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It’s official, this just in, I am now a commercially licensed yacht Captain! After a fairly grueling two week course and half a dozen written exams, culminating with a practical exam at sea, I can happily report that I passed! I obtained my MCA Master of Yachts 200 Gross Ton Limited Captains License through Professional Yachtmaster Training in Fort Lauderdale, FL. This is the UK ticket similar to the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore. I am still training this week to obtain an additional endorsement for Master of Yachts 200T Unlimited; an Ocean endorsement to allow navigation in all oceans of the world. I am deep into reducing celestial sights and playing with sextants. The class concludes after the 4 hour exam this Saturday. I am really looking forward to the finish line.
The beautiful Mermaid is out here in Fort Lauderdale visiting for the weekend and getting our name out there with the crew agencies. We still plan to go back to Fiji this season so we are just doing intros and making contacts. We are looking to run a boat up to about 70 feet or join as First Mate and Stew on a larger vessel. If you have any delivery or crew opportunities or know of any please pass along the below link to help us get started! I am available for deliveries or temp work this spring before we return to Fiji.
Hope everyone is having a great week. Cheers
Our friends Chris and Monica of sv SeaGlub uploaded a video from the sea survival training we took a couple weeks ago as part of the STCW95 class. Fun with gumby suits and liferafts. Check out the blonde mermaid righting and jumping into the liferaft towards the end of the video! Follow Chris and Monica’s adventure here. Cheers!
To clear any confusion: we are back in the USA, Ellie is in Fiji, we flew to Sydney, Australia for a week and then flew back to California for some training and to attend my Mothers wedding in Idaho. If you are confused, that makes two of us. Definitely too much traveling lately. Turns out nothing goes to windward like a 747. After crossing oceans for two years, a 14 hour flight is like taking a nap on a long watch.
We have spent the past week in San Diego attending the Maritime Training Institute to obtain our STCW Basic Safety Training qualifications. These qualifications are required as a prerequisite to be eligible for employment on superyachts. Now that we are pretty much broke as a joke and Ellie needs some expensive maintenance parts, it has come to our attention that the money tree we have been shaking for the past couple years is apparently limited in its bounty. Such is life in the 21st century, especially if you live on a yacht that has a tendency of requiring expensive marine parts. So after racking our brains trying to find the best path to make money while continuing to enjoy every day and continue traveling, we have arrived at our current plan of working on large private yachts. We have already obtained the minimum qualifications and I plan to obtain my Master of Yachts 200T Offshore Unlimited ticket at a facility in Florida this December.
The STCW class was a mix of brief fun intertwined with incredible boredom. The pace of the class was painfully slow – the material could have been covered in 1/5 the time that was spent. That said, we did learn quite a bit about safety that we didn’t already know. We were able to fight actual fires at a U.S. Navy surface warfare and fire fighting facility; although they required that I shave off my beard! We also donned survival suits and learned how to right a liferaft, which was cool. Our friends Chris and Monica joined the class with us which made it a lot more fun. We finished the class today and are both glad we don’t have to sit through another long day of lecture and multiple choice questions.
The transition back to the real world and regular society has been a very tough one for me. Alyssa on the other hand is ecstatic to be back in modern society with all the amenities and comforts. I on the other hand was flirting with depression, anxiety and stress. I found myself appalled at the chaos of it all; the noise, the rude people, the bustle, the homeless, the expensive price of everything. I couldn’t help but compare almost everything here to Fiji; where the people are happy, their smiles genuine, where people aren’t caught up in status and material excess, the pace of life slower, and the prices much more affordable. I also forgot a very important step required to transition back to life in the real world: I forgot to make a conscious effort to cease living in the moment and to once again look forward to a goal instead. In Fiji or while cruising we live every day to the fullest, live in the moment and barely think beyond the next day. I love it. If you do that while living an 8-5 in the real world it can get pretty overwhelming and downright depressing. It finally clicked toward the end of the week when my wonderful better half reminded me why we were sitting in chairs taking multiple choice tests. The next day I found myself smiling a lot more because the mentality had transitioned from “this is so boring” to “working on a yacht will be awesome.”
We are at the airport once again headed to Idaho to attend my Mothers wedding – the primary reason we are back in the states. We wouldn’t miss it for the world and are both looking forward to seeing family. Next week we fly back to San Diego for another visit with Alyssa’s family and then Lyss heads to Northern California to start an accounting job at a small family business. I have a few weeks to study ahead of my classes in Florida that start at the end of November.
Well that’s the latest goings on in our life. This may be the last post we have for a bit. I’ll update the blog with any weather systems that head towards Fiji. I may even upload some videos from the past season.
Here are some pics from the STCW class we took this week.
Cheers from San Diego, CA, USA (aka The supposed Real World)
