Life at anchor

Bonsoir my friends!!!

Oh how I miss you, and miss being in the real world! I know what you’re thinking….. about bloody time you updated your blog miss Kelly! Yeah yeah well my ears have been burning and I thought I had better not leave you in suspense any longer… I've been typing this for a week now and will get it posted once the yacht is facing the right angle for us to get our internet!

Well a lot has happened since my last blog and most of you will know I got a job on a super yacht and have been working my sweet ass off as a stewardess for over three weeks now. Really I am a glorified French maid as I’m the little cleaner of the boat, and I have learnt a LOT about how the things work on yachts, and everything from how to get any kind of stain out of any kind of material through to toilet paper origami and how to clean a yacht interior to a ridiculous level of cleanliness, oh and I can IRON!!!! I can iron like a super woman!!!!!! I have come across all sorts of amazing cleaning products, although most of the labels are in French you kind of pick up the basics - haven't ruined any Armani babywear as yet tsk tsk.

The madness started on 28th July when it was a normal morning for me, I decided to try a new yachting agency I hadn’t been to yet and a few hours later I had a call from a chief stew who had seen my CV and wanted me to start that night as they were about to do a guest trip and one of her stews had to leave. I had a lot of questions and wasn’t sure at first but she gave me an hour to think about it and I decided to go for it! I met my friend Kate that arvo who just arrived in Antibes, we only had time for a beer then I had to get back to pack and then get a train to ville Franche where the yacht was anchored. Such a mission travelling with all my gear, but managed to get to the water’s edge and I was picked up on a tender and taken to the yacht. The rest is just a whirlwind of moving into my cabin, getting my uniform (black shirt and skirt for evening; white polo and grey 'skort' for day) on and welcoming all the guests on board for a charter, and had my little ear piece in attached to my radio so I could hear what the heck was going on! In fact we were travelling all through that night to get to a certain spot in Italy by dawn (my first night sleeping on board was somewhat sketchy as I really did think I was going to fall out of bed due to the swell that was swishing us about all night, don’t think I slept much!)….…

Anyway so talk about being thrown in the deep end! I had a lot of help given to me from the 2nd stew and chief stew, who are French and American, and the rest of the crew are pretty sweet (a deckhand, mate, engineer, chef and of course the captain), although later I found that most of them were suffering the effects of working long hours for a boss who never shows appreciation (the owner of the boat seems to spend all his time yelling and ensuring we are all running around after him, while his wife sits in her bathroom smoking! I could sense a bit of tension among some of the crew and there were a few moments of drama, but can only expect that when we live, work, eat, sleep, etc in such a small space.

The boat isn’t bad to look at as you can see in the pic! It’s 40m with three decks, which for me means three levels of interior to keep clean (including 7 guest bathrooms & 4 crew bathrooms), and I mean CLEAN! It is worth 30 million apparently, which is hard to comprehend when you’re living in it! There are some pretty expensive things inside too like four vases worth 14000€ each! They always take top priority when it gets rocky and we have to secure everything! We work pretty well together as a team and I’m into the groove now but my first week I was dealing with some severe sea-sickness due to high winds causing some serious swell, learning a new job from scratch with new people and also learning guest etiquette (the owner and his wife and two young kids, nanny, and four others). Plus I was working 16 hours a day and then just falling into bed exhausted. Also getting used to being on the top bunk in a moving bedroom – haha you get used to the sway of the ocean after a while believe it or not…. But believe me I’ve had a few moments of imbalance!

This week our Captain and Chief Stew (a couple) are leaving, which says a lot about the owner (the reason they are leaving). It will be sad to see them go but I’ll probably be here just another week anyway as the season will be over after this weekend most likely. I was offered a permanent position but I decided not to stay on this boat so I’m here till the boss decides the season’s over. It’s mainly cause the owner is such hard work and he has often given us just 10 minutes that he’s coming on the boat and wants this that and the other… we had to throw a b’day party for his daughter with just two hours’ notice to set up, the chef to make party food, the guys to get out all the water toys, and us to have the interiors ready…. It was slightly manic! Also think most of the other crew have had enough and are moving on too and it doesn’t help that we are not allowed even one glass of wine on board – I could have done with a few glasses of Stoneleigh and I’m dreaming of a nice summery cocktail! Because the owner is on a no-booze detox and his wife is known to drink a little too much so the rest of us are not allowed a drop of the stuff. So instead I’m on the ice teas and the odd handful of M&M’s to get me through! Anyway we went to some beautiful places on the guest trip, although I didn’t get off the boat at all except for in Elba, which is an island in Italy famous for gelato and its signature perfume ‘Acqua’ that can only be bought there. We also visited Corsica, Portofino and saw a lot of the Italian coastline. The travelling was done at night a lot so we didn’t have to work while the boat was at sea (good for me at the time as I was worried about getting sea sick). All of a sudden after about 10 days all the guests left the boat and went to the owners Villa, so we’ve been anchored in the bay there ever since and they have only come back on for day trips so far. This means we work a standard 8-5 day and have the evenings off. Sounds good but it also sux cause time can go quite slowly and we can’t get off the boat at night. With limited internet and sky tv depending on the signal I’ve often just watched a movie from my laptop or we’ve got a few dvds to watch together in the crew mess. We watched the blind side last week which I really enjoyed.

