Tea

Surrounding Antibes

2010-11-14T13:09:00.000+02:00

Snuck off the boat on Friday night while the boys were in the shower and headed off to meet my mate in Nice! Despite being a whole 10 mins train ride from Nice, the only time I have been to Nice is when I have driven Drew to and from his doctors and hospital appointments. Pearl (my ozzie mate) has recently, well over the summer while I've been away, moved to Nice. Nice is awesome!!! Definitely have to go out there more. There are loads of places with live music, and lots of people (who are not yacthies - makes a change from Antibes). We ended up at this cute little place called Jonathan's, you walk up a little side street and knock on a wooden door, which is then opened for you by the bar lady. Once inside you descend into the cellar, a longish arched room with a tiny stage at one end, decorated with old records on the wall behind. Here a guitar player plays seventies tunes - just awesome!!! After too many beers and shooters, some ordered, some just arriving we staggered back to the late bus and made our way home.

The next day, after a quick lunch on the boat with Lach, I very bravely headed on off to Grenoble to see Patrice. A mate of mine Anna is a huge fan, and our collective memory recalled Grenoble being 3 or so hours away... turns out our collective memory was a little selective - its a little over 4 hours... So we headed off on our trek. The concert was AMAZING!!!!! The trek back at 12pm was not.... Arrived back at 4:30 and set my alarm to wake up in time for my watch 8am - where Lach promptly sent me back to bed to catch a few hours extra sleep. So I have a perfect watch day - sitting in the crew mess, tired, but for once not hung over, watch Julia and Julia soon to be cooking an awesome roast rooster and watch a few more movies:)

off to Amsterdam next weekend...

spare a though for hands

2010-02-04T20:32:00.000+02:00

my hands are so sore. My mom is someone who has always stressed making sure your hands and feet look good, no matter what, and while my feet have recovered from a summer on deck, my hands are taking strain. I probably spent about 4 or 5 hours a day with my hands in water. And water in this country is bloody hard (we have to decalcify everything) and it simply attacks your hands, added with the cold it is not a good combination. At the moment I have my nails cut back as low a I can, and still three have managed to chip or split - the one split about half way down my nail, exposing the nail bed - ow! So lately i have been thinking about all our maids at home and what their hands must look, and feel, like. I have come to the conclusion that a manicure would be a great gift for anyone that works with thier hands.

SA music

2010-01-23T21:22:00.000+02:00

I made my way to FNAC, sort of a cross between Musica and Hi-Fi Corp, to get a new iPod (mine died) and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Parlotones were performing an unplugged session later that evening! So I have just come back from listening to the Parlotones! Apparently they are playing again at one of the Hotels down the road tomorrow night, so after snowboarding I'm planning to head down. Great way to get a little taste of home!!! Fantastic band!

Bunnies on Boats

2010-01-09T08:38:00.000+02:00

Sailors are rum drinking superstitious folk. I got told off today for not taking the lables off the NesQuick, you see the lable has a bunny on it, and apparently this is bad luck! I removed the lable, but discover upon closer inspection that the yellow container has a rabbit engraved on the lid. Not sure if I should file this off… since I am the only one who drinks the stuff and we are tied to the dock, I think I might risk it. It is challenging trying to keep track of all the superstitions that you are supposed to adhere to, and believe me, it is taken rather seriously. Some things I have picked up along the way, like you are not allowed to whistle on deck of a sailing vessel, and it is seriously frowned on to do this on a motor yacht or even on the dock, except if you are the cook, then it is allowed - it’s supposed to bring bad winds. It prompted me to do a little internet research. Here are some of the highlights:
No women, unless of course they are naked (hence the women on the bows of old sailing ships). You can see the logic behind this one, well the no women part, on old vessels where there was a male crew of a couple of hundred a woman was bound to be a distraction. However, men have since discovered that woman add a certain balance to the crew, and although we are still largely responsible for the interior or cooking, there are many woman who captain or work on deck boats, and generally we are given wider and wider roles, even if we are not naked!
No flowers or greenery, they are earth bound and therefore don‘t belong at sea and are associated with funerals: well, we have a problem there. Anyone working on yachts will tell you that there are so many flowers all over the boat it is unbelievable! I read a version that has now revised this to no greenery in the wheelhouse… talk about changing the rules to suit yourself
Salmon and bananas, along with rabbits and bunnies: once again, a bit of a problem! No fruit basket ever looks complete without bananas, and every guest will ask for salmon at least once during their trip!
Sharks or sting rays (no-one mention Steve Erwin) following a boat are bad luck -duh!
Dolphins following a boat are good luck
Don’t kill an albatross or seagull - deckhands might want to challenge this one, just when they have the boat clean, a seagull is guaranteed to foul it
Never set sail on a Friday, the first boat I was on we delayed the trip for this reason - personally I think this has more to do with sailors wanting to stay in port for the weekend festivities, but it is rumoured to be when witches gather and is also because it is the day Jesus was crucified
Stepping on or off board with your left foot first
Priest on board: like flowers, they represent the dead. Not sure why you would have a priest on board in the first place…

powder room

2010-01-03T21:54:00.000+02:00

Some days I just wish I had my sporty girlfriends around (Linz, Julz, Carly, Meg, Col - I miss you guys!). I had a great day on the mountain yesterday, except that it has left me damn near crippled today. And for the sole reason that I spent the whole day chasing the boys down the mountain. Snowboarding (and skiing) is a bit of a weird sport in that we get all dressed up in order to climb onto lifts to get to the top of a mountain, just in order to race down it, only to repeat the whole process again (hopefully, but not always, on a different run). And boys are all about getting to the highest point and racing down as fast as you can. I have gotten to the stage where I’m not falling every five seconds, and am reasonably fast, and therefore can go for runs with the boys and they don’t need to wait too long for me. So needless to say, the pressure is on! Yesterday saw me trying my damndest to keep up with the boys. Luckily for most of the day I manage to convince them that blue and green (beginner/intermediate) routes were the way to go… right until the end of the day, the lifts were closing, light was fading, it was getting very cold and the wind was picking up and I announced what no boy would - I was tired and this would perhaps be my last run of the day (we had been going no stop for over three hours, excluding the warm-up runs before lunch, and I still needed to drive the 2 hours back on the old-Chapman’s Peak like roads back). This was met with the declaration that we therefore needed to “go out on a high” and “go high and fast”. We took the chair lift to the highest tops, where I was assured there would be a blue route… After falling off the chair lift at the top (my speciality), we were faced with the option of black (uber steep for the super experienced) or red (still uber steep, for the brave and very experienced). So off with the red it was - and too my surprise I enjoyed it (after I got over my fear and started breathing again). So after finishing on a high, we joined the crowds to get down off the slopes, grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and headed to the car. After about half an hour in the car all the boys were fast asleep, and I ask you, who is the toughest sex…

