bed. But those are old ships, probably predating even your seagoing experience. Others I've sailed on have had two seater sofas, or armchairs, not secured, free to move. Too often now the day bed is too short - or unrealistically narrow - to lie down.

[Chiefy]

lol, I actually sailed on a ship with sofa/daybeds when the back folds down to be the bed, the Baby Bays all had them, and double beds in all officers cabins, oh and baths too....old ships though very old now all gone

[Hatchorder]

lol, I actually sailed on a ship with sofa/daybeds when the back folds down to be the bed, the Baby Bays all had them, and double beds in all officers cabins, oh and baths too....old ships though very old now all gone

On the MV Myrmidon even the Cadets cabins had a sofa style day bed, a double bed and a bathroom with a bath and shower in. The cabins were really big as well with armchairs, big desk, and tons of storage space. I would guess at being 18 foot long by 9 foot wide with the bathroom extra. It was also the first ship I sailed on that had big "windows" in the cadet's cabins as opposed to brass portholes. It was a luxury for the early 80's.

[Lewis]

I never had a day bed. Might have been because my cabin was orrigionally 2 passenger cabins converted into one cadet cabin.

[Steve]

and double beds in all officers cabins, oh and baths too....

Double as opposed to single or 3/4 double?

Baths! I've been on a few ships where all HoDs have a bath, and on others a selection of senior officers.