So it’s been a long three weeks for me, and I’ve been realising that the simple pleasures in life are what makes it so good, as well as the people you love. I’m missing friends and family (yes, you!) so much, and just being able to meet for a coffee or go shopping would be oh so nice. However on the plus side I haven’t spent a cent apart from topping up my mobile and I get my first pay soon which will be nice!

I have to start thinking about what to do next – I just want to have a bit of a break before getting on another yacht I think. The 20th Monaco Boat Show is on in Sept so I’d like to go to it or maybe even pick up some work there. I could do some networking there perhaps, and I’ll most likely go for a larger charter yacht. In the meantime I’ll just be either working on typing from my little bunk bed and looking out to the sea views around me. My other option is to fly to fort Lauderdale (Florida) to pick up some work for the Caribbean season – however I might find a yacht here that is going to the Caribbean but then I’m not sure about doing the Atlantic crossing – having to work when I’m sea sick is nearly impossible, although I think I have my sea legs now! Either way, the sea is my oyster ;)
Today’s the 18th Aug and I’ve been writing this blog a few days now! We just farewelled our Captain and Chief Stew who have left for Florida and a new adventure. They are going to work on a boat that is currently being built in NZ! It was sad to say goodbye as they are a really lovely couple. Their replacements started this week and we’re just getting to know them. The Captain gave me a great reference so that will help with getting my next role. Since, the 2nd stew who I share a cabin with has also resigned! I'm going to stay till end of the season which will likely be early to mid September - I've already told them I'm not interested in staying and I ensured my contract was temporary rather than ongoing, as there's no way I'm spending a winter stuck in a ship yard having to be in the same routine every single day with no guests on board - that would literally drive me insane! I need adventure baby so I'll do my best to find it!

Well I can tell you now I like our new captain! He decided to let us each have a night off the boat because he knew the boss had dinner reservations and therefore wouldn’t come on the boat. I got to go last night, we got taken to shore in one of the tenders (we’re currently anchored in St Jean Cap-Ferrat) and we could stay out as late as midnight and were given ‘permission’ to have one or two drinks (it is in our contracts that it is gross misconduct to be under the influence blah blah blah). I was sent off with our deckhand, and while it was a quiet Friday evening, there were a few dock side bars to choose from. We had already eaten dinner as our chef had put on a good spread earlier in the evening so we just wanted to have our couple of drinks (and it had been 23 days since I had last even sniffed a glass of wine!). We decided to start with a mojito and then hopped on to another spot where we considered the wine list and deckie decided we should get a bottle of Rose. Predictably, one bottle of Rose turned into two and another mojito to top it off….. oopsies… but we made sure we were at the dock waiting before midnight and had our most serious faces on when the captain picked us up, and all was well! Tonight some of the crew are going out and I’m doing my first anchor watch tomorrow at 4.30am so wish me luck!

Just a little vent about our boss, he thinks he is sooooo important just because he is rich arghhhhh. I shouldn’t say but I really do think he likes to wind people up. I’ve seen him have yelling matches with nearly everyone including the captain and chief stew in front of his guests! Tonight he rang us at 5ish and requested to be picked up immediately from the dock with 8 guests. All us crew went into states of panic to get our correct uniforms on and ear pieces in and ensure everything ready as there’s all sorts of preferences we have to have just right for his arrival each time. The fresh lemonade was ready on a tray, we were at the platform ready to take the guests shoes, the guys were ready to set up any outdoor requirements…. Anyway we see him approach and then he goes straight past us and waves! Then 10 mins later returns without his guests (can only assume he threw them overboard?) and drank his glass of lemonade, said a few words, and then left again. More dollars than sense in my opinion. I do a good Russian impression if you ever want to see it, although It is best applied after Mojito.

Life is full of simple pleasures – and it is these that make life worth living….. being on a yacht 24-7 helps you realise this, and also realise how different the yachting world is to the real world…. I’m probably just suffering a bit of cabin fever (despite my brief encounter with real world last night) but it feels like I’m in a bubble and time does not exist, except for the time my damn alarm clock goes off every morning!

Anyway I’d love to hear everyone’s latest goss so please send it all thru for my evening reading – and pleasse make sure you enjoy the simple pleasures in life (like coffee or a walk in the park with a friend) with those you like to hang around cause that's real life and it's easy to take it for granted! It seems I've had a lot to say over the last week or so and it's turned into a novel but hope you enjoyed the read!

Loads of Love

kb.
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pics:

sunset in italy

my home, ocean mercury.

yachtie gal