An Official Yachtie

I never knew that not writing for one day would have caused such an uproar! Well, perhaps I did, but I had to think things through before I laid it all out on the table.

I had my interview in Miami yesterday for which the captain picked me up here at the crewhouse. We had to drive to the airport to pick up a freelancer (temporary hire) that was dropping of her rental car and then we headed to Miami. When I was done with the interview, I had an awful lot to think about but I think I have finally made up my mind and for good reason.

The 130' yacht just lost its last captain. The old captain took his crew with him leaving a new captain to fill his shoes and with him a whole new crew. When I was there there were only three permanent members of the crew and three freelancers. The relationship between the crew was rough, to say the least. There seemed to be a lot of tension that the captain was not really picking up on. Don't get me wrong. He was very nice and offered quite a bit but the crew is what makes the yacht a good or bad one and I realized today how very important that is.

Today I worked as a day-worker for the yacht Revelation. She is captained by an Australian man named Pete. Today I worked with the Boson, Ben--who is also from Australia--, to empty out storage lockers and then for a good portion of the day I made brown tenders look pearly white. I had a fantastic day with the crew. They're going to the Med on the 10th of May after the engineer and chef shows up. Ben taught me a lot and was very willing to take the time to explain things.

I absolutely loved the crew I worked with today. As of right now, though, they are not hiring because the owner doesn't want to spend any more money. I think I made an impression, though. The captain thought he might want me to recruit one guy from the crewhouse to help out tomorrow but Ben said no and that we would be just fine. So they've got work lined up for me today and the rest of the week and then starting again on Monday. I worked 11.5 hours today at 15/hr!

You are probably wondering what the captain that interviewed me offered me to make it a difficult decision as to whether or not to accept. I'm saying this later to keep it all in line and make sense. I would've been the only deckhand on board and he wanted me to move up into the navigational role and be the deckhand/mate. That's all fine and dandy but I am a rookie and as the only deckhand, I would have to figure everything out on my own because I know full well that the captain isn't going to want to come down to show me every little thing each time I have a problem. I don't want to learn that way. It would be really stressful for me and I don't think it would be worth it in the end. I would very much rather get a job as the lowliest deckhand so that I can watch and learn as I go knowing full well that if I miss something, someone is watching my back cause, haha, well they'll need to.

My experience today was a great one. One of the awesome things about it was that when they picked me up and brought me to the yacht, we all went down to the crew quarters, had coffee and tea and discussed what was happening today. At lunch (at noon) we did the same thing. *Side note: Boy was it an excellent spread!!* At the end of the day (would've been 5 but we ran into some difficulties which pushed us to 7) we sat down and rested and had a drink of our preference. I may be thinking a little off but does that sound familiar to anyone? Anyone at all? Morning coffee, lunch always at noon, and... deck/porch-time? You can understand why I felt so comfortable!

The captain dropped me off this evening and as he was leaving I mentioned that if ever the owner changed his mind and that they might want another crewmember, I hoped he'd think of me. He said he would.

So that's my day, folks. I only just now realized how tired I am. I may hit the hay early this evening around 9:30 or 10. Love you all. Woof,

Jacks