Start Here
Your first days, without the pile of tabs.
Five moves I still give a stew who writes to me the week before she flies to Antibes. Do these in order. Then open the Library.
- 01
Get legal
STCW Basic Safety and a seafarer medical (ENG1 or equivalent). Scan them. Put the dates on the CV. Without these, you are not hireable — only hopeful.
- 02
Write the one-page CV
Photograph in daylight. Boats newest first. Rank honest. Two references with numbers. I have a full note on this in Foundations.
- 03
Be where the boats are
Antibes, Palma, Fort Lauderdale in season. Register with two agencies. Do daywork. Answer the phone. The first yes is almost never an email from your sofa.
- 04
Learn ten things before you step on
A table setting, a hospital corner, a wine pour, a preference line, a laundry sort, how to enter a cabin, how to leave a conversation, names, shoes, silence. Interior craft in this library covers the rest.
- 05
Treat the trial like a charter
Early, clean, notebook in the pocket. Ask where the laundry is. Write what you see. The trial is the job, compressed.