This year marks having worked in hospitality for exactly half my life. It feels ridiculous to call it a career, as it has been more of a way of life for me and perhaps some might argue it is my life. I am emphatic about being introduced to new cultures, my most creative when travelling, most rewarded when I get to share the experience I have with others and happiest when my participation allows elevation.
8.5 years ago I left my job as a Game Ranger in South Africa and joined yachting for “6 months” before starting my Masters degree. I had never seen a Superyacht. A week later I got my first daywork on a 68m M/Y and a week after that I was offered a position as the temp 7th stew for 3 months. I had no idea how that opportunity would change the course of my life and specifically, how that season would shape me. After finishing the season on another vessel and my degree, I was afforded the opportunity to return to the previous vessel as Chief Stewardess and I haven’t looked back since.
As someone who has always measured my own growth against being better than my best and with the intention of making hospitality my lifelong career, I have loved the opportunity of surrounding myself with the strongest, most incredible women and men to make up my department. In all of the vessels I have worked on over the years, cultivating a learning culture and watching my team grow to consistently deliver excellence and eventually move on and up to their next position, has been my greatest success. Many of my stews are now my best friends and the kaleidoscope of memories my life has been coloured with, have been all the more vibrant because of those relationships. From watching the Monaco Grand Prix from the boat, being surrounded by breaching Killer whales whilst on the Rescue tender and fly fishing with Grisly Bears in Alaska, diving with Goliath Groupers in the BVI’s, to being buried in provisions on the back of a tuk tuk in the Maldives, and laughing until nothing but air comes out whilst exploring Italy and France with my crew, I wouldn’t want to separate my career from my life, as I wouldn’t want one without the other.
It is an absolute and most unexpected honour to be nominated for the 2024 Acrew Chief Stew/Purser award and I undoubtedly share the nomination with all the stews and Captains who have been instrumental in my own growth and determination to always strive for better.
