One pill makes you big...

The job started five minutes after the interview and I hardly had time to get my belongings from the crew house. I had a mere 1 ½ days to familiarize myself with the galley and get all the provisions I needed before we set sail to the BVI’s for an eight day charter with four guests.

The galley is small, to say the least; tiny, in fact, but somehow well laid out and with a fair amount of counter space. However, my Mini-bake Oven in which I used to bake miniature cakes by the heat of a light bulb for my brothers when I was seven years old was bigger than the oven in this galley, and the electric burners aren’t much better. I felt like Alice in Wonderland after swallowing the pill that makes you big. I was a giant in this tiny Barbie kitchen. But, there are a few saving graces; a small but industrial dishwasher that washes up dishes and pots and pans in about 30 seconds – brilliant thinking on the part of whoever designed the galley. Then, through a small hatch in the floor of the galley (it get’s more and more Alice-in-Wonderland-like every moment), down into the bilge are 2 side-by-side low-boy refrigerators and freezers (a low-boy is a reach-in refrigerator that would normally be under the counter in your workspace in a restaurant kitchen). Now granted, I had to climb down a latter into a crawl space, in which I couldn’t even stand, in order to access the refrigeration, but still, this is one of the few yachts I’ve worked on where the refrigeration is adequate! Most yachts have tons of freezer space, more than is humanly possible to fill (although I always do) – but never enough refrigeration. Well, The Universe heard my prayers… I had tons and tons of refrigeration. As well, the crew quarters are, thankfully, designed for full-grown people, instead of the usual Halflings that most crew quarters are designed for. My bunk is big and comfy and by far, the best bed I have slept in all season and I share a cabin with our stewardess, also named Cristina (and spelled the same). But, her nickname with the crew is “princess”, and not because she’s nice… Ha! A hot-blooded Spanish woman to put those boys in place. Yes, Cristina and I hit it off instantly…

My first task aboard the yacht was to sort through the pantry and see what was already on board. Since the galley is small this wasn’t a huge task – two small cupboards, two big cupboards and four small storage spaces under the settee in the crew mess. Sorting was easy, apparently the regular chef on board is not a big fan of spices, there were maybe four bottles of spices that looked like they hadn’t been touched since 1979. So, I knew I’d need pretty much everything – cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, black peppercorns, cayenne, kosher salt, etc. He mustn’t have liked vinegars either, again – two bottles, hardly touched. And canned goods, it was mostly jarred pasta sauces, vegemite and pickles. I had a big shop ahead of me, and I couldn’t help but wonder what that chef could have possibly cooked with so few ingredients… But then I found out, 3 quarts of heavy crème in the refrigerator and several pounds of European butter. Ah ha, fat in place of flavor – it has its place, but not my style of cooking…

Next I had to read through the preference sheets from the charter agency and write out a grocery list. The guests weren’t big meat eaters and preferred as much organic ingredients as possible, they ate light and healthy, but other than that the preference sheets were fairly vague. By the afternoon of my first day I had to have my meat and fish order ready for the provisioner so that I could get my delivery by the next day.

Early my second morning I took off in the rental car to head to a tiny organic shop in Marigot where I cleaned out their shelves and stocked up on organic olive oils, grains, breads, beans, flours, sugars, jams and spices. Next I was off to the Grand Marche, the big grocery store, to stock up on fresh produce, eggs, milk, food for the crew, etc. I had four large shopping carts overflowing with onions, potatoes, zucchini, asparagus, fennel, salad greens, herbs, cereal, fruit, dozens of organic eggs, etc. I would be responsible for feeding 9 people breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next week and half – it was a lot to prepare for…

I returned to the yacht with the car packed up to the windows with grocery bags. The crew helped me unload with trip after trip. The stewardess unpacked all the groceries while I sorted, organized and stored. And of course, with every inch of counter space and floor space occupied by boxes and bags of ingredients – three giant coolers arrived filled with tuna, mahi, snapper, grouper, sea bass, clams, lamb and chicken. $4,000.00 later… There wasn’t time in the day to find every ingredient I wanted. The staples of my pantry including za’atar and sumac were at another grocery store in St. Maarten that I didn’t have time to hit. The kitchen was also desperately in need of a few new pans and trays to fit the tiny oven – but no luck, there just wasn’t enough time.

At 8:30am my third day, we pulled away from the dock at Palapa Marina and queued up with the other yachts set to depart through the 9am bridge opening at Simpson Bay. We hit the high seas and headed for Tortolla, an eight hour trip that I would spend working out my menus for the charter…

We arrived in Tortolla by 6pm, dropped anchor and headed by tender (tender = dingy) to The Bitter End for dinner and to enjoy our last night of freedom before the guests arrived…