Jet lag on eastbound Transatlantic?

[KKB]

A woman on another social media spoke of this since u lose an hour each day.

Is that common?

(it would seem to me an hour/day is easier to tolerate than 7 hours in a day!)

[TheOldBear]

On eastbound crossings, there is a five hour time difference between NYC and Southampton.

On QM2, five of the crossing days are shortened by an hour at noon [the afternoon is an hour shorter] allowing for a normal night's sleep & wakeup time.

 

Crossings are a good way to arrive _without_ jet lag, as you will have had a week [or more for repositioning cruises] to adjust to the time change - not all at once as your plane lands.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, KKB said:

A woman on another social media spoke of this since u lose an hour each day.

Is that common?

(it would seem to me an hour/day is easier to tolerate than 7 hours in a day!)

Departing the US Eastern seaboard, the time difference to UK is 5 hrs most of the year and to ports in France & Spain, it is 6 hrs.

 

Note - UK has different dates for daylight savings than North America, so for about 2 or 3 weeks in the Spring the time difference is only 4 hrs between the US East Coast & UK. I don't follow if Europe has daylight savings, so don't know if the time difference changes.

 

When the vessel departs, the Master ensures the ships cloxs are changed throughout the voyage to ensure the vessel arrives in each port with the cloxs consistent with local time. If sailing straight across at 20+ kts, this usually requires a 1 hr change each day.

 

Traditionally at sea, the cloxs are changed at 02:00, regardless of whether they move ahead or back. However, many Masters, when E'bd and clox move ahead, prefer to change cloxs at Noon, or another time during the day. Since most of the crew are day workers, this makes it easier to comply with hours of rest requirements. It is also a benefit to the pax.

 

On most TA's, not crossing directly at 20+ kts, you may get cloxs 1 hr ahead every 2nd day, or every 2 days in 3. Even if the cloxs are adjusted at 02:00, that is hardly likely to cause jet lag.

[Hlitner]

Losing an hour every day (or so) is not a big deal and folks seem to adjust.  Some cruise lines have adopted a practice (arguably started many years ago on HAL) of turning the clock ahead in the early afternoon.  The idea is that one's sleep is not impacted and the only adjustment (for most) is when they want to have lunch.

 

Hank

[MBP&O2/O]

The hour a day wasn't an issue. We changed at 0200 and adjusted watchkeeping accordingly. What did cause confusion was throwing a Date Line crossing into the mix ... at the same time as a one hour clock flog 🤔

The first time I did that we ended up jumping from 25 December to 27 December ... missing Boxing Day completely.  We were also steaming at a speed which couldn't cope with a one hour flogging and ended up with 'noon' at 1400 😄 Not often that the 8x12 3/O got morning star sights dropped on him! 🤣

[Heidi13]

6 hours ago, MBP&O2/O said:

The hour a day wasn't an issue. We changed at 0200 and adjusted watchkeeping accordingly. What did cause confusion was throwing a Date Line crossing into the mix ... at the same time as a one hour clock flog 🤔

The first time I did that we ended up jumping from 25 December to 27 December ... missing Boxing Day completely.  We were also steaming at a speed which couldn't cope with a one hour flogging and ended up with 'noon' at 1400 😄 Not often that the 8x12 3/O got morning star sights dropped on him! 🤣

 

Must have been a reefer, with the ship's name probably starting with "Wild" - Auk, Avocet, Curlew, Cormorant, Fulmar or Flamingo

[MBP&O2/O]

Surprisingly not! It was a reasonably new, 22000dwt oil tanker. We had discharged a full cargo of AvGas/JP4 and Kerosene around the Tahiti area / islands and we were in ballast. Recent drydock so a clean bottom etc.

Not a patch on the Wild Avocet .... 22.7kts from Chiba to Los Angeles 🙂🙂

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, MBP&O2/O said:

Surprisingly not! It was a reasonably new, 22000dwt oil tanker. We had discharged a full cargo of AvGas/JP4 and Kerosene around the Tahiti area / islands and we were in ballast. Recent drydock so a clean bottom etc.

Not a patch on the Wild Avocet .... 22.7kts from Chiba to Los Angeles 🙂🙂

 

Wow, a product tanker capable of 22.7 kts is incredible. Having worked cruise ships and Ro/Pax most of my career, only a handful were capable of > 22 kts - Oriana, Canberra, the high speed ferry and a couple of the local conventional ferries.

 

Even the Wild Auk didn't reach > 22 kts. 

[MBP&O2/O]

No ... I meant the tanker was not a patch on the Avocets speed of 22.7 ....  The tanker was pretty regular but with the clean bits it improved.

