Everything at MSC feels like a fight. You anxiously check your inbox every morning waiting for an assignment, without any say in your pending assignment. When one finally comes through, it’s time to battle travel for a ticket. You start a mile-long email chain, going back and forth on multiple versions because no one can confirm where the ship actually is—or when it’s arriving. Then there’s the Government Travel Card: you cross your fingers and pray it doesn’t get declined mid-trip and hope you’ll see a reimbursement sometime in the next 6–8 business months.

Once you get to the ship, you find out your SF-50 was never processed, and you’re still getting shore pay. Months later, your pay finally catches up—just in time for a big tax bill. Then comes the next fight: securing a relief, coordinating leave, and gearing up to do it all over again.

Exhausting.

And that’s just the admin side—you haven’t even touched the real work yet.

And yet—the job itself can be incredible. The travel, the pay, the experience—it’s hard to beat. CIVMARs do mission-critical work: resupplying aircraft carriers, moving vital cargo, and keeping the fleet running. When you're sailing with friends, it's the kind of adventure most people only dream about. You pull into ports most folks can’t find on a map, and you get paid well to be there. It’s the kind of job that makes for great stories—and even better memories.

That is, until an email from the office snaps you back to reality.

This tension—the amazing job and the maddening system behind it—is what drives everyone crazy. MSC has so much potential. It could be the best job in the world… if it could just get out of its own way.

That’s exactly why CIVSailcom was created.

We know there are things we can’t fix from the outside. We can’t rewrite the leave policy. We can’t force your detailer to answer the phone. But we can make your day-to-day life a little easier. CIVSail.com gives mariners practical tools, clear information, and shortcuts to cut through the noise. Our goal is simple: help you control what you can control so you can focus on the part of the job that makes it worth doing.

Whether it’s a leave chit calculator, a pay estimator, or just a straight answer to a basic question, everything on the site is built for mariners, by people who know what you’re dealing with.

CIVMARs aren’t Navy Sailors. They’re not standard federal employees. And we’re definitely not recreational boaters. We’re a different kind of workforce—and we need purpose-built tools and systems that reflect our reality.

MSC’s current shoreside system is not equipped to handle the complexity and volume of what it needs to do. And while it’s easy to say “my detailer doesn’t care” (and yes, sometimes that’s true), even the ones who do care are stuck using outdated tools, limited resources, and slow-moving processes. The system simply wasn’t built for the scale, speed, or demands of today’s operations.

The solutions to MSC’s problems aren’t a mystery—they’re a puzzle. And like most things in government, solving that puzzle takes time. Real fixes—like upgraded systems, improved staffing, or meaningful policy changes—often require contract overhauls or congressional approval.

But what are we supposed to do in the meantime?

Complaining might feel good in the moment, but it won’t move your pay stub, get your leave approved, or make your travel claim process any easier. We still have ships to catch, forms to fill, and a job to do.

That’s where CIVSail.com comes in.

CIVSail.com is already live with tools built specifically for CIVMARs. The Leave Chit Calculator takes the guesswork out of requesting time off. The Ship Pay Estimator helps you figure out what you’ll actually earn—before you step onboard. The Travel Claim Generator walks you through one of the most confusing forms in the system.

Will the Leave Chit Calculator make your detailer respond faster? No. But sending in clean, typed, and correct paperwork makes it easier for them to say yes—and lowers the chance your chit gets kicked back for a formatting error. And yes, we know no one ever trained you how to do it. That’s exactly why the tool exists.

Everything we’re building is designed to help you get more out of your time at sea. And this is just the admin side. It doesn’t even touch the day-to-day realities of the CIVMAR lifestyle—figuring out your finances, navigating taxes, staying connected overseas, or making the most of your time off. That’s why we also recommend services like Airalo—so you can stay connected without stress the moment you land in port.

We want to make the whole picture easier—from getting your chit signed to pulling into a foreign port with a working phone.

Know a good spot in Croatia? A taxi service in Guam? A go-to coffee shop in Honduras? Help us build better port briefs. Got a sea story? A tip that made ship life easier? Left MSC and found a new path using the skills you picked up along the way? Send it in.

Everything here exists because mariners like you wanted something better. We know MSC is trying to improve, and we’ll watch with skeptical optimism—ready to help you make the most of each change as it comes.

If you’ve found the tools helpful—or if you believe in this vision—consider picking up some merch. It helps keep the site running, funds future tools, and supports ongoing work to make this platform more useful for every mariner who comes after you. There’s more in the pipeline—ideas to help you track, manage, and access your career in one place. We’re building toward something bigger, and we’d love your help getting there.

CIVSail.com was built to make your life easier—because no one else was going to.