I got a job!

Home sweet home!

My STCW class ended Friday with the firefighting. Friday night everyone met up at Waxy's (a popular yachtie bar). Saturday was the Wizard of Oz party. Sunday we went to the fair. After all of this go-go-go, I wasted almost all of Monday battling the flaky internet connection as I tried to register myself with crew agencies.

Tuesday I decided I had had enough of this virtual limbo and I wanted to go out and actually see boats. I hitched a ride to a marina to do some dock walking. Resumes in hand and monster-sized butterflies in my stomach, I set out towards my first boat.

Unfortunately, that first boat didn't need any help that day (since the guy was dayworking himself) but he suggested I try the boat back towards the entrance. He had heard that they were looking to crew up.



I arrive at the boat and peer up at it from the ground--it was out of the water and on stilts! I spotted a worker wandering around and asked for the captain. I was told that I should just go up and look for him, since he was there somewhere. I nervously hobbled up the wooden staircase and removed my flipflops to board the boat. Everything was covered in blue tape and plastic sheeting and there wasn't a soul around. I was really hesitant to hop on board and wander around since you don't just enter a boat unless invited or escorted, but I needed to find someone.

Eventually I found someone who found someone who could talk to me. I explained myself and after answering a few basic questions, was given an interview! I wasn't at all prepared. The interview itself went well and I liked the people, but since this was my first time even stepping foot on one of these boats and I didn't really even know what I was getting myself into, I assumed that there was no way I had a chance. They were scheduled to do more interviews later in the afternoon. They'd call me the next morning.

The more I thought about it and ran through all they had talked about in my head, the more I realized that this was the perfect opportunity. Basically after psyching myself up all of the rest of Tuesday and then checking my phone in nervous anticipation all Wednesday morning while I found daywork on another boat, I finally called back on my lunch to find out what the story was.

I got the job!!

Apparently they had tried to call, but my phone hadn't been accepting calls. I finished out my day of ironing on the boat I was dayworking on while silently squealing with glee to myself. I was to report back to the boat first thing the next morning.



The pictures in this post were from my first day of work. It was they day the boat went back into the water. A giant crane came and lifted the boat from its stilts and drove it (slowly!) to its spot at the dock to be lowered into the water. The whole ordeal was really quite something to watch. The pictures are a bit deceiving since they make it hard to really grasp the scale of the machinery, but it was incredibly impressive how well these large things were maneuvered.

Until yesterday, I was still living in the crew house but reporting to the docks from 8 to 5. That changed yesterday when I packed my bag and moved on board. Tonight is my first official watch duty and it's a bit eerie to be on the boat all alone at night.

I'm sort of already missing the morning scramble to get ready, coordinate with my ride, fly through Dunkin Donuts to get breakfast and rush to the docks. But really, I just miss the people in the house. Most of them had left already and new people arrived in their place (such is the constant rotation in a crew house), but people are people all the same. Can't wait to have a night off again. :)

But I'm employed! On my first real day of job searching! I'm a lucky son of a gun, I am. And to top it all off, the people on the boat are simply amazing. It's a week later and I still can't quite believe it. :) What a whirlwind.