shades of grey

2009-12-22T19:21:00.000+02:00

Why is it that in a dreary season the most fashionable colours are grey and black. There is no no colour!! Occasionally you find the odd long top that is a shade of pink or blue, but that's it. It just makes the who winter season so so dreary.

crew day

2009-12-16T22:46:00.000+02:00

we took a mod week break and headed off to Auron today to go skiing and snowboarding. And today was the first day snowboarding really gelled for me - and I love it! Still really crap at getting off the lifts, nearly always fall and took a few hard, hard hits today, resulting in a nasty black swollen bruise on my hip/ass, but can out smiling! I'm linking turns, making in down steep faces and generally ripping (albeit in a cautious manner). The boys took some pics and videos which I'll stick up as soon as I have grabbed their cameras and downloaded the pics!

small spaces...

2009-12-11T14:28:00.000+02:00

sometimes when you live with people 24/7, you just get sick of them. For people who have not done the boat thing, I'm not sure you can appreciate the amount of time you spend with your crew and the small spaces we live in! My cabin for example, which by yacht standards is fairly large... if I stand up and extend my arms, my fingers touch the wall on either side. There are two bunks (in season I will share with someone) - you can not sit up in bed, and sometimes when you turn over you knock your arm against the ceiling or the side. Plus the walls between the cabins are very thin, you hear everything! So if the boys go to the loo next door, brush their teeth, or talk I hear it, if the engineer and his wife have sex, you hear it... no privacy at all. The common area is the crew mess, which consists of a table about 60cm x 1,8m with a bench around and two chair and a TV in the galley. That is essentially our lounge and dining room, and it is commandeered by the engineer during the day since he does not have a control room. he is a loud character who mocks everything - except dreary Christmas carols... So, it is little wonder that every now and again we just have enough of each other! Today for example after wolfing down lunch,everyone retreated to a different area of the boat, just to be out of each others hair. Just as well, after working together this afternoon, we will go to gym together, have dinner (which we will all eat together), a few drinks together and some TV, together we are all going snowboarding together tomorrow;)

Luckily I actually like my crew!

I didn't think it was possible to be this stiff...

2009-12-06T22:44:00.000+02:00

I have just finished my first weekend of snowboarding! And my first time in "real" snow that sits on the ground, crunches when you walk in it, and sometimes you're feet disappear! Last week Tuesday it was announced that the slopes would be open, so on Wednesday we headed to Decathlon to kit up. Basically Drew and myself were convinced that, yes we would love snowboarding, and yes we needed to buy all our kit now! So off we headed and bought our boards, bindings, boots, socks, pants, jackets, gloves, inner gloves, goggles and helmets (for Drew, I borrowed Lachie, but after really appreciating the helmet three times this weekend, I off to by mine on Monday).
So with great excitement we woke up at 5am loaded the car grabbed a cut of tea and headed off to the mountains (bearing in mind the sun only gets up closer to 8am now). As soon as we hit snow that was more than about 20cm I became a giggling girl in the back seat - it was so cool!
Once we got there it was an absolute whirlwind, get dress, kit on, how all the kit works, gloves, helmet....quick basics lesson on the lower slopes and off in the bubble (like the old Table Mountain cable cars) to the Blue slopes (none of the Green/beginner slopes were open) and off we go! Lachie, the first mate, was amazing, teaching me with great patients! I spent most of the time lying in the snow, on my ass or face forward, but towards the end, just as i was getting so exhausted I couldn't pick myself up, I started to get it. Then we bundled into the car, realising that none of us had eaten anything except two apple, handful of apricots and a twix bar between the four of us and head back to the boat. The French drive like lunatics on the way back from the mountains! it is like a formula 1 race on old Chapman's Peak Drive... We arrived home to what seems to be a new tradition of whoever is on watch on the weekend cooking dinner (great for me coz it means I don't need to cook the meals on Friday for the weekend, and it is the first time most of the crew have been allowed to cook in over a year so they are all excited), fall asleep by 9:30 and repeat on Sunday.

Now I am so sore I will be suprised if I managed to haul myself out of my bunk tomorrow morning!

rain rain...

2009-11-29T09:36:00.000+02:00

its the first of December and I've woken up to a dull grey day and its raining! It seems winter is here! Not a bad day for it since I am on watch which basically means I get to lie on the couch all day... At least I made the most of yesterday, spent the day in Monaco with Simon (Phil's brother) having lunch in the sun and drinks in Casino Square. Took a bit longer to get there due to "retard" trains. the good thing about rain on the coast means that there is snow in the mountains, which means we'll be able to go snowboarding soon!!!

Pilates.... In French

2009-11-24T22:09:00.000+02:00

I have just finished my first pilates class... in french. definitely a little bit differnet! Difficult to follow a class in a language you do not understand. A lot of watching to see what I was supposed to do.

