You might want to get clothes in light colors, 'cause it’s not always a drill, and if it’s you you’ll want to be seen.
Seriously, pay attention to the safety stuff. You might even have a duty station in case of a fire. First priority is that you and your shipmates make it back to dry land.
Hello there, Merchant seaman here. Warm clothes and seasickness pills are a given, you may be lucky and never suffer from seasickness at all (I have never had a even a twinge) learn the way around the ship as quickly as you can. A lot depends on the dynamic on board, my company is quasi military as we work for the British MOD, so there is quite a gulf between ratings and officers. We have separate messes and rec rooms, I’m not sure where you will be in that relation. Professional seaman are generally affable, swear a lot, and can talk some good bawdy. Especially the older generation… Listen to the men around you, expect to be made game of a bit. Lookmout for glass hammers, long stands and sky hooks :smack: any questions feel free to ask…
Communications Rating 1 Nobbs, Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
OP, remember to keep your hands on your “Seaman’s Certificate of Discharge.”
I thought I’d pipe in regarding sea sickness. I’ve had it at sea, recovered from it and since then moved past it. What I’ve learnt (from my own experience and from others) is that:
If you feel seasick, eat a banana. They taste good going down, and they taste good coming up.
Hurricane season for another month, and the gulf can get rough at any time.
I would argue against wool clothing, unless it is a light wieght variety.
The old fashioined pea coats, while warm and relatively water resistant, can get very heavy when wet. A 5-in-1 windbreaker, fleece, hoody, waterproof shell would be my choice.
Generally speaking, natural fibers are less prone to catching fire or melting into your skin during an event.
Enjoy, get on deck when you can. I have seen everything from schols of rays that look like an M. C. Escher print, to whale sharks and giant mantas.
I can’t imagine anything mixed with stomach acid “taste good”.
I’ve had my nervous listen over the radio tracking hurricanes and trying to find an island to find a safe hunker down spots and not finding any. Exciting and scary. I’ve given up on sailing through stormy sea and just went down and tied myself in a bunker bed and closed by eyes. Once I had to cut the sail down with a knife on a nearly capsizing sailboat in a sudden storm crossing Gulf Stream. Yeah that one was close but then, half the draw to the sea is these moments. The other half is those life threatening close moments make the calm perfect sea so much more beautiful like nothing else. They go hand in hand… at least on sailboats but probably not so much on a bigger ships.
My normal clothes with rain gear shell worked fine. The wet cold breeze can penetrate through Polartec fuzzy stuff though. You sometimes need outer shell like rain suit… yellow one just in case you go overboard, god forbid.
I once saw some 30 giant spotted eagle rays doing exactly that in a clear 50 ft water. My friend swam down to touch one and nearly had Steve Irwin thing happened. A good thing as I couldn’t have sailed a 50 ft sailboat by myself nor did I know how to really navigate(!).
Never puked a banana, I see…
Am I not getting something here… hmmm… must be my new med… this is happening frequently.
Yes, of course you don’t want to show up in old-fashioned woolie longjohns. Smartwool as briefs or a t-shirt is very very light, wicks super well, and is impossible to tell from cotton or poly- unless you’re wearing it. The Peacoat or fishermans seater will fit in, everyone wears one. Sure, Gore-tex is good stuff for wet weather, not saying it ain’t.
Well, I read a book called The Custom of the Sea once, and it was all about cannibalism. So apparently you can expect that.
I was once in the south China Sea in very very bad weather on a research ship. I was one of the few 'mericans on a PRC ship, and wanted to make a good show of it. I had taken more and more ginger capsules as the weather wore on, and had started to burp up a gingery taste. Eventually the fear of ralphing up a gout of strongly-ginger-flavoured-vomit and scouring out my mouth and nose was the only thing keeping me from barfing.
Good times.
This brings up a good point. The two most important people on the ship are the captain and the cook. Don’t piss off either. Appreciate the cook. Eat what you take.
