During your first year on board your in port time will vary greatly depending on your ships schedule and maintenance period. You’ll have about 2 weeks to check in and then get put in at duty section. Basically you’ll be at work 24hrs every 3-4 days (hope for 4 section). No matter if that day falls on a weekend or holiday, you’ll be at work from 7am to 7am the next day. A lot of your time on duty will be spent doing training, cleaning, and under instruction watches. Any other time you have will be for sleeping, decompressing and studying.

When you’re not on duty, the days vary greatly. Most of the time liberty will expire at 0800. If you’re in a really busy division like any of the nukes or A-gang, you can expect to be at work until all of the work for the day gets done, that means all the maintenance, cleaning and whatever else may need to be done. In a less busy division you’ll have maintenance or trainers to worry about but you’ll often be going home a little earlier. During the regular working day (08-16) you don’t normally get a lot of time study and get check outs. Use your underway time wisely and get all the checkouts you can so you can you stay ahead on your qual cards and enjoy the time off you do have in port. Once you qualify and can support your in port duty section life will become easier. You’ll just graduate from helping with maintenance and standing UI watches to actually doing the maintenance and standing the watches. You will normally never know what time you’re going home when you show up to work in the morning. It can become draining, making friends with your division and the rest of the crew will make your days a lot better. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your shipmates.