Even with steaming bonnets on back to front that would be pushing it 😄

Having said that  I sailed on one (British Courage) that was built with RAS in mind, and it is alleged that when they put the pedal to the metal... so to speak... it was capable of 22+ .... and the rattling could be heard in space.

 

Mmm Thinks of a vibration problem on Strathmuir which had a prop balance issue ....  🙄

 

[Heidi13]

7 hours ago, MBP&O2/O said:

No ... I meant the tanker was not a patch on the Avocets speed of 22.7 ....  The tanker was pretty regular but with the clean bits it improved.

Even with steaming bonnets on back to front that would be pushing it 😄

Having said that  I sailed on one (British Courage) that was built with RAS in mind, and it is alleged that when they put the pedal to the metal... so to speak... it was capable of 22+ .... and the rattling could be heard in space.

 

Mmm Thinks of a vibration problem on Strathmuir which had a prop balance issue ....  🙄

 

 

That sounds more reasonable, I just could imagine installing sufficient power in a tanker hull to make that speed. When I left Wild Auk after 9 months she was heading to drydock, so the best I recall was almost 22 kts on her.

 

Mind you, the Wild Auk was still the 6th fastest ship I worked on, as most of our local Ro/Pax are 21 kts. Fastest was the High Speed Craft, which I had at 40 kts one night. Just over 400'. carried 250 vehicles and 1,000 pax. It was fun to handle.

[SbbquilterUT]

We have sailed TA each direction - love to use it paired with a cruise in Europe.  For our sailing on the Anthem in April 2023 the clock was moved forward at noon so it did not really seem to impact how we felt - not sure how anyone could have jet lag at an hour a day.  On west bound they added the hour in the middle of the night, harder for me because I was waking up earlier each morning.  We do love an interior for those sailings as we sleep like babies after we have exerted ourselves on those sea days.  

[Markanddonna]

I much prefer the time changes on the eastbound route. You arrive in Europe with sufficient energy. A few captains change the time at noon rather than overnight. They do that for the benefit of the crew.

[Clonmelgal]

I did my first TA last November- Barcelona to Tampa with 3 days in Barcelona at the start. The time difference at the start just killed me. I didn't sleep for two nights but, since it was my first time in Barcelona  I carried on. This year I've booked a week at the star because I loved Barcelona so much, and hotels are so reasonable. The time adjustment on the return cruise had no effect on me whatsoever.

[Hlitner]

On 3/16/2024 at 9:26 AM, Clonmelgal said:

I did my first TA last November- Barcelona to Tampa with 3 days in Barcelona at the start. The time difference at the start just killed me. I didn't sleep for two nights but, since it was my first time in Barcelona  I carried on. This year I've booked a week at the star because I loved Barcelona so much, and hotels are so reasonable. The time adjustment on the return cruise had no effect on me whatsoever.

Flying from North America to Europe is really difficult in terms of jet lag.  We travel all over the world, and actually have less problem flying to places like Japan then to Western Europe.  I have read all kinds of jet-lag remedies and suggestions, and not much works.  But, DW and I do have our ways to minimize the impact.  Most of us do overnight flights to Europe, and we find it is very helpful to get 2-3 hours sleep on the flight.  Flying in lay flat business class really is helpful (if one can handle the cost).  Some of our friends rely on Ambien on those overnight flights, but we prefer to remain drug-free.  So, we get out of bed relatively early on our flight day and just pray we can get some sleep on the flight.  

 

Once arriving in Europe, we drop our luggage at the hotel and usually head out for breakfast and some exploring.  We do our best to get through much of the day and head back to our hotel around 3 (when you can get in your room).  At that point, DW and I like to take a nap (no more then 3 hours) after which we shower and head out to dinner and perhaps more evening activities.  We then try to get to sleep at a reasonably late night sleep time, and if we are lucky we will wake up the following morning in pretty good shape.

 

I think the worst flight (to Europe) is when flying to England or Ireland.  The problem is that the flight is too short to get much sleep.  Some friends will try to get some sleep, right after takeoff, and will advise the flight attendant not to wake them for dinner or drinks.  But that has never worked for us.  We find the extra 1-2 hours to get to the continent quite helpful.

 

Hank

[spunks]

I guess we have done 27 trans Atlantic cruises...as many EB as WB. We MUCH prefer flying east and sailing west. When we get to Europe we are gassed as we do not even try to sleep on the plane.We get to the hotel , drop our bags and go out...maybe to eat. When we get back to the hotel we try very hard to stay awake until 8 PM at least. We then go to sleep and sleep like the dead, but when we wake up we are pretty much over the jet lag. When we sail east and then fly home we are miserable for at least one week and sometimes two. also, those 23 hour days cruising west bound catch up to us. ...but it is worth every hardship.

[spunks]

ok..ok..I said that wrong. The 23 hour days happen sailing east. WB you get 25 hour days,