DEFINITION OF DUTIES

Jobs On board
There are a number of jobs to be done on board. While the skipper is ultimately responsible for most of them, there is too much for one person to do. Sometimes 4 or 5 things need to be done simultaneously and if any one of them gets done poorly, we could be in trouble. Each of the following persons are responsible to see that the jobs get done, you should not be the only one to do them. Each of us should help with any of the jobs we are capable of doing. By dividing all the necessary duties on the cruise we will maximise our fun and skills and minimise the burden of no fun jobs.

Skipper: Navigation, Anchoring, Docking and overall safety of crew and boat.
The skipper is on call 24/7, is responsible for the safety of the crew and a boat worth more than a house, and is the final arbiter of all on board problems. Skippers also always seem to have a "moral obligation" to ensure everyone is having a good time. Thus, all skippers usually have at least one "cranky" evening from the strain, often -but not limited to- the last night of the cruise.
Feel free to ask to take the wheel or question whether we're pointed in the right direction. It wouldn't be the first time that a skipper aimed at the wrong island.
Early in the trip, I will want to play with moving the boat in docking and mooring conditions. I should practice with a mooring or float before going near anything that could cause a dent. I might even call a "crew member overboard" drill to test our skills. [If you see me picking up a seat cushion on our first leg, be ready for "the drill".]

First Mate

The first Mate will assist the Skipper. Occasionally drive the boat, take charge of the crew upon catching a buoy (mooring), and docking.
These are usually "All Hands" maneuvers. You're coordinating the crew for the skipper. Do a good job, and you'll make it look like he knows what he’s doing. Let's have fun critiquing other boats' misadventures.
Mooring We'll do this 10 or 15 times, hopefully only once per mooring.
Be the skippers eyes as we approach a mooring buoy. He can't see it from the helm when we're close, nor can he hear you from 50 feet away when the engines are running.
Guide him with hand signals for "left", "right", "faster", "slower", "stop engines", "back up" and "back up really hard".
Keep your hand and arm visible when you point. He can't see your arm in front of you any better than he can see the buoy. Straight up is straight ahead; 45 degrees off of that is 45 degrees horizontal.
Try to avoid the "YOU FOOL!" signal. Instead, use a combination of "back up really hard" and "circle around and try again". He'll get the idea.
Grab and secure the mooring line with the boat hook in the middle of the line, not the loop (or you won't be able to let go), and put it on the nearest cleat. Often takes two to accomplish. We'll lead it through the fairlead later.
Ensure mooring line is adequate: If the line on top of the buoy is bad, back it up. If the line between the buoy and anchor is bad, we move.)
DockingWe'll do this four or five times. This is when the skipper will be most nervous.
Direct the laying out and tending of fenders and dock lines before we come into a dock. The skipper will say which side as we approach. We may even back in and tie off to the stern cleats, like Chesapeake Bay crabbers.
We weigh about as much as a tractor trailer, so:
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Do not fend us off with your feet or hands. That's what fenders are for.
Do not try to stop the boat's motion yourself. At most, throw a half turn around a cleat and let it take most of the strain if I ask you to. Sometimes, I want to go further up the dock than I said five seconds before. The engines will stop us pretty smartly.
Do not jump off onto the dock. If you can't toss (or preferably hand) the line to someone on the dock, I will go around. On a cruise in the past one crew member didn't heed this warning and broke both ankles. Ended the trip for him and his wife and the remaining three couples were pretty bummed out for the rest of the trip. Months later, he still hadn't recovered.
The most important line is the center spring line. Given a good spring line to work against, I can pivot the boat around any way I want.
The bow line usually goes on last. You'll probably have to override the dockside recommendations and give them the spring line.
If any line goes in the water, particularly aft near a prop, tell me immediately so I can put that engine into neutral. Anchoring We'll do this once or twice during the trip
We don't anchor on coral or where our rode (chain or nylon) could drag past and damage coral, remembering that the boat will drift around. If you can see coral, we probably shouldn't be there.
Lay out anchor line(s). We anchor with a minimum of 5:1 measured from the bow roller to the bottom. The bow roller will be 5 to 7 feet above the depth sounder's reading. If we do not have all chain, then we go with 7:1. When in doubt, lay out more.
We dive down on the anchor once it's supposedly set to make sure. The skipper will do it independently the first couple of times because he's paranoid.