Shipboard food is variable. While I’ve had restaurant quality food 4 times a day, there was this one trip where the cook was dumped by his wife in Norway and his girlfriend in Chile at the same time, and was too depressed to properly organize the supplies before we left. So we had not good food, and not enough of it, and I lost a lot of weight by the end.
Usually though, the food is pretty good, if very old school male-type.
Oh, I meant to mention - look out for the smell of land as you’re coming in to port at the end - it really makes you realize how potent the smell is, and how sensitive your nose can be.
Our boats almost never had “a cook”. So we took turns being the “Cabin Bitch”(I think that’s our term) of the day: yes, not a nice term (kinda in similar spirit as “Poop Deck”) regardless of whether you are male or female but, it comes with the territory. You can express your displeasure by eating up all the good stuff while you cook and give them horrible meals and snacks… but payback is bitch and it can turn into a vicious cycle. Getting along with your shipmates is very important when you are confined in a very small space on a vast ocean for a long time. Being on the boats I learned the importance of being able to whip out tasty eats and also the pleasure of cooking and serving food to people… almost feel motherly. Luckily my very first meal I cooked everyone liked. You’ll find out with the movement of your vessle (severity depending on what kind and how big they are) you are hungry all the time. I don’t know the exactly scientific cause for sure but I assumed it’s like you are being forced to be on a treadmill, ie, compensating the rocking movement is deceivingly physical activity. So excess to food is very important hence your relationship with the cook/the cabin bitch of the day. If you are not careful you gain weight very fast.
Also when you approach an island/land or city you will see the tips of tallest things first like tips of skyscraper magically rising out of the middle of glassy ocean. I always loved seeing that except for when I had to go back to work from great trips.
Thank you so much guys for all of the advice! I’m on my first official shift today, although admittedly we are in port and I won’t have anything to do for a while.
The boat is tilting back and forth a little bit as they are raising and lowering stuff onto the deck, and it’s throwing me a little but no major sick feelings yet. I’m not really afraid of sea sickness and don’t expect it to be much of a problem for me, but I do have the pills if I need them. unfortunately I forgot to go out and get some ginger candy, but next time I will bring some!
I am pretty comfortable in my fleece jacket and everyone else around is jsut wearing jeans and tshirts so it looks like I am dressed fairly appropriately. The food has been good for the 1 meal I have had so far. Everyone has been really friendly, orientation has gone well, and overall it’s been a good experience!!! Of course, we are still docked, so… that’s easy for me to say now, haha.
So far nobody has tried to pull anything over on me yet, but we’ll see 
Also, we are in charge of doing our own laundry, but they do supply us with the soap and dryer sheets, so I don’t think I have to worry about anyone taking my stuff… for now!
I replaced the night cook on a feighter who had been killed off. He and another crew member boarded in the middle of the night in a drunken state. He was found between the boat and the pier the next day. His buddy never raised an alarm and was not arrested. I guess he was a bad cook.
ala “Moose Turd Pie”
lol, so far the cooks have been very nice and I’ve tried to be nice back 
I am making lots of friends and everyone is being really nice to me. The guy I am sharing a room with is very clean and canadian, so that’s nice.
I am definitely getting used to the rocking back and forth. It’s funny because now it’s like I can see it happening as I am feeling it. Even though I know everything in my vision is still, it’s like my brain is tricking my eyes into making sense out of what it is feeling, so I can see things getting further away and then rocking back toward me, or side to side, or whatever… kind of cool! I haven’t gotten a sick feeling at all but I have been taking sea sickness pills since we left port. They do make me drowsy so I’m going to skip my pill tomorrow and see how I make it. I think I’ll be fine though.
I’m surprised how comfortably I am able to sleep considering the constant hum of the engines and the rocking of the ship, but honestly, I got some really fantastic sleep last night. Especially since I am away from my bf and don’t have anyone to cuddle up to, I thought I’d be having a more difficult time. I’m sure in a few weeks I will definitely be ready to get home.
Argh! These magazines will help keep me crew from resorting to homosexuality on those long voyages. For five minutes!
Yes, actually, the rocking and sea air does make one get some good solid zzzzzzz’s even if you don’t have your sea-legs yet.