I have been really crap at writing updates to my blog, I have had very limited internet access for the last while! I am based in Cannes for the winter (so gonna have to learn a little bit of french at least), we have just come back from Viareggio, Italy where we were out the water getting a bit of work done. I have a great crew and seems like a good boat so far!

antibes

2009-10-06T21:35:00.000+02:00

Being in port in Antibes has, thankfully, been a little different from the crazy time in Palma. Probably because I was not suffering from cabin fever of being stuck on a boat for a month and a half – this boat has definitely given me time off the boat. What has been fantastic is arriving here and getting an instant group of mates – Ben has lived here for the last few years and introduced Amanda (his chef/stew) and I to all his mates, who have been great. One thing that is pretty similar is that we still drink and party far too much… but at least we have been managing to do some different stuff.

Rose lunches
On the first weekend we went on a road trip, beginning with me driving. After half an hour Ewen (who was handover and sleep deprived) told me to pull over and he would drive, probably a good idea given I haven’t driven since April, its all on the other side of the road and the roads are very narrow and windy. It was a great day out.

Antibes

Then the rain set in. It rained for a week – very much like Cape Town. There was even a little snow on the top of the mountains behind Nice. Freezing! Last weekend was still rainy so we decided to partake in a yachting classic – a rose lunch. Saturday began with coffee conjaks in the small square while we attempted to complete the Times crossword, then we headed off to lunch and copious amounts of rose. Great, drunken day. The next day I headed with a friend, Wade, to Ville Franch (a stunning little village between Nice and Monaco) – a very lazy day wondering around the village, drinking cocktails on the beachfront and eating lunch in the village.

Racing
Monday and Tuesday was back to work, but on Wednesday I took part in a yacht race from Port La Rague to the islands in the bay of Cannes. The Cannes regatta was on at the same time – classic yachts – amazing, we crossed across their race course, great to see the yachts up close. We actually even managed to interfere with one of the boats, Seven Seas, embarrassingly enough a friend of mine is the first mate on the boat! At the end of the day we rafted up had drinks and lunch then motored back for dinner. I went back on another boat where I was given the helm and drove the 42ft sailing yacht back into the harbour. First time I have done that! After dinner (stunning restaurant on the beach at La Rague) Charlie (my captain), myself and one of his mates headed out to Cannes. Ended up being one of the most “interesting” nights… First we headed to a bar/restaurant which I thought was one of the dodgiest places I have ever been, bad lounge singers and sleazy characters. Well, the evening got worst. Charlie’s friend suggested we move to be bar next door – turned out to be an escourt agency. Not kidding. Beautiful black women dressed in revealing evening gowns. Charlie’s mate introduces his “friend”, who promptly says that he is her milk and she is his coco! I took a cab home. Definitely an interesting night!

Snorkeling, cheese, froigroi and wine
Thursday started as a hungover day, we made our way back to Antibes and went to the Blue Lady for lunch. Next thing there was a whole crowd of us – the Blue is one of the corner stones of yachting in Antibes, you are guaranteed to meet people you know! Once again the rose was flowing… Which meant that I didn’t have to work yesterday (Friday) because we were hungover again. Ben, Amanda and I headed off to Cap Antibes for a snorkel – stunning place were you get in and swim round to a spot that you can only get to by water and there are loungers were we had a nice afternoon nap before heading back to Ben’s for wine, cheese and frogroi – gotta love it!

The golden years...

2009-09-17T17:39:00.000+02:00

I have been really crap this last month or so in updating my blog. I haven’t had the most regular internet connection. I’m on a 22m boat, B4U, as a deck/stew/cook – basically everything except the captain!

Got a call from Charlie, the captain, on a Tuesday evening and in principle agreed to go, but needed to chat to my current captain first. So I chatted to Pam and Norm and they agreed I could go. So, on Wednesday evening I flew to Barcelona! Now here’s something a bit different for those of you who aren’t in the industry – imagine meeting your boss and then sharing a room with him, and spending 24/7 with him! Well, that’s what happens. For the first week Charlie drove me insane, I kept on wondering what I had signed up for – he wouldn’t tell me how he wanted things done, and just expected me to read his mind, at the same time, we already had guests on board and I was trying to find my way around the boat, remember how to do things I had never done before (like put on ground lines, throw the stern lines and drop and lift the hook), and have dinner and drink with my captain til 3am and wake up at 7am… after a week I earned myself the nickname of Goldie, because Charlie reckoned I had the retentive memory of a goldfish. The nick name seems to have stuck with most people in Antibes calling me Goldie...

Anyway, I have had the best time on this boat – I love the work and have had a lot more time off, and it seems pretty normal on the smaller boats.

I have ended up in the South of France, based in Antibes, which is inbetween Cannes and Nice, luckily a few people I knew from Palma are here, some live here, so it has been relatively easy to slip into life here.

going crazy...

2009-08-05T10:42:00.000+02:00

I have been back in Palma for about two weeks and it has been mad! There's something about being in port again once you have been working for the last month with only your crew for company - you just kinda go crazy when you get back. Every night here starts with a bucket or two of beers at the corner bar, usually followed by more beer or Rum and Ginger Ale, and grabbing tapas just before the kitchen closes or leftovers on the boat. There is not too much else to do! If you're lucky you'll get invited round to someone who actually stays in a house's place for dinner. So after two weeks I'm pretty keen to leave, not because I'm not enjoying myself, but because this place is crazy - or maybe it's just that we've all gone crazy...

Feet

2009-07-21T13:13:00.000+02:00

I'm back on land for a while, although still living on the boat, and with this comes the need to wear shoes. Something I have done very little of in the past month. In fact in the last month I have worn shoes 3 times. Now my poor little feet are sad feet. From two days of wearing shoes I have blisters on my heels and toes from my deck shoes and blisters between my toes from my havianas :(

a different kinda of 30th

2009-07-19T00:42:00.000+02:00

so I turned 30 today. my birthday had been on the notice board in the galley for the last few days and today I woke to a croissant stuffed with candles and an bottle of Cava (Spanish champagne) wrapped in newspaper. But still there was the normal day to get though - ironing, cleaning cabins, serving drinks, lunch, etc and a few hours off at anchor in Formenterra.

