Just a couple of questions. First off I would like to say, great site, lots of good information, and thank you ahead of time. I have my TWIC and MMD, and the questions I have are:
Is sea time sea time know matter what region it is in, i.e. rivers, Great Lakes, Gulf, Atlantic, Pacific or if you transfer out to another region, do you have to start your sea time over again?
If one was to go either deckhand or wiper, but realize that after the first year one might not be for me, does one have to start over as either a deckhand or wiper again and build back up?
It depends on what you are going for. Generally the higher the license, the more specific the waters must be. But in your case just starting out, sea time is sea time.
As you progress the tonnage of the vessel is more important, and HP if you go engine. If you switch, ‘some’ of your seatime is usable either way. But you will still need (for instance) so many day on vessels of XX tons, or X,XXX HP in any capacity, AND XXX days hired ‘In the engine department’ for an engineers license or ‘in the deck department’ for a deck license. Typically all licenses require two distinct types of sea service. One is an aggregate amount of days, and the other is vessel (type, location, or HP) specific.