Becoming a USCG Captain
I passed the test for theUSCG 100 Ton Captains License on my birthday, September 21, 2018. I attended the Annapolis School of Seamanship. The course took 10 days and it was grueling, however this wasn’t the hard part. In order to take the test you must obtain “sea time”. The requirements are as follows.
The tonnage of the license is determined by your experience. For a 100 gross ton license, 180 days must be on vessels of 51 gross tons or above OR 360 days must be on vessels of 34 gross tons or above. For a 50 gross ton license, 180 days must be on a vessel of 26 gross tons.
- USCG
So the first order of business for me was in the fall of 2016. I needed to sail, but I no longer had a boat. I started reaching out online through places like Facebook’s “sailboat hitch hikers” or findacrew.net and other similar websites. I soon found out living in a small space with a complete stranger can be a bit of a challenge to say the least.
The very first sailboat I found myself on was Captain Rick’s Sophisticated Lady a 2003 fifty-two foot Jeaneau originally build for chartering. Rick Moore is one of the first sailing Youtube channels, so fortunately for me I was able to watch his videos and get somewhat of an idea of who he was and what life was like on an average day aboard Sophisticated Lady. Sophisticated Lady boasted four cabins and four heads which was ideal for having lots of crew on board while also being able to stay out of each others hair.
I flew to Barbados where the crew sailed in to pick me up. We sailed back to St. Vincent, where they had been docked for several months prior to my arrival. I was with Rick and his crew of two other women, Sasha from Russia, Alice from Canada and his son Brenden for several months where I painstakingly learned to tie a bowline amongst other things. We did little day hops and enjoyed lots of fair weather sailing. This experience for me was a great way to get my feet wet.
During my time on Sophisticated Lady I kept a detailed log book and made sure to take the proper USCG forms for the captain to sign at the end of my trip. Something I learned during my travels, is that it is nearly impossible to track down other fellows travelers ie. sailors to fill out paperwork. Do it now, do not wait until later!
Next stop was Saint Maarten, where I joined a catamaran packed full of even more girls
