It is 23:20 hrs. All lyrics and chords in the songbook have vanished from my vision in darkness. It is not worth to go to sleep again because at midnight my watch begins:
The unpopular dogwatch at night

I do not share peoples bad attitude to this time, in fact, I like it. Beside the challenge of sailing at night you can observe a very special mood on board coming into being.
At first, there is still some activity all over the ship, from time to time somebody shows up visiting the deck watch, looking around and taking a deep breath of the gentle night breeze before going to sleep.

Later, silence falls all over the ship, even the folks of the nightshift are more quiet. Darkness claims a particular attention and focus from everybody, sometimes like meditation. All senses have to be used now and the very few sounds that can be heard step into the foreground, time for sorting thoughts.
The star-dome stretching up looks even more magnificent and gigantic than on shore. Maybe because we subconsciously realise the ship is just one tiny little spot on the wide sea..

My watch is international: polish-russian-dutch-german, sometimes communication is simple sometimes it is a Babel tower. I let people steer by turns of one hour.
Every 30 minutes another person plots the actual GPS position on the chart, a backup procedure. In case of a system blackout or power failure we will proceed by more classical means. Agatha - recently helmswoman opens the door to the navigation room: “Nils, can I go straight for the ship over there? It seems quite close.” I climb through the narrow door on deck paying attention to her concerns.
The ship, in fact 3 little dim lights recognised in the distance, passes our bow in the dark nothingness. I estimate the distance to 3 - 4 nautical miles. Just for curiosity I check the distance by radar - 6.5 nautical miles - at night everything looks different.
We have to cross a fairway for big merchant ships. A lot of traffic is going in both directions: 4 freighters in one, 2 freighters, 2 huge tankers and a ferry in the other direction. Just for precaution I go for a little walk to the bow checking if our position lights - marking our position for others ships - work properly. - Everything is all right.

Until 3 o’clock the old day keeps presents over the sea and ship, then coolness announces the close sunrise and the remains of dusk frail looking over the northern horizon broaden to dawn.
Marek an Misja are going under deck to the galley, preparing tea and coffee for the next watch. At 3:30 Frauke wants to be waken up, she will take over at 4:00 to sail us into the morning.