Underway to the USofA

Finished up up a four day easy charter with the owners. We had eight guests total, all couples and friends of the owners. We had a couple who owned a NBA team (cannot disclose for privacy) another couple who was in oil, and another couple who was on board as potential half owners. They were all American but from different states and all college friends. The potential owners are in the steel business and was the main steel distributor of most of the Las Vegas casinos from 1990 - 2010.

One night before dinner everyone was seated and waiting for the potential half owner and his wife said "don't worry we can start dinner my husband is on the phone trying to buy a plane and get a good deal, he might be awhile." She said that very calm and as if this wasn't a big deal! HAHAHA

Buying a plane and a yacht in one weekend is no big deal I'm assuming.

We picked up in Canouan, Grenadine Islands and traveled to Mustique, the island where the Royal family vacations to all the time. Perfect timing because they were on the island the day we were there which was my birthday. I can say I spent my birthday on a private island with the Royal family, even though there was no siting of them. The island was shut down due to the Royal family being there but our guests were able to go ashore just no cameras allowed. We spent one day in Mustique then traveled down to Tobago Cayes which has the most unreal water of all the Caribbean.

Back to Canouan and then dropped off the guests. 

We are now somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean. Haven't seen land in over 24 hours and still going. We arrive in St. Thomas tonight to drop most of the crew off and pick up our relief captain, who will then take us all the way back to West Palm. We will then stop in Puerto Rico to gas up and next stop will be USA!

Excited to get back to the US, drive a car, shop, all the cool stuff you can't do while you are on a boat.

Cheers

Charter #2

About to take on my second charter for the season. The owners are coming aboard tomorrow Jan 26th and will be on for four days total. Short and sweet. Two of the guests are potential "half buyers" who will consider, after this trip, if they want to buy half of the boat. Seems like it would complicate things a lot more but it actually helps us out more. More people on board and if there is maintenance or something new we need then the owners don't have to pay the full amount they can just split the costs but still own a yacht.

Owners are from Texas and own oil...worth over a BILLION so I'm excited to impress them! Possibly ten guests but maybe eight. I would be very happy with just eight guests. Less stress on the crew but this is one of the shortest trips this season so I can't complain much!

We just moved from Bequia, two and a half weeks at anchor to Canouan. Canouan is where the billionaire get away from the millionaires in the Caribbean supposedly. This place is beautiful but nothing to do at all. We are then going back to Bequia, Mustique, Tobago Cays then dropping off back in Canouan.

I think after work today we are going to swim into shore like we did in Bequia and snorkel a little bit and maybe a night dive. Now that I can dive with them I'm excited to see how they dive and use the amazing equipment for free. After this short trip we are off to St. Thomas for a day which takes three days underway to get to then Puerto Rico for less than a day then from Puerto Rico to West Palm, Florida which is another three or four day trip. We are on land and out of the water for a little less than a month and March 1, 2014 we are back to Bahamas for a trip with the old owners of Big Eagle. Excited this time to start my charter where as last time I was a nervous wreck because I didn't know what to expect and where anything was. Knowing my way around the boat better and exactly what I have to do puts me to ease. This charter should be a breeze compared to the last in more ways then one!

No contact for the next five days more then likely but I'll check in after the trip.

Cheers

PADI Open Water Certified

I am now a PADI open water certified diver! This weekend I took my class and did a few dives in Bequia to be able to go on dives with the rest of the crew. Got down to 50 feet and saw lots of cool fish. Felt as if I was in an aquarium.

Not a lot been going on down here, still at anchor in Bequia and it's now been almost three weeks...getting a little boring. This island is so small we did one day of exploring and now not much more to do. We've been eating fish for almost every meal because that's the only meat we can buy and the fishermen just bring it straight to the boat. As much as I love fish...there's a point where it's starting to get old.

Planning on heading to Florida within the next week. Still not certain on if the owners are coming so we are kind of a stand still on all our projects trying to figure out if we are going to move or if we need to get ready for another charter. Otherwise not much more going on down here.

Excited for my baby cousin Braxton to get here! Whoever is reading this I would love updates!

Cheers

Swim Team Capt.