And then this evening after our normal "beer o'clock" and "wine o'clock" and "finish the cava o'clock" the boss and his nephew bought me some presents (photos to follow) - a pink studded belt, purple diamante baseball cap, two (purple and pink) horn shaped diamante charms on neccklaces and a sequined black hand bag -special. And bloody expensive! nice gesture (in fact really lovely, but not my taste at all..

hair dye

2009-07-10T15:10:00.000+02:00

Why does a man who doesn’t blink when he loses 3,000 Euro, thinks nothing of paying 5,000 Euro to reserve a table in a restaurant, happily pays 750 Euro for two taxis for the night, pays 1,300 Euro per night per persons for his 5 closest friends and himself (in case he doesn’t feel like sleeping on the boat) to stay in a hotel dye his own hair in the bathroom? Surely you must be able to pay someone to do this in a saloon?

And the reason it bothers me? I had to stress about getting the dye out of his white towels.

I managed by the way.

Man overboard

2009-07-10T00:18:00.000+02:00

Yes, you guessed it, I managed to fall over board. Made quite a show of it too… We were coming into out berth at Puerto Cervo in Sardinia, the wind was howling and the berths are pretty tight. And to complicate matters there are large floating buoys. The port stern was looking decidedly like it was going to become one with the buoy, so I took my floating buoy and headed towards it. The lines are all laid out on the stairs, ready to throw to the marinera, and I felt myself tripping, so I placed my foot on the exhaust (basically a large shiny plastic curved bit at the back) and slipped – it was one of those slow motion moments where you feel yourself slipping, but there is nothing you can do about it. I tried to grab one of the lines, but it was not tightly secured. Luckily I had the sense to swim away from the stern of the boat, and it’s props, and the captain threw the boat out of reverse, and grabbed onto the offensive buoy and swung myself round the other side, where upon I was rescued by the legendary Mario the marinera. He basically berths all these massive boats and makes it look stylish and easy while standing up driving the dinghy with an extended tiller in the howling wind (force 6 and 7 today and predicted for the next 3 days, which means we can’t go out).

The way you come into your berth is pretty cool to watch, and if you are not busy (like now when you are stuck on the boat in the harbour) all the crew comes out to watch the boats come in (so, yes, I had an audience for my humiliation). Basically it is a normal Med mooring where you are stern-to, except as you are coming in, and the wind is pushing the boat to one side, Mario is pushing the boat with his dinghy on the other side to keep the bow inline and when Mario says, you drop an anchor and slowly release, using the anchor to keep the bow up wind, dodge the flowing buoy, other peoples stern lines and anchor chains and then squeeze yourself into a berth that you never thought would fit a dinghy, let alone a super yacht!

Things I miss and the good things

2009-06-27T02:38:00.000+02:00

Things I miss…

Friends

I miss the drinks at the lifesaving club on Tuesdays and Thursdays, bowling club, surfing with Linz and Lex, boozy lunches and Friday nights with the girls (and sometimes the guys), dinner and mates houses, mountain biking in Tokai forest hung over on a Saturday morning, Tigering with my partner in crime and bookclub with the girls. I have met some great people here and made some good friends, but old friends are still the best.

A bath

My shower is a hand held extension from the basin. On the plus side there is always hot water (which there wasn’t on the last boat), but a bath to soak in is always a treat!

Running and swimming

I am on the sea all the time (and love it) but while the boss is on board I am not allowed to jump off for a swim or step off for a run – instead I have to sit on the foredeck and chill in the sun. Tough life ;)

Surfing

I really, really miss going for a surf. Even in that cold water. I have seen people surfing here – on tiny, tiny waves that look like Muisenberg on a bad day! Next day I have off I’m going to try kite surfing, there is plenty of wind around and kite boards are easier to take on boats (gonna have to earn a bit more before I purchase on though). So, yes, Pierre I am finally giving in…

The good stuff…

Beer
The beer here is great – tastes good and it’s cheap. There are plenty of great little spots to meet with mates for a drink after work, or late in the evening.

The job
It’s easy. The hours may be funny, but there is plenty of down time and waiting around. When there is activity it is an absolute flurry, but most of the time it is like pottering around your house, and spending the afternoons chilling in the sun. And to think, for years I sat behind a desk at a computer screen in an office…

The crew
I have a great crew. Every evening is finished with beer o’clock followed by wine o’clock and crew meal. They are giving me sea miles towards my day skipper, and the coastal skipper, and helping me study, they gave me a years Schengen visa and are helping me look for my next job. Caribbean here we come? (after a stop home for Linz and Lex’s wedding of course!)

Being on the water
I love living on a boat. Looking out your port hole and seeing the water right there (and sometime another boat), the gentle rocking as another boat comes into the harbour, chatting to your next door neighbours, heading out for a day at anchor. It’s great.

New mates and new lif
Even though I haven’t known my new friends long, they are so supportive and helpful it is unbelievable! Everyone just helps each other out. It is a completely transient lifestyle, with people coming and going all the time – but it is great to come into a port and see a boat, or get a text/ mail from a mate and know you can head off for a drink. And there is always something to do and someone to do it with.

a few days in...

2009-06-25T15:51:00.000+02:00

I’m a few days into the new job, and have had my first taste of “the night shift”. The first few nights, the boss was back on the boat for dinner early – at around 2am, so I was finished and klaar by three/ three thirty. But last night, I had my first taste of how late he can be… Dinner was served at 5:30 am, making yesterday a very long day! We sped off from Portals (one of the harbours just up the coast from Palma) in the morning, making our way across to Forminca (spelling), just off the coast of Ibiza, averaging a speed of 20 knots (this thing is fast) for an afternoon of swimming and beaching for the boss and his mates. I had a pretty busy time since Pam, who is the chief stew and first mate, was having to help Norm, the captain, out as alarms were ringing all over the show – the oil was over heating, and the grey water system showing that it was full, so I was pretty much sole stew, on my second day. Once we arrive at the beach and pack the boss and mates off to the beach, we get a little bit of a break, after quickly cleaning the boat – eat lunch, do the ironing, and chill (not too bad sitting on the fore deck of a boat chilling in the med). Then the boss usually comes back to the boat for lunch at about 4:30 / 5pm, has a nap, we head back to harbour and he steps off the boat for his evening activities (whatever those maybe). As soon as he steps off the boat, we do a more intensive clean, turn down the beds and prepare the saloon for the evening (light candles, draw blinds, put out the evening drinks). The minute we are done, it is beer-o’clock and we sit down for a beer before crew dinner. I then head off to my cabin for a snooze/chill to prepare for the evening shift, which starts at 12 o’clock. The good news is that I get 8 hours off after I knock off duty, as long as the boss doesn’t want to go out before that time (I could try and sleep, but my cabin is right next to the engine room and on top of one of the props, so sleep is unlikely.)

