I used to love to have the 4 to 8 on board ship. It was "dogged", that is, split into two two-hour watches, so that both the old and new watch could have breakfast and so the watch schedule would rotate. This way, we wouldn't be stuck with the same 4 hour watch day after day.

But what really got to me wasn't the routine, it was that the morning watch usually fell at sunrise. There isn't anything quite like a sunrise at sea, particularly in the tropics. The sky gradually brightens, and rosy-fingered dawn pulls herself over the edge of the world, the colors of sky and clouds, salmons and pinks, blues and purples, gradually take shape. The sea goes from invisible to black, and then gradually to its indescribable inky blue as the red sun peeps over the horizon. The stars wink out one by one...The relieved watch usually hangs out, manning the rail, facing east. Old salts, cynical short-timers, boots, lifers, officer and enlisted seem united by the moment. It is a time to just sit there, staring at the sunrise, maybe have a smoke and turn inward to your own thoughts.