Again, being a sailor or Master has little to do with how US customs officials treat visitors to the US in my opinion. I’ve seen hundreds, maybe thousands of people get their passports handed off to another USCIS officer & escorted to the little waiting rooms for unknown reasons. Call that corruption or mistreatment if you want but everyone gets treated that way in the US. For a few years my passport was flagged in Miami & it took me an extra hour or two to get through that airport every time. Never heard of the USCIS officer asking for bribes thank goodness for that.
BTW, foreign sailors would have an easier time transiting through US airports if so many of them wouldn’t carry knives & sharp fishing gear in their carry ons. About every Philippino I ever worked with had a “horror story” about being caught with a knife in the airport.
A company issued serrated knife that was great for cutting line was scrutinized at the airport, Glad they gave it back to me. Passed the excellent folding knife to my son when he was able to sail. As I said before, have not flown in many years, and have no dersire to. Damn good knife
Sipping my morning coffee in Cabo looking out over the Pacific reading this like…. Been living here for 5 years without issue and I’ve been all over Mexico. My wife sells real estate here, 80% of the buyers are from US and Canada.
Good for you. I’m well aware with how safe many areas are including Cabo and PV. I’ve spent time in both and others as well but let’s not pretend they are representative of all areas of the country.
In any case, point taken. I should have said some areas of the country instead of much of the country.
That must be something that only apply to US seafarers. Even in the “bad o’l days”, before Deng Xio Ping opened up China, no visa was required for shore leave.
In the 1960s and 70s there were limitation on where you could go though. The Friendship Clubs in each port catered to foreign seafarers.
The one in Shanghai was quite famous, claiming to have the longest bar desk in the world. One of the waiters were also famous for being able to slide a drink along the bar and it would stop directly in front of the customer who had order it. (Without spilling, I might add):
PS> Even arriving by air to join ship used to only require a seaman’s book (As far as I can remember)
The Shore pass in Japan was issued on arrival and distributed on board. (Not a Visa)
A valid US passport gets you 90 (if I recall correctly) visa-free days in Japan for tourism. Before the pandemic shutdown happened, I was going to return through Narita airport and make it a mini vacation. They have local guided tours, shopping, etc. Airport has capsule hotel rooms. The pandemic up-ended that plan
Thanks for the laugh. Seriously, it is possible. I’m laughing at the possibility that an American AB might one day jump ship, throw their chances of ever working as a seaman again to wash dishes or cut yards in some other country to make 10x’s more than what an American AB makes now. You’re more in tune with the plight of the American maritime industry than I thought.
Never heard any non-American that I worked with complain about the lack of educational opportunities from where they came from. The lowest paid unlicensed mariner that I meet made $2 a day as an enliste in the Mexican Navy. The lowest paid officer I worked with made $45 a day, a Honduran junior engineer. It’s not about the level of education that causes people to jump ship, jump a fence or over stay a tourist visa, it’s the monetary desperation. In the US we have PhD’s from other countries happily driving taxis & sweeping floors.
But they didn’t jump ship(s) did they?
A seafarer from just about any country with the right license and/or training and experience, even if unlicensed, can get a job on a ship under FOC flag, or in many of the second registers of OECD countries. Their license and training have to meet STCW’10 and Flag state requirements.
That do NOT apply on US flag ships, especially not for an illegal migrant. If they join any other flag ship they cannot leave the US without being caught. If they do manage to leave somehow they are no longer “illegals”.
Some may be satisfied with washing dishes or whatever, for the rest of their life, but far from ALL seafarers are in that category.
Why then “punish all for the sins of a few”? Isn’t that against the US Constitution and the UN Human Rights Convention?
New Zealand is an “Equal Opportunity” country.
Both the Master and Ch.Eng of the log carrier MV Funning has been sentenced and fines after their ship lost power when leaving a NZ port:
We have PhD’s from other countries looking for a chance, they are not happy driving taxis or sweeping floors except for a way to live until they get a job employing their skills and education. Europe has more PhD’s, doctors, engineers and other highly skilled people doing the same menial jobs hoping for a chance to use their education also. They didn’t get an education just to go drive a cab or sweep a floor. They got caught up in the pecker measuring contest between Russia, USA and their own governments in the middle east, Africa and other countries. They left to save their lives not drive a taxi or sweep a floor. I admire them in many ways. We have mariners that won’t move to take a job or won’t work for less than 75 thousand a year. These educated people that come out of desperation will take any job AND give them enough time they will be teaching our children, working in our hospitals, running IT systems or helping engineer the next new thing.
I beg the differ, many are happy doing whatever they are happily doing. My wife is a Dentist in her native country & has happily taken & done whatever jobs she accepted. She didn’t want to enter the rat race to become a Dentist in the US & has never shown an inch of regret. I ask her every year or so. Not every immigrant to the US wants to put in the effort & sell their souls for a dream of becoming a millionaire. I know several immigrants to the US happily doing jobs they weren’t trained for in their native country that many Jones-keeper-uppers would say were beneath them. If I had to choose between a $2 a day job in the Mexican navy, a $14 a day job as a Peruvian oiler or a $35k a year job as a small business owner landscaper I throw my foriegn college degrees & mariner documents away & move as far inland as I could to cut grass.
Your wife is lucky, she is married to you. This gives her many more options than others not married to US citizens.
Good for her that she wants to stay out of the rat race. Her priorities are in order.
She’s not the only one. We’re all lucky in the US, born here or not. The Godparents to our youngest (we’re Godparents to their youngest too) are from Mexico. The wife & her father were accountants in MX & had their own bookkeeping/accounting business. She now works in hospitality for Hilton in the non-payroll section of a hotel’s HR department. The husband was a truck driver in Mexico but never even thought about driving a truck in the US. I come from a family of construction workers but my Mexican friend is the best carpenter I’ve ever known. I suspect he makes the same as me some years. This hard working, honest guy has no dreams except being a carpenter just like Joseph & his son Jesus. He has a bumper sticker saying as such. An awesome lady who used to deliver our mail had an engineering degree from her native Russia. She’s retired now, teaches Zumba classes & was the happiest postal workers I ever met. I don’t think she has any regrets about not being an engineer in the US. The US can be a great place if you want it to be, have a little luck & work at it.
