Hello guys found out about this website from reddit,
I am a dual Mexican-American citizen, having grown up in and finished high school in California. I attended and graduated from a maritime academy in Mexico and am licensed as a deck cadet in Mexico in 2020. I would need a year of sea time before I could sit for my professional exam in Mexico. Unfortunately, the job market in Mexico is kind of messed up and without knowing someone it is really hard to get a job as a deck cadet.
I managed to get a job as an AB on a ship that was meant to survey the seafloor for the wind farms off the coast of New York. I was to join the ship in Tampico, but due to the incompetence or negligence of the company or agency, I spent 26 days in a hotel there, sharing a room with two other crewmates who were also supposed to board. We were flown out to Providence, RI to join the ship there. The ship was in a terrible state and was immediately detained by both the flag state and the USCG, eventually losing the contract for the survey and I was sent home after 3 weeks. The company was Australian and told me that the days in the hotel were considered “dead days” and would be paid at half the rate, but they supposedly investigated why I was in the hotel for so long and determined that I would only be paid for 8 days at the half rate.
I was fed up with this, and really didn’t know where to turn so I decided to just go back home to California and have completed BST and VPDSD and am now awaiting my MMC. I am planning on joining the SUP. Long term I would like to sail as an officer. I was thinking about hawsepiping or saving money from working as an OS and completing the MITAGS Maritime Apprenticeship Program to earn my license. I am 29 and feel like I have wasted a lot of time so I am really anxious to start working and earning.
Does my plan sound reasonable or would there be a better alternative? I have read good things about the SUP so I hope my choice of joining this union is a good one at least.