How exactly do you say "I'm a sternman" in Arabic?

Since it would get terribly annoying if I just wrote about my pre-Egypt anxiety for a month, I’m dedicating this post to my day job. Enjoy.

Sternman: A not so ancient or dignified profession. Put simply, a sternman is any worker on a lobster boat other than the captain. The title is derived from the fact that this person, formerly always a man, works behind the captain, and towards the stern (rear) of the boat. 

Interested in being a sternman? Here’s what you need to know:

1. Everything is your fault. Always. No matter what. If the captain misses a buoy, it’s your fault. If it’s raining, it’s your fault. Period.

2. There’s always more work for you to do. Here’s a short list of your potential duties: Filling bait bags, measuring lobsters, banding lobsters, charming lobsters, tending traps, doing battle with all number of unhappy sea creatures including urchins and eels, bait management, scrubbing, cleaning, washing, minor engine maintenance, and tying up the boat. Now, as a final point, all of this is irrelevant. Your job is whatever the captain tells you it is at any particular time. 

3. If it smells foul, looks disgusting, contains slime, grease, or other unfortunate fluids, or if it just gives you the overwhelming feeling that you need to vomit, it’s your domain. A helpful hint to all aspiring sternmen: befriend the maggots, they’re really quite cute. 

4. Always know where your knife is. It’s very useful and it could save your life or the life of the captain if one of you gets tangled in the rope.

Moral of the story, it’s no picnic being a sternman. It does have some perks, though. Really neat things tend to happen on the ocean if you’re out there often enough. In the last two days, I’ve seen a big harbor seal playing around in the water, a pod (I think the correct term is pod, like it is with dolphins...I’ll have to check on this) of porpoises, and seas so high that a boat running parallel to us was at least seven feet below us. 

It’s not glamorous, and it’s not always fun, but it’s a job that I really enjoy. Hopefully it will continue to keep me sane during the next month.