Sea Time : Long trips or Shorter trips?

[tommysevenfold]

So I'll be finishing phase 3 next week, ready for the grueling wait where you don't know when or where you will be joining which ship.

This brings to my mind a question, due to the amount of time it took to find out when i was joining a ship in phase 2 (nearly 3 months!), i'm wondering, once i get a ship is it worth sticking with it? With the wait in phase 2, i don't want to do 4 months, get off and be waiting another 4, to join another ship and be 3 weeks late back for the college phase again! I currently have just over 5 months time, and need another 7 months to complete my seatime for my orals.

In everybody's experience, is it better to do a long 7-8 month trip, or stick with, say 4 and then 3 months?

Thanks!
Carl

[belfaster]

So I'll be finishing phase 3 next week, ready for the grueling wait where you don't know when or where you will be joining which ship.

This brings to my mind a question, due to the amount of time it took to find out when i was joining a ship in phase 2 (nearly 3 months!), i'm wondering, once i get a ship is it worth sticking with it? With the wait in phase 2, i don't want to do 4 months, get off and be waiting another 4, to join another ship and be 3 weeks late back for the college phase again! I currently have just over 5 months time, and need another 7 months to complete my seatime for my orals.

In everybody's experience, is it better to do a long 7-8 month trip, or stick with, say 4 and then 3 months?

Thanks!
Carl

It really depends.
If you are enjoying being onboard and more importantly if the crew are good and you are learning then certainly stay on, as the next ship might not be as good!

7 months is a long time though, but if you can do it then why not. During my cadetship the longest I done was 6 months, and it felt good to get the hard part out of the way, leaving me with a small 2 month 'cruise' to finish my seatime.

[The Kraken]

My last sea trip as a cadet was 6 and a half months. It was a good ship with decent facilities and a generally good crew. However, 6 and a half months was a long slog and for the last two months I was probably operating at about 50% of my original capacity. To be honest I'd say it's put me off long contract trips on cargo ships. In terms of learning onboard, I learnt a lot with the officers in the first two months, but their rota was 2 on/2 off. When their replacements signed on I was sent back to mainly sweeping, mopping, chipping, painting and washing (not ideal for your last trip as a cadet) and learnt nothing new. The option is yours but consider these factors.

[gadget123]

It really depends how you feel at the end of 4 months. At the end of a 4 month trip I'm usualy pretty knackered so you need to balance getting your time in with actualy being able to learn something. I think 6 is the max any sort of normal person could manage really.

[tommysevenfold]

Thanks everyone, helped to make up my mind. Think it's gonna be a 4 and 3 month jobby. Need to be at my full capacity