Like everything in the
Finally, a voice crackled on the other line. A British accent: “I’m sorry miss, you’ll have to speak up I can hardly hear you.”, “I’m sorry, what was that?”, “crew house?”, “did you say you need a room at the crew house?”, “when?”, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”, “Oh, no, we don’t have any room today. The crew houses are all full…lot’s of crew around. Try back tomorrow”.
I hung up the receiver and moved on to the next phone and the next number, “Hello?, Hello? Yes, can you hear me? Hello? Hello? Yes, do you have any rooms available? Yes, rooms, do you have any available? Hello? Can you hear me?”… so on and so forth.
I had given notice to the owners a week ago; I was the second in succession as the entire crew quit the yacht. It’s a challenge to have an owner that believes that since they are on vacation, the crew must be as well. We did everything we could to try to express to them that just because our office is in a beautiful location doesn’t mean our jobs are any less demanding. Yachts are not like homes, they require much more maintenance and care than simply mowing the lawn. I was the newest aboard but I recognized early on the pathway to burn-out that lay out ahead of me. I could see it in the eyes of the other crew and I didn’t want to get to that point…
It was a tough decision for all of us. Crew become family, what takes land-based people years to know about someone, we learn about each other in just a matter of months – we share tight quarters and live, eat and breathe every waking moment around each other for months at a time. Our crew got along great, the stewardess and I really hit it off and we are like sisters. I am the last person on earth to cry saying goodbye, but we both cried multiple times over the past few days. Our captain left the yacht today as well, and we had another cry in the car on our way to the airport. We all have our flaws, we all have our quirks and we were all aware of what those were in each other, but we bonded and we really tried to make the situation work. The stewardess and our first mate leave in another week – but hopefully our paths will all cross again…
The owners had asked me to leave a week early since they’d found my replacement. I should’ve expected that, but it still came as a surprise when they handed me a ticket back to
I spent yesterday afternoon celebrating at the Rum Shack in St. Thomas, then went to a movie at Honeymoon Beach on Water Island, where every Monday night a giant sheet is strung between two palm tree’s, a sound system and projector is set up and everyone makes themselves comfortable in beach chairs on the sand… It was the perfect way to end my time in
I arrived this afternoon, touching down in St. Martin with a reservation at a cheap hotel in Simpson Bay, and the universe once again smiled upon me; beyond the rooftops, parking lot and some trees my window overlooks the beach and I can watch the yachts coming into the marina, the bugs are small and the a/c works... The first thing I did upon checking into my hotel room was to stretch myself out across the bad – my head on the upper right corner, my feet on the lower left. I’ve spent the past two and a half months on a bed about as wide as my shoulders, a mattress as hard as rocks, and quarters so tight two people could not stand in our room at one time. It feels so good to have some privacy and time to recharge my batteries. I check into a crew house on Thursday, but right now I’m going to enjoy sleeping in, going to my favorite café on the island tomorrow morning for a cappuccino and croissant and a kiss on each cheek from Dominic, the proprietor of Zee Best in Simpson Bay, and then catch some rays on the beach and catch up with some crew friends I haven’t seen since last year. Then, the search for a
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment