With My Deck In Hand

Blog of a seaman working on the lake

[seamensdeck]

Hello!!

This blog is dedicated to my maritime “career”.

I am a 21 year old Deckhand who has been working on boats since 2024. I am currently working towards my captains license, with roughly 250+ days at sea.

Feel free to follow along on my journey.

[seamensdeck]

May 8 2026

61 Degrees and yet incredibly chilly

Spent my first day onboard one of my new companies boats. I had such a great time. I was the third Deckhand on with a crew that’s usually just 2 DHs and a Captain. I got to do basically everything onboard, for the last 4 hours of my 12 hour shift, I took over the role of Boatswain onboard.

The captain likes me, I completed a MOB drill in under 3 minutes which is almost a record of mine. (1:32 for anyone wondering but it was on a much smaller vessel and with another crew member rather than just myself.)

At the EOW, I had to correct the crew on something which would’ve ended in disaster.

All things considered, I’m glad that I got to prove myself to a crew today, I can’t say I’m proud of myself, this is how Im supposed to be working.

[seamensdeck]

May 06 2026

58 Degrees partial cloudy

Pulled my first 12 hour shift of the year. I did not miss this one. I spent most of my time shadowing the Boatswains for my new company. It was a good time. We did Man-overboard drills this morning, I aced them of course.

Got to meet a bunch of really cool people, my company somehow has some of the most gorgeous people I’ve ever laid eyes on. Mostly all of them were as gorgeous as they were friendly. But it’s not gorgeous in the “let me get in their pants right now” way, it’s gorgeous in the “their genes were made perfectly” kind of way. Have to differentiate because in this industry, a lot of sexual freaks are everywhere.

Tomorrow I recertify my First Aid and CPR certification, then Friday and Saturday I’m doing my first few shifts, once again 12 hours.

[seamensdeck]

Mon May 4th 2026

9am - 515pm 79 Degrees, thunderstorms

I trained at my new company. I fear I’ve ruined my career.

I didn’t realize the difficulty of having three jobs. The scheduling conflicts which arise are crazy. I told this company I needed 2-3 days to coop with my other jobs, and it got kinda ignored. I will now be working from the 4th until the 9th, and then 11,12, and 15. All shifts over 12 hours. I’m not upset, I should’ve specified my shift needs when I was hired, so now I’m thugging it out. I’m being treated like a deckhand that knows something, with almost 3 years of experience (not a lot) and 250+ days of sea time, they’re treating me as a deckhand and not as an idiot. I look forward to my next few shifts. I think a girl was flirting with me but i don’t know really.

Onto the next

[seamensdeck]

Thursday April 30th 2026

43 Degrees with 5 MPH W Wind

I’m thankful today is over. I wouldn’t consider my job difficult in the slightest, but it does require a mental fortitude to it. I’ve entered a mindset that at this job, I just need to make money. Most of the crew is ready to quit, myself included.

It’s not a hard demanding job all the time, but the people involved in the job make it go from easy, to hard. Wrangling crew is almost as difficult as wrangling customers; the First Mates are lazy and hate their jobs, and don’t mind us knowing that. It’s a silly job to be upset at, hardly operating your boats from 9am to 6pm isn’t the most grueling job.

A lot of passengers came onboard today not dressed properly. 43 on land is 20 on the water with the wind. Water was constantly being blown on deck in peoples face. One child was so cold he almost cried. I gave him my coat, told his dad to wrap him up in it. They tipped me $40 for that gesture, although I would’ve been happy without the tip.

Our last tour was a private charter, a group of foreign college students. They were rowdy, took 15 minutes to board, and 10 minutes to settle down and listen to the captain. The captain today is the best, but she’s very stern (no pun intended). She decided to torment the rowdy crowd, getting the 79 of them completely wet.

I personally got yelled at, I was told I “walk away when people are telling me things” and that I “need to cut that out and stand still”.

I think it was an overreaction from my Mate, I was also trying my hardest to get my job done without incident, he just didn’t explain properly what he needed.

I’m off until Saturday when I go to my second job, and then Monday when I go to my third jobs orientation. Praying all goes well.

(Not the boat I work on)