First Charter: Amalfi Coast

What a dream! My first charter went even better than I ever could have expected! My food looked good, tasted good, and the guests were happy! Marco was a great co-worker and I really appreciate this opportunity he presented. It was nice working with an experienced skipper but also a friend who helped past his job description and wanted to see me improve/succeed. It started with me flying from London to Naples Friday night where Marco picked me up on a motorcycle and we somehow made the hour long drive with the 2 of us and my 2 backpacks. We stayed in an adorable bed and breakfast in Salerno ran by an old Italian Lady named Maria. He helped me do the provisioning Saturday, which thank god because it still took 3 hours even with us working together. And I honestly don't know how I would have managed the check out and a taxi on my own with the language barrier. We set sail Saturday afternoon and were overlooking Positano by sunset, here we had dinner at a fancy restaurant and went to a nightclub called "Music on the Rocks" which was located inside a cave that was created years ago by someone blowing a whole in the cliff with dynamite. We spent one night each off the coasts of Ischia, Capri, Sorrento, and Amalfi, while slept in the private fishing marina in Procida since Marco knew the owner. This was a treat since it is the best view on the island but boats usually aren't allowed to enter. Every night we would meet the guests on land for dinner and drinks, or at least gelato. We had 4 couples all from Missouri, the guests who originally booked were Marco's host parents from high school when he spent a year in the US over 10 years ago, the rest were their family friends. It was a good low pressure environment to start in since even though things went great, they were more like family friends. Although, they never found out it was my first week since we stretched the truth a bit. It was a beautiful week filled with swim spots and sunsets. And it worked out well that I had just been to all these cities last year, so was able to focus on work without feeling like I was missing out on any new experiences. In the end, my tip was a lot smaller than expected but I think it is only because they didn't know standard rules because overall they raved about the week, offered to write recommendations, and want to book another trip in the next year or 2. Highlights of the week included finding a secret beach, using the dinghy to do rope jumps, watching a 4th of July firework display, finally defeating my sea sickness, and the guests also met Steve Harvey and Zac Braff on Capri before we arrived for dinner.