Alright well WOOPS, I definitely fell behind on the blogs! Sorry 😅 But Now that I am back in the States, let's do a quick recap.
I spent a week traveling Morocco (before the earthquakes). It was incredible, I got to tour a mosque in Casablanca, the Medina of Fes, ride a camel and camp in the Sahar Desert, see oasis cities where small remote tribes still live, and spend a night in Marrakesh. Simon and I got on well enough but happily parted ways at the end of the week. 😂
I worked another private charter in Ibiza. The first 2 days were off to a rough start since I caught another stomach bug. The morning we picked up guests was awful, I was throwing up every 10 mins while trying to provision and had a fever, I ended up napping in Marco’s hammock right in the downtown plaza and then again later on a bench outside the marina while waiting to board. But once I got over it, things looked up. Ibiza and Formentera were beautiful. The family didn’t speak any English and were honestly my pickiest guests yet but whatever it was a chill week and I kept to myself more.
I treated myself to a week off in Madrid. the first 4 nights were at a super cute air bnb outside the city, I got my hair done, went for walks, cooked for myself, just little joys to help recouperate from the busy past 2 months. Then I got lonely so spent the last 2 nights in a hostel, I did a little sightseeing, went on a walking tour, and spent time in the cafe applying for winter ski jobs (spoiler; no luck there). While in Madrid I came to the realization that I now had no job and no home so it was time to figure out the next step. That’s when I dove into the idea of moving to Austin, TX for a few months before the Winter seasonal jobs started. This actually had worked out well since I was approved to sub in TX and found a roommate but again spoiler; I did not come home or move to TX.
Since I was already over my Schengen Visa days I figured If I was going to hide out in Europe anyways, I might as well work. So I picked up the last yacht week of the season and flew back to Split to finish strong. At first I was bummed because while most of my summer friends also came back unexpectedly, they were all working a separate route hired by a private company retreat. But this pushed me to find new friends, which led me to Hylton 🥰. Hylton is a South African skipper turned Super Yacht Captain, he used to work for YW in his early 20s but came back for his first week in 8 years that week sort of on a whim just like I did. We hit it off and ended up spending all our free time together that week.
I flew from Split to London 1. Because I thought I was catching a flight home, and 2. A group of my close YW friends were all getting an air bnb to celebrate surviving our first season. It was such a blast hanging out with the crew one last time and we celebrated one of the girls birthdays. I stayed in London the following week because I had decided to cancel my flight back to the US and accept a job offer working in Santorini with my friend Arthur, who I had met during YW Academy.
I flew to Santorini mid-September and was supposed to spend a full month working as a host of day charters. In reality I only spent 2 weeks because the owner was crazy and we had a falling out. Basically the owner (who is a millionaire) is a total control freak who didn't treat his employees very well. He was constantly cutting corners, lying to guests, and stealing tips from the crews. So Arthur and I decided it would be best to resign and go our separate ways. The day we quit was actually the best yet because we had our first day, so were able to sightsee in Santorini and ended the night chilling with the rest of the crew.
One door closes, another one opens. Since I left Santorini early I was able to convince Seascope France to let me enroll last min in their upcoming STCW course. This is a mandatory course to work on super yachts and had been on my to do list. So I spent the week in Antibes learning how to fight fires, sea survival, first aid, etc… it was a pretty intense course so I was proud of myself for passing. I was able to reconnect with Hylton, who had conviniently just finished his season in Antibes so he acted as a great guide. We spent a little over a week bouncing around the South of France applying for jobs and enjoying the sun. We were able to land a temporary position looking for an engineer/ chef couple to assist with the delivery of a 30m from Italy to Saudi Arabia.
Two train rides later we arrived in Genoa, Italy on October 13th. The original plan was that we would both be contracted for 3 weeks to help transport the boat through the Suez Canal to the owner of Jeddah Yacht Club in Saudi. Wellllll, we did not make it to Jeddah. We didn’t even make it out of Italy. First we were delayed due to weather, then while fueling up preparing to leave, the boat sprung a pretty significant leak and we had to immediately be lifted out of the water. We spent the next week still living on the ship as it hovered in the air waiting for the nessesary parts/repairs. When we finally did leave, the swell on the first night was double what the boat was built to handle. We were being thrown out of beds, cupboards flying open, the fridge fell over, 3 out of the 6 crew had not ate or drank for 2 days because they were so sea sick. We should have anchored but we were trying to push through to outrun the next approaching storm. Well, this bit us in the ass because the waves caused the garage seal to break, so the garage flooded, which lead to a leak in the engine room, which caused an electrical fire. So we had to back track 10 hours to get to an available port and the boat was is shambles! I have to give Hylton so much credit because he was fixing things back to back to back he put out the fire, managed to control the leak, and basically kept the boat afloat. Well we spend a few more days on this little Italian island off Rome waiting for the weather to pass, finally we are ready to leave again the day after Halloween and as we are pulling lines, BAM the steering mechanism isnt working. Apparently the fire caused a shortage and now the boat had zero steering function. So that's another part ordered another day waiting for a technition and finally a few more days waiting for weather to pass because we missed our small window to set sail. By this time, the 3 weeks were up and the original crew had to come back from holiday. So myself and another woman were sent home but Hylton will be staying on as engineer until New Years then has the potential to take over as Captain in February when the boat returns to Europe. Frankly, I dont know why he wants this cursed boat! But I get it, he has spent a lot of time learning how it opperartes and the money coming in from charters will be good. It was defintely a hard goodbye after spending a month together but everything happens for a reason and I believe we will come back together if the time is right. If nothing else, I have learned a lot about the yachting industry and now have a better insight into the career options.
That being said, I am hoping to land a yacht job this winter after spending a few week visiting home. My first choice is the Caribbean but im open to anything. Although I really need to steer away from cooking 😂 too much stress. Going from an online cooking course to super yacht chef in 9 months was quite the stretch.
Morocco:
Ibiza:
Madrid:
Croatia YW #5:
Santorini:
France:
Italy:
