Volume: 3
You too, can become a Coast Guard Master.
When Atric told me that the four of them held Coast Guard Master licenses, I reached into the abyss and contorted my face into complete calm and just nodded. This meant that they had passed the same tests I muscled through so I assumed they had a better teacher than I had. What I couldn't reconcile was how they documented the 720 days at sea the Coast Guard required. That's the equivalent of slogging through all kinds of weather and ocean conditions for two years straight. But on Osprey, powering at eight knots on a calm surface, I had already forgotten that the easiest way to acquire that amount of sea time was to own your own boat.
I offered that they must have quite a bit experience at sea. "Not really," said Min. "Since we own our own boat, you just show proof of ownership. And you can get your friends to fill out a sea service form for the time you spend on their boats. Easy."
Any further questioning would sound like a cross-examination so I nodded again and said, "Nice." The crushing high pressure system saddened me. How I wished for a fifty knot gale and twenty-five foot seas.