Sirius_55_Polaris

All the time, but as I'm the guy that manoeuvres the ship, it's not as big a deal as if I were to, say, call up from the mess room and tell someone else to do it ;)

I love that I have been able to see the world and get paid for it. The money is good - tax free, which helps - but it would be better if I was working on oil tankers or certain offshore vessels. That means sacrificing the lifestyle, though, and I chose the lifestyle over a few extra numbers in the bank.

It can be extremely stressful in an emergency situation, but thankfully they are rare. Onboard you are a navigation officer, safety officer, firefighter, generally the person that everyone else looks to for answers when something goes wrong.

Nah man, the way to go is crew. There are plenty of singers, dancers, shop staff, etc. onboard. That is allowed. I even took one home!

I'd intended to join the Royal Navy, then was told by my friend's dad (who was in the merchant navy, aka merchant marines in the US), that it was better pay, more time off, and less dangerous. So that was me pretty much sold!

Unfortunately, it was at the height of the Zika Virus scare. There had been a few incidents of our passengers getting mugged when they went ashore (I'm sure they weren't observing our advice of not taking jewellery and phones with them when they went out), and the heat and humidity was unbearable.

We spent 6 weeks in Brazil sailing hundreds of miles inland on the Amazon and I'm very glad I got to go there as we went to some incredibly exotic and strange places, and Rio was awesome, but the mood of the entire country felt hostile and negative. It's a shame and it probably isn't representative of the country as a whole but of the 20 or so places we went to, there were very few that felt safe or that could be enjoyed.