" SUN OVER THE FOREYARD, Time for drinking in the wardroom. Eight bells in the forenoon watch: mid-day. It is a traditional Naval convention never to drink before the sun clears the foreyard. Unknowing civilians sometimes substitute yardarm in mock-navalese."

One thing that puzzled me. It seems to me that this would mean the ship was travelling east. If it were travelling west, the sun would be high above the stern, not over the foreyard.