My reasons for coming back to sea were quite simple. To be able to revalidate my certificates I need to have done 12 months seatime in 5 years. I've got about 18 months to go until I need to revalidate but not much seatime. As I've been working away from sea for 3 1/2 years I've been a bit undecided as to whether I wanted to revalidate at all.
One part of me still yearns to work on a ship, be part of a crew, navigating around the sea etc. I worked hard to get all my certificates, so figure it would be a shame to lose the certificates.
On the other hand I have a quiet life in the country, working for myself with my dog for a companion and a great husband who I see every 3 weeks as he works at sea too. I don't have to get up at silly hours of the day anymore, I get to belong to clubs/ groups etc and don't miss out on family birthdays/ weddings/ get togethers.
I wanted this trip away to help me decide whether I should bother trying to revalidate my ticket or just concentrate on my 'newer' life.
Of course it is hard to measure it by this trip alone because it has by no means been a 'normal' trip. We have only done 1 cargo and have been in a repair stop for just over a week. Being able to go ashore with other crew, makes a difference. Normally at sea you wouldn't see a lot of other crew members because of doing opposite watches. In a 3 week trip I probably wouldn't go ashore once.
So this has been a refreshing change, I've thoroughly enjoyed myself, I've had a great laugh with the crew and some of the lads working in the dockyard. It's worked out well really that I knew the ship already too.
Another nice thing is that several of the crew have said how nice it has been having me on board. It's made a change to them too.
So will I continue and come back for a few more trips to sea or will I say 'no this isn't for me' and cast away the idea of going back to sea??
What would you do?
I'd definitely go back to sea from time to time. It's a great option to have.
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