Scehngen Visa

And thanks to this job, and a useful contact is SA I have a years schengen visa! Yay! My passport is due back in Spain this weekend, just in time for me to pick it up before we head off to St Tropez.

Moving onto the boat

2009-06-19T12:36:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow I move onto the yacht. The owner arrives tomorrow and the season starts. So wish me luck and I'll keep you all in the loop! Still waiting on my passport and visa - should be here at the end of next week, just before we head off to the south of France, so hold thumbs for me!!!

Employment

2009-06-03T18:12:00.000+02:00

I took the day off from working on Maid for You (had about a days work still to do) but asked if I could hit the docks, coz I knew that the dockwise had unloaded. Handed out a number of CVs, one at a motor yacht (begger's can't be choosers) that had a sign saying they needed a stew. Anyway, went for the interview at lunch time, and got the call at 5:01 to say I had the job. And I start tomorrow!! It's not ideal - it's only for two months, but at this stage anything is better than nothing. At least I'll have three months experience on my CV for this season. A good start. It's a 30 odd meter motor yacht, privately owned, by an Arab. Basically he's a late night owl and they need someone to do the late night shift - 11pm - 6am! Gonna work my ass off!!!

Disappointment

2009-06-02T20:56:00.000+02:00

So, one job that has been hanging around was a job on a swan 70. I really really wanted this job. The captain (another Chris) was great. And it was a dream job for me - great itenery, permanent position, Carribean season, cook/stew/deck, ideal! And it boiled down to me and one other girl. And then the owner over ruled Chris (brand new captain to the boat so needs to get to the stage where the owner gives him carte blanche) and said that he had to take someone with more experience. Bummed!!!! So we start again...

Malta and back

2009-05-26T00:00:00.000+02:00

Buying meat in Malta
Firstly, Malta is amazing! a bizarre mix of arab and catholic, with ols school buses, where they all speak english! Valetta, the main town, is basically a fort city build around two main creeks. We stayed at Grand Harbour Marina - beautiful!!!! Check is out on http://www.ghm.com.mt/ . Anyway, back to the life a stew/crew/cook, one of the main tasks is provisioning for the trip ahead. Since Magda, the captain's wife and other crew member had been to Malta before, we were a little bit prepared for what was to come. Basically, Malta has no supermarkets or anything like it. There biggest shops are a little like our Greek cafe's - actually the closest thing is Rondebosch Video, without the videos! So, we were fully stocked for dry goods, but needed perishables -meat and veg. The veg shop consists of a truck that pulls up on the side of the road at 4pm and the butcher is a small stall that stocks only froozen meat! Anyway, that's what we were stuck with!

So, after a few days off, it was back to Palma. It didn't start well when our sail arrived back not quite as patched as expected and we lost engin control in the port engine on our way back to the dock after filling up. So here's the summary of the trip:

Day 1: Stung by a bee- the swelling is still going down. Tons of dolphins - yay! Flat seas - yay! No wind. Nearly exploded the pressure cooker coz i filled it too much, but the stew was great!

Day 2: Started with the largest pod of dolphins! and near miss in colliding with another sailing yacht - sailing with no lights! picked it up on the radar! We had a good day of sailing, right up until the fishing boat incident... I was napping before my first night watch when I hear the "all hands on deck" shout. Came rushing up to find David swearing at a fast approaching rust bucket of a boat. We were close to the coast of Cicilly - on the main refuge run between Italy and Tunisia. The boat was laden with dark skinned men waving ropes and nets and shouting that they were starving, people were dying in the war, and something about refugees - really wierd. They were charging for us and looking like they wanted to board us. We were under sail at this stage (yes finally got the sailing catamaran to, well, sail!), so had to quickly drop sails and get the motor's going. We also dropped he dagger boards to protect the props - a task that cost me a lot of skin on my right hand (made the beginner's mistake of releasing the cleat before I put the line on the winch). We didn't get far before we were caught on surface fishing lines/nets - this it turns out is what they had been trying to tell us... Anyway not too bad, caught the dagger boards, and they cut the line. Then escorted us out, passing us from on vessel to the other. Managed to sail for the rest of the night and most of the next day.

Day 3: We loose an engine
Yip - we lost an engine. And not the one that flaked out when we docked... a bit worrying but okay... Oh! and our radar and nav equipment went on the blink - radar recovered after a few hours, charts didn't...

Day 4: Narrowly miss a yacht
I was on watch and a dot intermittently appeared on the radar - kept searching for lights. Eventually I found a light - a very dim mast light and nothing else. Anyway decided I needed a second opinion since the light look a lot further away that the radar (remember slightly dodgy) said it was. Still felt the radar might be right - the lights are difficult at the best of times. So called David - turned out to be a good call. We were the stand on vessel and the boat was very close and no-one was on watch! Had to steer out of the situation.

Day 5: Arrive in Andraxt and wait.
We arrived at 1:30 am on Monday morning and had to wait on a mooring bouy til the weather was good for us to enter the harbour on one engine - finally home.

I loved it all - even the drama!! I will do anything to carry on doing this!!!

