Hi. I am a deck hand on an Inland water tow boat. I work 30 days on and 30 off. I make $200 a day. Plus i trip alot so on average i make $40,000 a year. Ive got 3 years in with enough time on Deck to get my Stearsmens License. Im 24 years old and have no family or anything tieing me down. I’ve always had an intrest in the ocean. I know what the benifits are of staying on the river and how much i can expect to make. I dont know anything about the ocean except what ive read on the SIU web sit. Im Intrested in the SIU apprentise program. I already have my pass port and TWIC. If you can give me any Info on workin In the ocean or going through SIU to get trained that would greatly help me make a better informed decision. Thanks in advance.
You might want to get in touch with the seafarers hall in your state,they should have the number on the web page.and get all the info from them,good luck
Holy crap! I thought my spelling was bad. I can tell you are a river rat. I started on the river too.
I tried SIU. Sailing to the Med for 90 bucks a day…no thanks.
Get your AB special and start applying for jobs in the US Gulf of Mexico. The pay is better.
You can use a headhunter or job search on your own for AB jobs. One thing will lead to another.
Right now is not the best time to be looking for a steersmans job. If your company will sponsor and steer you that is a different story. But if you are like I was and don’t know anybody and have no connections to get in the steermans program then I recommend AB ticket.
You can use your river sea time to get AB special. You will also need to get your STCW 95. Get those qualifications along with the other ones you already have and you should be able to find a decent job paying at least what you are making now if not more.
AB Unlimited jobs are in demand right now and pay the most in the deepwater gulf. Those are tough to get.
AB Tankerman jobs seem to be flying around the net right now and they pay much more than deckhand or just AB.
There is a post on the employment forum that groups all the internet job sites together. I think the same fella was going to do one on headhunters also.
that’s my two cents. take it for what it is worth.
“Put free advice in one hand and shit in the other. See which hand weighs more.”