I am an American looking for work in Spain. I have my QMED Jr. Engineer and AB Unlimited. Does anyone have any idea about translating my American documents to European licenses or documents, or any companies in the Med that are hiring Americans? Any info is helpful. Thanks. wsmariner at yahoo dot com
Look into the UK MCA yacht licensing scheme. The yacht route is probably your best bet for working in the Med on foreign flag boats. Barcelona and Palma are popular yachting destinations. You might want to go up to Antibes and talk to the yacht agents and schools up there.
Also look at the MCA merchant deck and engine ratings requirements, your sea time might be considered for something.
try this web site
and call them, they deal with this all the time and will be able to tell you instantly what you need to do
several smaller yacht can employ you as an unlicensed engineer, the mca does thing differently on testing,oral question and answer test i think,also there seatime is figured differently then USCG seatime, you might need to get a book for it, talk to MPT and ask them
antibes is a big on with crew agencies in town that work with yachts, i think these are 3 of them
if you look at www.the-triton.com you will find MORE crew agencies that are in the MED only,
crewnetwork.com
elitecrewintl.com
also WALK the docks and pass out business cards and resumes, the captains might be 2 busy to talk to you but have a cover letter short and 2 the point of why you want to work on yachts and your qualification, it might take a while to get a job but there is a boat for everyone if you keep looking, a friend of mine was day working a a 120 foot sailboat, never was an engineer, was there 8 years, new more about the engine room than the people who installed the stuff, read every book on the engine room he could find onboard,
good luck
hit the yacht docks in march-april. try Mallorca. try Ibiza. try the boat yards. assume you speak espanol? that’ll make life easier. don’t say no to anything, even a free loading berth (ie no pay). just to get a cot and 3 hots. find the killer job later. tons of stuff happening. could even try a bit further east if your pocket can get that far. Nice. Marseilles. hell, an english speaking deckhand could prob even find a gig in Greece. or Turkey.
but then you said Spain.
good luck.