Started a new trend on the boat as of yesterday and already voted swim team captain...

Yesterday asked anyone if they wanted to go for a swim and got four volunteers, not knowing what I was getting myself into. Christian, Stef, John and myself all went for a swim yesterday and today. Yesterday I went from the boat just to the closest beach which took 15 minutes one way, open water with just a mask and a wicked current. Today we swam in a triangle from anchor to a reef, along the beach to the same spot as yesterday and back. Today's swim was about 45 minutes long but well worth the effort because I got to see some amazing things all while the sun was setting.


We swam to that rock i circled then to the left all along that beach to the white beach house with the white roof (below) then back to the boat. These pictures are taken from the boat.



I got voted swim team captain after finishing first in most of the swims. I learned the hard way to take a snorkel the second time which allowed me to see so many schools of fish, lobster cages and a sea turtle! These waters are so clear that you can see the anchor on the sea floor from our boat and we are about 10 meters deep.

This is Sean my friend from Zimbabwe free diving today in Guadeloupe. Thought this was an awesome photo. I'm not inspired to be able to get my PADI open water certification so I can dive where ever we go. Just signed up to take the course online and then once that is completed I have to dive for four hours with a trainer professional. Once that is complete I will be certified to dive anywhere in the world!

Lady L (the boat Sean works on) just finished charter so this is what they got to do on their day off. Snorkeling, fishing, jet skis and sun bathing. Not just me who has a good job...most yachties live the life.

Living The "Simple" Dream

I have recieved quite a few comments asking how I got this amazing job? How can they get this amazing job? and how can they live MY life?

Never thought someone would be asking to live my life. Very normal born and raised Indiana girl with a little twist. I am so excited to tell everyone about my journey but I don't want to let the cat out of the bag on this amazing job...or else I won't have a job. But what I can do is tell you how thankful I am for having this job and the people who pushed me to do it. Took awhile to get to where I am but I'm so glad I took the plunge.

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"Living" in Bequia for right now is rough but something I couldn't experience fully anywhere else. We took a tour of the island yesterday and learned more about it. 6,000 people live on this island, it's one of the biggest islands of The Grenadines. Their Prime Minister is trying to push them into Communism which doesn't allow anyone to go in our out of the country so their are riots and different horrible things coming up trying to stop his power. Going on shore is like a scene out of a movie. I would always think to myself, "where do they come up with these sets? Why are there so many happy people roaming the streets, all the time? No one ever really wears those rasta mon hats, do they?" But they do! Everyone is out on the streets with a smiling on their faces (maybe because they are all high all day long) but still, these people love theirs lives and have no shame. The poverty around is real but(ab they still keep a smile on their faces.

Their lives are simple. This (above) was a "fancy" building. To the right is a fruit stand where I got some of the most amazing passion fruit, which I've been picking off trees the past month and eating. Unreal fruit, my new favorite. To the left is their only bookstore, bank, and quick mart on the whole island. If you need anything abnormal aka hamburger patties...you have to go to mainland, which is St. Vincent, a two hour fairy ride. 

The local Pizza Hut. We didn't get to experience it yet because Tolan just made 11 pizzas for 10 people but maybe next time we go back on land we will be able to try how Bequia does Pizza Hut.

This is the water on Sugar Reef. Amazing small resort with 9 rooms total and $565 a night, very secluded but worth the money. We talked to the owner who is originally from North Carolina but moved to Bequia in the 80's and bought 40 plots of land for 1 million EC which is about $60,000 US and now one plot of land is going for $1 million US! He is doing very well in his investment! Very laid back islandy old man, and once again was just loving his "simple" life. 

Checking out my view on January 11, 2014. Not too shabby. 

After taking a tour of the island and seeing all the local spots we then went to find a bar which had the play offs playing. Colts vs. Pats, which my chief stew and chef are fans of and I'm of course a Colts fan so we had a fun time watching the game at a local bar sitting around in what looked like a locals living room. Big comfy couches that didn't match, putting our feet up on the tables and just relaxed while watching the game, even though the game wasn't that relaxing for me. We were screaming and everyone was looking at us probably thinking, "You stupid, loud Americans, we are trying to have dinner here!" They like the sport of cricket here so they don't get "American football." Surprisingly enough about half time we had another group of six Americans come into the bar and cheer with us. They were colts fans as well so it got a little rowdy! Very fun and long day on land but much needed. 