Coxswain
You are responsible for the dinghy.
Ensures someone will drive the dinghy. It's a lot of fun, so everyone should get a turn or two.
Ensures the dink is properly secured to the boat, whether under way or at anchor.
Ensures the dink's drain plugs (sometimes 2) are pulled to drain the water on the floor and between the floor and hull, and puts them back in before we lower it into the water. [Not catastrophic, but slows us down and gets our feet wet.]
Checks tube pressure and tops it off when necessary. Do you know where the foot pump is?
If the dink is in the water when we move (almost never done when we have davits)
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You have no other duty or care than watching the dink while docking or undocking.
Ensures we do not run over it or its painter while we're moving. If we run it over or catch its painter in a prop, we could have a very bad day.
Ensure the motor is tilted up when not in use, particularly if being dragged behind us.

Cook
The Cook does not prepare all the meals and clean up after all the meals are done. The Cook does prepare and post a duty roster involving everybody on the boat with a meal to prepare and clean up after. With eight crew on each boat and three serving/cleaning periods on 11 days there will be 33 periods divided by eight for a total of just over four meal periods per person for the whole trip – NOT TO BAD ! ! Perhaps our cooks will provide a rotating schedule that will involve each person once every 2 ½ days. Great !
Everyone takes a turn or two at making meals - whatever his or her forté is.
Ensure we have a menu and people to cook it.
Meals are planned around, and food is stowed according to, what food spoils most quickly.
Know where all the supplies are. Thus inventories the supplies against the checklist as they come aboard and directs where they are stowed

Master-at-Arms
Do a head count of all crew before we pull away from the dock. Would hate to leave one of the crew behind.
Ensure no lines hang in the water to be sucked up by the props. [Thus you back up the Coxswain and Special Sea and Anchor Duty.]
Ensure that the public areas are clean and neat
No laundry is hanging from the rigging as we enter or leave port (pet peeve and a safety item).
All fenders (those big, ugly, white things AKA "bumpers") are stowed by the time we've gotten 10 feet away from the dock.
Organizes cleaning parties as necessary.
Because the Engineer is pretty busy at the start of the trip, ensure all water tanks are full before we leave the dock on departure day. After that, can remind the engineer to check the tanks. For some reason, the crew gets cranky if we run out of water, so the MAA would want to double check to keep the natives from getting restless.
Theoretically, the MAA ensures the rest of the crew are happy - or at least aren't mutinous. If you can intercept problems, you might lessen the skipper's "moral imperative" to keep everyone happy. If you can't resolve a problem, though, bring it to the skipper and he'll try to ensure ill feelings don't fester.

Engineer
These are unseen duties that we won't notice if done properly.
Attends boat walk-through with the skipper.
Ensures we remember to turn on all lights and instruments during the boat checkout to ensure they work. A second set (The Master At Arms) of eyes help.
Knows where the equipment, tools and spare parts are, thus directs the equipment inventory at the start of the trip. Except for cooking gear, this doesn't intersect the cook's inventory.
Ensures someone checks that water tanks are full at start of trip and before leaving any port/dock. At least two people should check this one.
Maintains the "gripe sheet" - everything we find wrong or broken on the boat- so we can tell all at the end of the trip and the problems get fixed. Too many charterers rely on memory and forget.
Checks out the diesel each morning (water, oil, raw water filter & "other")
Ensures batteries and refrigeration are kept charged, morning and evening.
Ensures domestic water pump is off while under way.
Knows which water tanks are empty and how long the water should last. Only one tank is on at a time, If we have more than one tank.

Purser
Prepares a spread sheet of income and expenses and shares this information with all cruisers on the BLOG and in person at our monthly cruise meetings.
Prepares a monthly budget of assessments to each couple sufficient to pay all deposits as required by VIP.
If needed, assesses a levy from all crew during the cruise.
Pays for the provisioning of the boat.
Maintains the kitty and pays the incidental group charges.
Keeps records. We trust you, but sometimes memory is weak.
Refunds all excess funds upon return to home.