Rodeo horse

2009-05-17T16:52:00.000+02:00

So, half an hour after I got my visa extented (took me from 8:30 - 2pm on Monday - and required a hand written note from a hotel, in spanish, to say I had booked in, and booked but unpaid air ticket for the 18th May, not my exit date, and a letter from my bank manager saying that they no longer issue the books that the visa form requires) I hopped onto the bus and headed to Andraxt to the boat to do the final provisioning (shopping for fruit and veg) and final prep. We left the harbour at 9am on our way to Malta. Only to return half an hour later... as we put up the main sail we noticed that one of the stays was broken and we needed to repair it before starting our 600 mile journey... so we headed out for a second time at about 12... in heavy mist, so bad we could n't see the coast line and had less then 2 miles viz! Should have been a sign... Within the next few hours we realised that the GPS would not overlay with the radar and electronic nav equipment, so it was back to charts, good old paper! Day one was okay - not great conditions, but in hindsight, not bad. I did my first night watch that night in very little viz and detriorating conditions - very disorientating... Day 2 the mist lifted and the sea flattened and... wind dropped. So we motored ahead, but in pretty good conditions. We did manage to sail the boat for four hours in the morning (turned out to be the only sailing on the trip!). We had a pod of dolphons swim with us in the afternoon - really really cool (I have photo's I'll put them up when I can). The night watch bought with it a little mist, but not too bad, even got to see the stars! Basically the way it worked was that I was up at 7 am to relive David of this watch, then up til 11am when it was off to bed for a few hours. Up at 2pm to prepare the main meal of the day, and awake until 7pm, when I went to bed for 3hrs to prepare for my four hour night watch - and repeat... And then later in the night the boat started to do its tricks... The cat is 1m longer than it's previous design adn nearly 7 tonnes heavier - mostly concentrated in the front bar of the boat and a useless deck/shade at the back of the boat, which does little more than obscure your view! As a result the boat loves to dive down waves, plunging the front of the cat into the water, and til about half way up the trampoline in the front and completely submerging the front cabin (mine) beneath the surface) before being swung out of the water - think rodeo!!!! I have never felt sea sick, but this boat did it for me! The captain even admitted to having a little vomit after I did it is spectacular style over the side of the boat! Anyway, the trip from Palma to the coast of Tunisia was relatively sane and managable - but the trip across from Tunisia to Malta was f-ing awful! The boat behave horribly. Day four and five no one was eating and none of us had been able to sleep more than twenty mins in between bucking bouts! With that we limped into Malta yesterday evening and took our spot on the mooring.

This place is stunning!!!! Stone, wall, highly fortified city, with 365 churches! I'm off this evening and tomorrow and intend to have a good look around. We'll be here til Wed/Thurs coz of repairs we need to get done - the genoa ripped despite the little use it got, we have to reseal the windows in my cabin - they leak, and sort out some of the electrics before we can head back. We are also moored next to a beautiful Swan - fast becoming my fav boat!

I promise photos as soon as i can get them onto my computer - I left the connection in SA, so have to rely on other's who have the same connection.

The green mamba strikes again...

2009-05-08T18:31:00.000+02:00

Well, almost! I have had a week for frustration, and day work preparing for the Malta trip. So as I mentioned before there are a lot of hoops you need to jump through to sort out the visa extension. I now have a Spanish bank account (very easy to open) with Lloyds and they speak english- yay! Opened on Wednesday. The next step was transfering cash into said account... not so easy. SA does not allow you to transfer money from your own SA account to your own Spanish account, but you can transfer to another persons account, but it will take 3 - 5 working days (time i did not have!). Discovered on Wednesday. Enter saint mother. After much to-ing and fro-ing we found out that the "easiest" way to do this would be to use Moneygram. So on Thursday my mom put money into the moneyogram for me to collect - instantly ready and collectable within minutes, or so they say. This morning I was there ready and waiting as the doors opened at 8:30, headed up to the counter and in my best mix of spanish and english mutter something about moneyogram and handed her my passport and reference number. In her best English (read only speaks spanish) she said it would be 20mins. AN HOUR later she asks me to check the code again. It was wrong. Re-enter code and 20 mins later she informs me that they can't transfer that amount of money. Fantic call to mom and we think we have a solution - split it in two. Head back to the moneyogram and it turns out that the limit is for one person FOR A MONTH!!! Much expensive discussion between SA and ESP and the final solution: bring a friend to be a money Mule - thanks Cara! So I got my money at 1:10, ran to the bank and deposited it and headed to the visa spot. And they literally closed the doors in my face. They let the person in front of me in but NOT ME!!!! Crisis! I needed this sorted out so that I could go on the boat - the weather has been bad, so we need to head the long way round, so it'll take a little longer... Called my boss and they have decided to wait for me, so we are leaving on Monday directly after I have my visa - holding thumbs it all goes according to plan...

In between all this I have been working on the boat, getting it ready for the trip. So Tuesday we did a wash down - basically wash the exterior of the boat, and Thursday was provisioning (grocery shopping) and polishing the steel - basically sitting outside in the sun, looking at the boat and see while you polish - loving it!

Visa

2009-05-05T07:21:00.000+02:00

For some reason when I applied for my Spanish visa, they decided that I could only have 34 of the 90 days that I am eligible for! Just after I left my mom phone to find out the proceedure for me to extend the visa to the full 90 days, the embassy in CT said there was no reason for me not to have the 90 days (so why didn't you give it to me?) and I must just apply in Spain. Basically I am here on a tourist visa, until such time as I get a permanent position on a boat when I can apply for a work visa.

So yesterday was off to thier version of Home Affairs! Well let me tell you, you think we have bad Qs! I eventaully found the building (the directions I was give refered to it as a grey/green/off-white building - we all know that colour!). And stood in the only visible line, which was wrapping around the building. After a few minutes I spotted the soldiers at the front gate (the reason I didn't take photos of the line) and went over to ask if I was in the right place. Through a series of hand gestures, poor spanichs and limited English I was told this was the only line stay here - his partner seemed to think I should go around the building, but this guy was adament! Anyway AN HOUR later, after I had been standing in the baking sun with no water, an admin official came out and literally just make shis way down the line, weeding out who should and shouldn't be there. And I shouldn't be there - the other side of the building... What a nice surprise: aircon, friendly people. I was in and out with my form filled in (difficult when you can't read Spainish) and my list of requirements. Here in lies the challenge. I have to have travel/health insurance with a policy that is written in Spanish! And a hell of a lot of money in a Spanish bank account - no other account will do. So before work this morning I am sneaking off to open a bank account - apparently easier than in SA! Wish me luck... But the plus side is that my visa will be issued on the same day!

