My brother offered me my first boat job. I was hired as a deckhand in Clayoquot Sound, and it was supposed to be temporary. Believe it or not, that is how I stumbled into what I like to call the pirate life.
Years later, after working and travelling on dozens of vessels from coast to coast, “temporary” has become a fairly questionable word. Teaching English in Japan and working on boats might look like completely different chapters. But both have put me back in the position of learning how somebody else wants things done.
Same knot. Different captain.
One of my biggest surprises was the hierarchy. The captain was the boss, and below that were the engineer, the lead hand and the rest of us. There was plenty of old-school mentality. As a deckhand, you got used to being told what to do—and sometimes being told you were doing it wrong when you were doing exactly what someone else had taught you.
Knots were a perfect example. I could arrive at what looked to me like the same knot by a different route, but the route mattered to the person teaching me. The second captain I worked for wanted things done completely differently from the first. Just when I thought I had learned the way, I had to learn another way.
It reminded me of learning Japanese kanji. I remembered being expected to follow a particular way of writing, not simply produce something that looked right at the end. Different setting, familiar lesson: pay attention to the process.
My instinct might be to think I already knew a better way. What I learned was to listen, understand the instructions and put my ego aside. There is a difference between learning someone’s preferred method and keeping quiet when you genuinely do not understand a task.
Mother Nature has the final say
Then there is the power of the sea. Wind, tides, the ebb and flow of the current—never underestimate any of it. What still surprises me is how quickly nature can show her wrath or her grace.
I have worked through hellish weather and difficult conditions. I have also seen the true beauty of the sea. Both belong in the story. The beauty does not erase the hard days, and the hard days do not stop me appreciating what is out there.
Choose your boat wisely
Boats differ drastically. On one, you might have Starlink, a watermaker and your own little pirate room. On another, the facilities might amount to a bucket with a rope, and your sleeping arrangements are a triple bunk with two guys snoring like banshees.
Same broad idea—living aboard. Very different night’s sleep. Choose your boat wisely.
Shift work can also suck the life out of your social calendar. Time flies aboard, while life ashore keeps moving. You have to make room for whatever helps you feel like yourself. If you are a gamer, bring games. If you read, bring books. If you fish, bring your gear. Those personal comforts matter when work and home occupy the same small space.
What stayed with me
The job my brother offered me became much more than a temporary change of scenery. It taught me how much I still had to learn—from captains, from other crew members and from conditions that did not care what I had planned.
After years of following captains’ orders, going through hellish weather and working conditions, and putting my own needs on the back burner, life at sea has made me truly humble—and grateful.
Turns out my sea legs came with a smaller ego.
Illustrations are AI-created interpretations, not portraits or depictions of a specific vessel.
Read the teaching story: Learning by Doing · More Grifter’s Tales
