Greetings forum members. Let me start by saying thanks to all who regularly post as I have gained some great knowledge by reading this forum in the past few months. This is the first time I will be posting as I can’t find a thread specific enough for my particular problem.
Basically, I have a mild form of red/green color blindness. When I went to the coast guard approved doctor here in Fort Lauderdale, they initially gave me the Ishihara (dots) color blind test which I missed a number of. They then said, thats ok, and gave me a wooden set of pegs that you had to align from pure red to pure green in ascending or descending order. I passed this portion with no problem and they approved my physical. Where I am worried and maybe, this is were some of you guys could clue me in here, is that I will only be able to take a Ishihara test for the company physicals up in the GoM. I am very interested in working for one of the big companies such as ECO or HOS. I am going to turn all my USCG paperwork in for my 100ton/AB/Lifeboatman/MMC all at once and, as long as the coast guard approves all my stuff, my plan was to head up to LA this January or February to start knocking on doors.
I’ve been working on yachts down here in florida for about 7 years (please don’t laugh too hard) and have never had any trouble identifying lights or markers, but I obviously have some form of deficiency which the rigors of commercial shipping could expose. I guess my big questions are: am I going to be barred from being anything other than a deck hand? Should I begin training for the engineering department or some other facet of the offshore industry? Am I wasting my time here or should I take the risk and head up to LA anyway? I believe everything else is in order, but this one is scary because I can’t do anything to change it. Any and all help is much appreciated.