EAT THIS!

New Years Eve Dinner:

Caviar Blini’s with Crème Fraiche and Chives
Oysters Mignonette
Grilled Octopus and White Bean Salad
Grilled Pomegranite Marinated Qauil
Salt Crust Baked Filet Mignon with a Whole Grain Mustard and Cornichon Sauce
Stuffed Baby Zucchini with Farro
Flourless Chocoloate-Coconut Cake with Tropical Fruit Coulis

New Years Day Brunch:
My Resignation

To say this year started with a bang would be an understatement… Going on a 7 week stretch with only one day off, I was beginning to run out of gas preparing dinner for ten people for New Years Eve – which should’ve been easy work. Then, at seven pm New Years Eve, I overheard the guests talking about a day sail for January 2nd. I asked about it, and was informed that there would be 30 people for lunch aboard the yacht. Considering that nothing would be open on New Years day, and I’d been asking for three weeks what the plans for the holidays were – to which I received no reply - I was a little steamed.

All things considered, I decided that enough was enough. As of midnight, January 1, 2005 I quit - effective immediately. Of course, the owner tried to jip me out of my pay, but after a heated argument I got my full pay and summarily left the boat. I knew of a crew house in St. Marteen where I would be able to stay on the cheap while I looked for work and the woman that ran the crew house also had a yacht placement agency that would be able to assist me in my search. The previous captain of the boat I worked on caught wind that I was leaving and fully understood why. He and his fiancé (he’s the captain, she’s a chef) were in St. Barth on a catamaran that they charter and there were no guests so they offered me a place to stay for the night and to sail with them to St. Marteen today, January 2nd. The captain knows the owner of the crew house and called for me and got me a room. In exchange for their help, I am going to be spending the day with them tomorrow doing work on their catamaran and getting it ready for the next charter. Another captain came by and said that he might be able to use me for a few days, and he gave me his number, and another captain said that she might be able to use me on a charter for a few weeks… So, even with no set place to stay and no job lined up, having just thrown caution to the wind – I can’t help but feel my spirits lifted. The sheer kindness that I have been met with since I stepped off of the boat is indescribable… I have totally confidence that I’ll find a new job within no time…

Anyway, yesterday evening the captain and his fiancé invited me to join them for dinner with some friends in St. Barth. The friends were American, from Sausalito of all places (I grew up between Sausalito and Burlingame in California)!!! One of the gals had made a traditional American holiday dinner – turkey with all the fixings! It was the best way to spend the New Year – with new friends… It was just awesome…

This morning we sailed into St. Marteen at around 10:30, then I grabbed a taxi to the crew house. The owners weren’t around but I was met by five other crew that were staying at the house, and assured once again that finding work should be no problem – there is a shortage of yacht chefs… Did I just strike gold? Guess we’ll find out…

The cat I sailed across on is a 62 foot gunboat. Apparently this is a world class yacht, built for speed. The captain said he sailed from Rhode Island to St. Marteen doing 24 knots in 27 knots of wind… (Forgive me if my verbiage is incorrect, I’m still new to all this). Just coming to St. Martinn, the cat was a totally different experience than a mono-hulled sailboat. The movement wasn’t so stomach churning. And the kitchen, well, it’s the ultimate open kitchen. Tiny is an understatement – but it is on deck and open to the sea which was really nice… It was a really nice sail…

It feels good to be off the yacht I was working on, great in fact, nice to set my bags down today and relax a bit. I could use a week off – but my job search starts ASAP and tomorrow I’ll be working at the catamaran…

So, stay tuned for the next adventure…