Today (sunday) we are just going to stay on the boat and have a nice lunch for our First Mate who is leaving today after 12 years of working on Big Eagle, he's going back to his farm in Costa Rica with his soon-to-be-wife and start a life, off the boats. So we are just going to hang out with him and see him off tonight. Chill Sunday but it's nice and sunny and we are watching more football...can't complain about that. 

Cheers,

Happy Birthday Mom! Love you so much!

Bequia

Picture this:

Out on the aft (back) deck, watching the sun go down with the wind blowing in my sweaty hair after a long run on the treadmill and a long day of work and fire costumes...

Great picture in your head, well thats exactly my position as I'm typing this sentence.

We are at anchor in Bequia, Grenadine islands, about 1,600 miles south of Miami, FL, USA.

This is the hull of our boat and big tender on the side of it. The big tender is 42ft long (almost double our ski boat) just to put everything in perspective. This picture was taken in Canouan, the furthest point south I've gone. 

We now are in Bequia Harbor for the next week or so. We are waiting to hear from the owners about when they want to come aboard. We are normally based out of Antigua but the owners love traveling to all new places they've never been before so they will want to go more south thus there is no reason to travel all the way back to Antigua just to come back down here. They will fly their private jet down to where ever the boat is. No big deal.

Same with the last guests they had a private jet who picked up two people two days earlier from St. Lucia and then the next people from the Grenadine Islands at anytime they wanted. #thelife

New years Eve we spent at anchor in Mustique, which is the private island where no country actually owns it. Every little bit of land is personally owns by private owners. It's the island that Kate and Prince William take their yacht to. For our guests to be able to go on land they had to pay $150 per person and another $50 to get into the NYE party. The amount of money spent while on a trip is amazing. $165,000 for a week plus $33,000 tip, food which they had steaks, lobster, shrimp, and caviar every single night then $5,000 worth of flowers. Money clearly is no object. One of the sons ordered bottles of tequila that he loved and had one shot out of a bottle which cost $175 per bottle and we ordered 12 bottles. 

Some day I'll be looking back on all this and think "I can't believe I thought that was a big deal." (hopefully)

Having some fun diving off the fly bridge on our day off. Got to show off my skills a little bit. I did a front 1 1/5 and everyone was VERY impressed. Capt loved it. 

Cheers

I'm back

Sorry it's been awhile we just finished up our first charter! 7 days of 17-19 hour days of work but it was all worth it in the end. We got an amazing tip and the experience was one of a kind. Amazing family and friends and got to do some amazing things. Stressful learning while trying to make everything go as smooth as possible but they didn't seem to notice.

I've most excited to say I have added 7 new stamps to my passport! I'm going to run out of pages fast if I keep going at this pace. I can't wait to see all of them! There's just so much to say and so little time. I've been able to take very few photos because we obviously can't have our phones out when guests are on board but then things I've seen are just unbelievable. After everyone left yesterday we went ashore to a private resort in Canouan. To be able to come ashore it was $150. We didn't have to pay because they guests already paid the other day and we just told them we were on Big Eagle and they didn't know the difference. To be able to be on the island you have to be staying in a villa ($20,000 a night) or own a villa (1 acer of land $3 million)

These were some of the Villas. Rent or own but they were so amazing. After getting shown around the island by golf cart (only can drive golf carts in the resort, and the resort owns most of the island) we then went to get drinks at the most beautiful part of the resort. Golf course, fountains, infinity pools, bars, lounges with bamboo ceiling fans, all open air it was gorgeous. 

This picture just doesn't do justice. It was the most amazing resort I've ever seen.

Just a few of my crew right before dinner. 

Today (Sunday) we are going to the beach and diving all day long. I'm going to get my PADI which allows me to teach people to scuba dive within the next few days so I can add another step to my CV.

Loving every second of what I am doing, I'll be back to explain more soon.

Cheers