Iterneries...

2009-05-04T18:01:00.000+02:00

So, another lesson that I am learning is that the combination of good timing and dating is even more important in the yachting world than in the "real" world. Chris and I met a little over a week ago, but now it's pretty much on hold until who knows when! Despite a mini-freak out on his part on Wednesday last week when we stopped seeing each other for about 12 hours (although we smsing)- because it suddenly dawned on him that we were going to be able to see each other much longer and he was stressing about getting his boat ready for the upcoming trips - we have spent a lot of time together. And today he moved back onto the boat, the owner's wife and her friends arrive, he goes sailing until Saturday, and I depart for Malta on Saturday, and he's off to Italy just as I come back to Palma. And then it just depends what happens with the other jobs I up for! If I get onto a racing boat, then we'll see each other on the racing circuit, otherwise maybe out boat's timetables with coincide at some point. You are completely at the mercy of your boat at it's timetable!

First Job

2009-05-02T18:09:00.000+02:00

The job hunting thing here is soul destroying. You literally get up every day and spend 4 - 6 hours looking for a job, calling agents, checking websites and walking the docks. I have been walking a little more than 20 km each day along the docks - and most of the time we count it as a success when we manage to get a CV out, let alone get day work or a job offer. Since I have been here I have handed out 18 CVs!

So Friday started with a rain shower. Never good because this means that dockwalking is pretty much a waste of time because no-one is on deck, but you still have to do it because the boats all have cameras and it is good for them to see that you are still looking... So, got ready as usual - polo shirt, tie the hair up and put on the make up, and just as I was grabbing a last cup of tea and sitting out the torrential downpour, the unheard of happened - an agent called me! She had called last Sunday (also a good sign, they don't work on Sundays) and I had met with her on Wednesday. The captain of the Swan 70 that I really want to get on was in town for the weekend and wanted to meet me (yay!!!!), So I walked the 45mins in the rain to the Portixol hotel. As I was waiting for him to arrive I got another call asking if I could make an interview at 2:30, back in town. Anyway, had a very good meeting with the Captain. Basically it would be his first Captain's job, and it would just be the two of us, so lots of work, but a variety (cook/stew/deck) and the boat the owner wants to race the boat (yay! yay! yay!). So I am up against one or two other girls (he still had to meet the third) and will know next week Thurs/Fri - PLEASE HOLD THUMBS, THIS IS MY IDEAL JOB!

So off I headed to the second interview - basically a delivery from Palma to Malta and back again, 600 sea miles and a great expereince on a 50 foot Catamarang - Catama. And something not common on a delivery, I will get paid. Not much, but enough to get me rent for another month and keep me going for a little while longer. They phoned me yesterday and offered me the job!

So hopefully the way it is going to work is that I'll be able to do both - the Swan has been wintering in Italy and the Captain needs to work out notice on his current boat.

The challenges of dating in a strange country

2009-04-27T17:48:00.003+02:00

On Friday I headed off to the first ever crew show in Palma - basically an event where unemployed crew congregates, agencies set up stands, and skippers hopefully pop in. After spending a good half an hour looking for the free shuttle bus (some moron had stolen the signs) and then waiting for the bus for over an hour we arrived at the show, starving! a quick tour of the few crew agencies that I hadn't already met with was followed by a cheap lunch up the road where I discovered about the only thing you can get with veg served with it - a veg sandwhich - the spanish are surprisingly shy with thier fruit and veg. We headed back to the crew show, which was starting to pick up, and decided it was time to mingle (read have a few drinks and see if you can spot someone new to chat to). I headed to the bar with my final 3,90 Euro to get my last "real" beer (there was the option of the outside bar with a half pint in a plastic cup, or the inside bar with a full pint and a glass - i.e. a real beer). The venue had seriously underestimated the amount of staff necessary to keep the drinks flowing for a bunch of yachties, leading me to be standing at the bar for a very long time and tapping my money on the counter. Enter Chris. He can up to the bar with a well groomed and pretty girl - I assumed that this khaki shorts and blue shirt clad guy was a guest at the hotel and the prety girl was his wife - anyway he started chatting to me. Turns out he is a captain on a Swan, called Risktaker, a beautiful sail yacht and not a guest, and the beautiful well groomed girl is the chef/stew on his boat, not his wife. Anyway after chatting for a while, he invited me to dinner. So we caught a taxi back to Palma and headed off to a fusion resturant to have tapas and roast duck - damn nice food! And since then I have been so spoilt! Date number two: fusion tapas, drinks at probably the most bizarre place in the world (a spanish villa that has no sign and you enter through these huge woden doors into a court yard where there are opulant sofas and fruit, yes fruit, as decor, and upstairs there are a number of equally opulant lounges - and wierd people!), off to the famous mallorca lamb restuarnt (lamb, unlabled bottles of wine and a gluwien type drink), and ten pin bowling. Here in lies the challnge - I have a total of 2 dresses (managed to wear one yesterday, but too bloody cold today), 3 strappy tops and two pairs of pants. Which means after three or four dates, I have exhausted my wardrope! What's a girl to do!

"Wine trip"

2009-04-26T10:10:00.003+02:00

Yesterday we hired a car with the plan of going wine tasting. Mallorca has a very small wine industry, and the majority of the wine is consumed locally. I have tried a few of the cheaper ones (not so good), but not the more expensive ones, so thought it would be a good idea to head off to the farms to have a taste!

We started off bright and early, the evening before the owner of the car rental place had assured us that he opens at 8:30 - the sign on his door even says so - but as we are learning the spanish have a definition of time that could rival the infamous "african time"! So when we arrived at the shop to collect our car at 9am and he still wasn't around, we settled in for a cafe con leche at the cafe next door and waited. He arrived closer to 10:45...

