[quote=fourdegreesc;15799]You’ve been at it for 19 years and still only hold a 500T license? I’d get busy with upgrading and get back on schedule. I think if you hold a 1600T Master you can cross over to Master of Towing in very few days (like 30 or 60).
I’d look into that. Good luck.
-dennis[/quote]
One of my worst nightmares is working the back deck of a seagoing tug with a clueless guy at the controls. (I’ve lived this many times) Yes, get your TOAR signed off as soon as possible but learn to be a tugboat deckhand first. That’ll take longer than 60 days.
Not according to the Coast Guard! 
Every business gets people who hold licenses for jobs they have no idea how to perform. Lord knows I’d love to see Yachties banished from commercial shipping of any sort, but it’s a fact of life (just an example, I’m sure I wouldn’t last long on a white boat after I told the owner to go downstairs and fuck himself). A good hand on deck knows when to duck, when to run, and when to say he’s not going out with that guy at the wheel.
Get your license straightened out, get on the payroll and keep an open mind to learn as quickly as possible. Learn when to ask for help and step back and admit when it’s more than you can handle. It’s not the Mate’s job to perform miracles. It’s the Captain’s job to at least try sometimes.
Good luck.
-dennis
[quote=10talents;15804]Hey Flyer,
December in the NE? :eek: Go to Ft Lauderdale :). MPT offers it and if you can get Capt John he is excellent. He is Master on Tankship working in GOM. I took the course in May 2008 and would go back. Best to you.[/quote]
I live in Maine, and am in CT a lot. Would be great to fly to Lauderdale, but might hurt the wallet a bit. Hoping to find something local.
This perhaps is in the wrong thread, but after reading the CA’s sage wisdom, I believe there are folks in here that will shoot me straight.
I am at the VERY, VERY beginning. I have no MMD. I am CONTEMPLATING a career as a mariner, to begin as an OS. I have read up on the SIU program at Piney Point as a way into the business. What are the general thoughts on that program? Is it also possible to get my MMD and begin applying to companies with a reasonable expectation to be hired as an OS, or does it just not work that way? I would like to crew an ocean-going tanker or bulker as an OS. What is the path to that goal?
Yes, these are poignantly newb-ish questions. I forsee many years of hard work and due-paying before getting into the “potato patch” of good wages and benefits, if I choose a sailor’s life (all things being equal). I have zero problem with that. I just don’t want to waste my time and money on poorly-concieved training and employment decisions that will bear less fruit had I chosen differently.
I thank you for the time it took to read this, and for the time it takes to respond. C/A, any thought?