The saying that the grass is greener on the other side is pretty much true I guess .
I work for 7 to 8 months in a year, earn enough to live quite well in my country , enjoy uninterrupted holidays for months on end , no calls from a crazy boss, no deadlines. no target pressures while on vacation .
The sacrifice I have to make is those 8 months away from family and friends quite isolated until recently thanks to technology , the Pirates of Somalia, Indonesia etc etc are alien to the "shore" populace.
I am sometimes bored out of my wits during my vacations for want of things to do and such days make me want to work like everyone else 9 am to whatever time being busy , running around and even earn a bit less than I normally do .
People look at me and say you are lucky, such long vacations !!! yeah yeah , but then over time I have realized unless there is a hobby or a passion to keep us occupied (Something I really need to work on ) , long vacations are really boring ... and that there is a limit to how much one can sleep and not get bored of sleeping !!! Yup you can get bored of sleeping too !!
The day I step foot on a ship I look forward to the day I will be walking down the gangway ,bag and baggage, waving to the guys on board , getting to the airport and flying back home . again after few weeks after getting back home the feeling of wanting to get back to work takes over . Its weird , but its a feeling shared by majority of the seafarer community .
Watch out for the ones who never seems to want to take a break from sea life ( ones who sail an average of 10 months or more each year ) those guys are the ones that will be least pleasing to work with trust me on this one .
A Honourable profession ranking among one of the least corrupt jobs on earth ( of course the occasional gobblers of public funds do crop up once in a while ) . As the most popular motto on sea goes - SAFETY FIRST ! Enjoy your work guys n girls and lets make sure our ships gets to her destinations on time safe and sound .
