News & Views by Kim Davis

It is finally Fall in Texas, and the weather is just right. Shirt sleeves during the day and a little nip in the air at night. Glorious!

I have been extra busy with freelance projects this past week, so I'll keep the editorial pontification to a minimum. (Did I hear a collective sigh of relief?) The hiccup is that I have yet to get the NEW archives area together, so for now we're stuck with the old. What can I say? Those other jobs pay more, and I don't have to worry about getting fired by the editor of this rag!

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Ed Teja wrote the feature article this week, On Being Captain.

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This week's Question comes from a Romanian electrician wishing to work in the US or the UK. I've had several letters similar to this one of late, and while I want to help everyone I can, I really am not an expert on immigration laws.

I am also noticing that a lot of people seem to think that I offer job placement services. Please be aware that I merely provide information about how to get jobs and where to look for them. In particular, I specialize in jobs within the Adventure Travel Industry.

What I offer is a free service out of the goodness of my heart. I hope that the information I provide will help you in your job search, but the work must really come from you!

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The Contacts & Jobs include jobs for aerospace engineers and culinary training establishments.

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If you have not seen my other website yet, stop by. The URL is www.yachtie.net.

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Want to submit an article? Read the guidelines at: www.kpdavis.com/submission_guidelines.htm

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Enjoy the changing seasons and have a great week!

---- Kim ;-) 

Feature

On Being Captain by Ed Teja

Painting of Traveling Ed on silk by Dagny

One of the compelling reasons that some people buy a boat is that it offers more upward mobility than any other purchase. Now I am not talking about simple snob appeal or keeping ahead of the Jones, although those factors can't be totally discounted. No, I am talking about true upward mobility, wherein you jump from the lowest rung of the salty ladder (landlubber) to top of the heap - Captain of a vessel of the high seas.

Now there is a lot to be said for this exhilarating launch to such a stratospheric executive heights, largely because you cannot find equal opportunity elsewhere in this delineated and civilized world. True, some backward countries, such as the United States and England might require some sort of test of your nautical know-how before they will let you legally play captain in their waters, but fortunately there are many that don't, and even in the post-industrial West the qualifications are still no more stringent than the ability to fill in a form or two properly, have an address and the license fee, and not get too cute with bureaucrats. That makes it a pretty sweet deal.

And why is it such a rush to be a captain? Here lies the irony. Despite the simplicity of acquiring a boat (it takes only cash), and thus captaincy, being a captain is one of the few remaining positions of real authority in the world. As a captain your universe may be small, say no more than 35 feet by 10, but your authority is greater than presidents of sovereign nations. You don't need ratification of your decisions. You may have to argue with your mate on occasion, but seldom on issues of command significance, such as whether to have rum or wine at Happy Hour. And at sea, you always have fast track authority.

The enormity and awesomeness of the power of command came to me in a moment of epiphany a few years back. I knew that I was responsible for my boat and all that, but this was intellectual acknowledgement - not visceral. I had yet to truly feel it. My boat, a WWII Royal Navy Harbour Defence Motor Launch, (Float Street, by name) was on the slipway of a boatyard in Cumana, Venezuela, ready to be launched. We had just completed a typical boat repair job, which meant, in this case, converting a perfectly good, small, leak into a very large and expensive patch (is this an improvement? One wonders.). We weren't sure that we, or the carpenters we were working with, actually knew what the heck we were doing. Fixing a hole in a double-diagonal teak hull (first laid in 1939, according to the note we found on the inner hull) is no straightforward cut and plug job.

But we had designed a patch and tested it in the various ways we could imagine (amazing neighbors by putting water IN THE BOAT when it was on the hard). Our first attempt had failed. We had learned a lot and figured that we were ready to go. The moment in question found us on the slipway with the stern of the boat, where the leak had been and the patch now was, already partly in the water. The boatyard crew were easing us in slowly, patiently putting up with my incessant "poco mas; pero despacio" (a little more, but slowly) over the VHF as we eased her in. Then came what bullfighters call the moment of truth Float Street wanted to float. A few feet more and there would be no turning back and while I wasn't positive, I was quite sure that boatyards are inclined to charge you extra if you sink at the end of their railway. If nothing else, it would be a great inconvenience for everyone.

My mate yelled up from the stern cabin that we seemed to be all right. Knowing her, I took that to mean that the bilges were bone dry. She does not believe in getting her tootsies wet while still on board. Still, we wondered what would happen when the patch took the 40 tonne weight of the boat? Suddenly, from my perspective behind the helm, the recent woodwork seemed a lot more fragile than it had when we were under the boat driving hundreds of huge silicon-bronze screws into it. So I stopped for a moment as the boat creaked in the cradle and the yard crew gave me puzzled looks-undoubtedly wondering when I would get my boat out of the way so they could haul up Tres Chiflados (Three crazies), a steel fishing boat that was impatiently churning up the water off shore.

At that moment, it dawned on me. Everyone had to wait for me 'cause I was the captain. If I wanted the boat hauled back up, they would haul it back up, although I'd hear some rather colloquial expressions from the Captain of Tres Chiflados later, for sure. The boatyard owner wouldn't be thrilled either. If I wanted to keep going, they'd launch me. And if we sank, well… Whatever I chose, I was stuck with the result. Once launched, keeping afloat was my job, and a wrong call would mean a long night of pumping and bailing (or swimming).

To shatter the suspenseful mood I've created, I'll tell you that we did keep going into the water, and didn't sink (then), and therefore I felt like a cool dude for making such a great executive decision. I wallowed in the joys of being a captain. Indulged myself in fantasies about what a knowledgeable Captain I was (not to mention kind to the crew). I just let my ego soak for a while in self satisfaction.

Then, of course, going through the narrows in the Golfo de Cariaco, surrounded by the random trajectories of water taxis, high-speed fishing boats, and nearly overwhelmed by wake from a passing Guardia Nacional patrol boat, one of the engines conked out and the mate got an instant promotion to Captain while I was demoted to grease monkey for two days. Well, live by upward mobility and you die by it too. It doesn't help that I think she makes a better Captain anyway.

(A version of this story originally appeared in CARIBBEN COMPASS)

Ed Teja is the author of The Legend of Ron Añejo, the story of the world's best Caribbean boat bum. http://www.edteja.com

Q & A

Romanian Electrician wants to work in America

Hello!

I'm from ROMANIA. I am an electrician with 14 years' experience, and from Feb. 2001 until Aug 2002 I have been working in the United States, with J-1 Visa, for several host companies. I have a valid Social Security Number (SSN), Colorado ID and electrical licence, HILTI autorization, bank account in US, also I have a lot of experience in US and european electrical field (comercial, industrial, security, CCTV.) If is possible I want to work again in U.S or in UK, can you help me?

Thank you for your patience.

With respect E. R.

Dear E.R.,

Your request is one of several that I have received lately asking for assistence in locating work and / or work visas for the United States.

I must apologize to you and all my other readers who dream of getting into the States to work, but this is simply not my area of expertise.

You, E.R., sound like a well qualified person with most of the necessary prerequisites in place to find work within the U.S., so I simply found links to job hunting websites within your field:

My mission with this newsletter is to help people who wish to travel and work within the adventure travel industry primarily. I am not a job placement agent. I merely provide information.