This winter we based ourselves out of Brownsville, Texas. Mom worked for Resaca de la Palma State Park, but I was free to find other work. Previously, I’ve had a lot of success working as a handy person through the app Task Rabbit. Unfortunately, Task Rabbit doesn’t support areas much further south than Corpus Christi, about 3 hours north of us.
For a while, I tried another app Handy, through Angie’s List. While it did get me jobs, I really didn’t like the way its job-claiming market worked. I wasn’t able to set my rates and was subject to their embarrassingly low payouts. It was working, but It wasn’t the best. While we took the boy out for his belated birthday cruise though, I had a fantastic idea: I could become a pirate!
I spent the winter working for Osprey Cruises on The Black Dragon. When we took the boy on his cruise, I noticed how understaffed the crew was. Also, it looked like a lot of fun! Back when I was in high school, and later in college, I did a lot of theater. Honestly, I’ve missed it.
The crew welcomed me with wide open arms! Not only did they need more pirates in speaking parts, but they also desperately needed a deckhand. It turned out I was a bit of a unicorn for the pirates. I could act, I could handle lines (ropes), and had enough knowledge from my sailing hobby to get the Black Dragon’s procedures down quickly. Most of all, being a handy person meant the captain could rely on me to help him get the boat ready for its annual Coast Guard inspection. So not only did I spend a lot of time on deck, dancing and entertaining the guests, but I also spent a lot of time below deck, chipping, priming, painting, and performing minor repairs.
One of the last repairs I helped the captain with was replacing some of the rigging that had corroded in the salt winds. I knew I’d be leaving soon, so the captain let me leave my mark!
Gunner Was Here
Overall, this was an amazing experience, and I made some great new friends. With luck, we’ll be back in South Texas in a few years and Gunner will sail again!