After the late start we navigated our way out of Palma, me playing navigator and Cara in the hot seat, off firstly to visit a set of caves/coves outside of Campernet that Cara was keen to visit. Having just been to the Cango Caves last year, I sat this one out - choosing to sip another cafe con leche on the patio overlooking the valley. With the caves under out belt we headed off to Port Alcudia, right to the norht off the island, just down from the Point of Manorca for a bit of lunch, planning to hit the farms in the afternoon. We weren't quite sure where to go so ended up navigating ourselves to the tourist part of town - it has a feel like Margate in Natal to it... But managed to grab a bit to eat and a beer for the none drivers (beer is cheaper than all soft drinks here, and the tap water tastes awful - too much chlorine and added calcium). The drive, being Cara's first on the other side of the road, was fairly hair raising, and a beer was in order!

So after lunch we decied it was time for the farms. We forgot about siesta. Between 1:30 and 4:30 just about everything closes down - even some resturants! We went to 3 towns and more than 6 cellars and not one was open! One had a sign up that said it was open Monday to Friday, and by appointment on Sunday. You would think they could give you this info on thier website! Even after siesta, we could find none that were open. So, all in all, not a very sucessful wine tasting.

Dock walking - before you feel sorry for me...

2009-04-21T19:10:00.006+02:00

So, at least once a day I head off, either by myself or with one of the others, to walk the docks, asking for jobs. I just thought I'd share some of the sights, well yatchs:

View across from keys in front of Santa Catalina (where I'm living) with the Cathedral in the background (went there on Sunday coz you can get in for free!)

Predator - she's a motor yacht that was all the talk two years ago because of her inverted hull. Look how much bigger she is than the other yachts. She has a sister yacht that made a huge splash last season (called A). The new yachts have not been release yet, they normally come out in time for the Grand Prix, so no idea what the hot boat is this year.

At Club de Mar (we call it club too far because it is over an half hour walk to get there and there is not much else there). Two of the beautiful boats - the stubby cream motor yacht, so ugly it has to be beautiful, a bit like a bull terrier, and then the graphite sailing yatch, she's new to the key, her and her sister yatch have arrived in the last two days - they look like they are Wally (look them up on the net, they are beautiful!).

So, at the very least I get to be around these beautiful yachts with stunnung views!

Trip to the Mountains

2009-04-21T18:50:00.004+02:00

Weekends are the time we legitimately get to rest (and not feel at all guilty about it). So we deiced to head up to Soller, just north of Palma in the mountains. Tom, Brett and myself walk to Plaza Espanya to catch the regional train up. The 2004 Lonely Planet left in the flat said the the trip would cost 2,50 euros each way - it ended up being 17 Euro return (remember it's times by three!) for the hour trip there. The train is an old wooden train and beautifully restored.

As we snuck out of the last tunnel a stunning view of Soller greeted us, and the train stopped for about half an hour for us to take photos

Once we were there we went for a walk to see "some dudes" house - only to find once we got there that we weren't on the walk that would take us to the dudes house, but rather to "the most beautiful village in Mallorca" - and it was pretty stunning!

First Week

2009-04-19T09:41:00.002+02:00

I can't believe that I have been here less than a week. It feels way longer than that... I thing I can tell you I miss is a good cup of tea - the Spanish have absolutely no idea about tea! It is weak, no matter how many bags you use, and kinda a grey colour... Not good!

So I started the week in Ritzi Hostal, a nice little place near the cathedral in Palma. The only problem was it was costing 30 Euro per night, including breakfast (weak eat, polony, cheese, jam, muffin, bread, tinned fruit and muesli - carbo overload)! Which is about the cheapest accomodation avaliable in Palma. On the bus from the airport I had spoken to a guy who was here for his second season and he said that he was staying in an apartment for 10 Euros a night - much more in tune with the SA budget! On the second day I was in Palma I met another South African (Cara) who has been here two week already, and when she suggested moving into an apratment with her and four other people, I jumped at the opportunity! So after much organising I have moved in with Cara, Brett (Ozzie), Tom (Brit), and Heather and Henrich (both South Africans) and now have a happy little household! We signed a lease for a month - 300 Euros - which is what 10 days in the guest house would have cost!

The job market is pretty tough here. The season is starting off much later than expected (crap weather - it is still cold, wishing I had a big jacket and boots; and the recession). The boats are looking for crew but they are hiring at the last minute to save costs! A lot of the boats have said they are only going to be looking for Stewardesses in June/July! And the agencies are not much help, just telling you to go dock walk! There is are a lot of people out there with a couple of years experience too - they've been layed off due to the recession and the boats operating on skeleton staff. Having said that there is work, it is all about being in the right place and the right time!

So, dock walking, also know as the walk of shame... Basically what this involves is (1) sneaking onto the keys - they are all private keys in Palma and therefore locked. So what you have to do is hope the gate is open/ lie to the guard by telling him you are going to an interview on one of the boats (you have to try find out the names of some boats far down the key that you can't see from the promanade) and hope he doesn't check up/follow-in a delivery car, or get a ride in with one/ my personal favourite, make sure the guard is not looking and sneak through the fence! And then on some of teh keys you have to look out for roving guards - I have already been asked to leave on key!
(2) Next thing you do is walk up and down the keys either hoping there is crew on board, or ring the buzzer on the really big boats, and ask if they need day workers (basically come in for a day or two, sometimes more, doing the work the crew doesn't have time to - it can lead to a more permanent job) or if they are looking for crew. Then...
(3) if you are lucky, they will have day works or, two your CV,a nd then you hope for a call back!

So, our days basically consist of walking the docks in the morning or evening, visiting agancies if and when we can get appointments with them, registering and following up on jobs online (the apartment has wi-fi - thanks for the computer dad!) and sorting out all sorts of admin that tends to crop up (bank cards - another story). Weekends are rest time - no dock wlking because crew has time off or there are guests on board and it is bad form to disturb them in either instance!