This past week I have been training to be a deckhand. Not only has my body had to adjust to being active again, but my mind has had to grasp an entire new vocabulary as I venture into a business I knew very little about. Sure, I had ridden the water taxi as a passenger and even taken the architecture tour a time or two. I had also taken a few cruises on much bigger vessels, so I knew my port from my starboard side, forward and aft, and my bow from my stern. But there are a whole bunch of acronyms and terms and knots to now keep straight. For example, I got an email on Wednesday afternoon titled DH 1 MOB Drill. DH stands for deckhand, the 1 stands for level 1 which means you get to wear 1 stripe on your epaulet (the captain has 4), and MOB stands for Man Overboard. I was supposed to complete training on Wednesday but this being Chicago in the passage between Winter and Spring, we could not complete the drill because the decks were icy and it was too cold, and apparently you can't earn your stripe until you pull a 150 lb. dummy (named Oscar) out of the river while the boat is in motion. So, I had to go back on Friday morning and save Oscar. Even during that one drill there was new vocabulary, you have to learn how "high" and "wide" the victim is from the "mark". This helps the captain maneuver the boat so you can pull the victim out of the water. High is how many feet away from the mark the victim is and wide is the number of degrees. The mark is a small platform at the bottom of the ladder you deploy to stand on to bring the victim on board. Once you've got the victim to the platform you can yell "Victim on/at mark!"
I also learned what the different hatches are called, from the lazarette to the forepeak and what's contained in each one. There are also safety terms, such as the VSO which is the Vessel Security Officer a.k.a. the captain. We also have the CSO (Company Security Officer) and FSO (Facilities Security Officer). Then there are MARSEC levels. MARSEC stands for Maritime Security Level. These are levels set by the Coast Guard (just like levels set after 9/11). We needed to learn what to do at each level and what happens if the level changes while we're out on the river or lake. There are restricted areas on the boat unless you have a TWIC card. This stands for Transportation Worker Identification Credential and can be applied for. Most captains and senior deckhands hold these cards.
There are ABC fire extinguishers and BC extinguishers. There is a COI (Certificate of Inspection) on each vessel. There are also all the people around, from the Engineer, to the Dock Attendant, to the GSA (Guest Services Attendant).
This coming week, I get to learn even more since the water taxis are all different types of boats from the tour boats I was trained on.
So from sweeping 4 inches of snow off the upper deck of a vessel on Tuesday, to using a squeegee to get water off the decks on Friday, and completing fire and abandon ship drills on Wednesday, I am a little tired, a little sore, but very happy.
