I got in to the industry in July 2021, at the age of 32, after endless researching and convincing myself in and out of it… I left my very comfortable job, sold my car and booked a one way flight to Nice! Initially I was after a job as a deckie, but a phone call from Jason (Grapevine crewhouse owner) one Saturday morning saw me catapulted in to a chef/stew/deckie role on a 22m yacht. It was 10:30am, the stew on board had tested positive for covid, the charter was at 12pm, could i do it??!!… I ummed and ah’d, and was in the taxi with all my gear and NO idea by 11am. I arrived at the boat, met the Captain, and off we went to get the guests.. I had no idea what was going on, but googled and prayed my way through it… many called it a baptism of fire, 8 days around Corsica with a family of 5 – and just Captain and myself. The guests were grateful for my being able to step in, the alternative was cancelling it, so that gave me a few hours of grace at the start of the trip! That week was beyond the most intense I have ever, ever experienced… in every way, I had to draw on all of my previous working and life experience to pull it together and try to give these guests the trip they had paid for and deserved. It ended with them having a wonderful week, the Primary giving me her business card in case I needed a reference, and me being under the wing of an AMAZING Captain (Andy Bowman)!!! I really enjoyed building rapport with the guests and the variety of roles in a day… I am still not quite sure how we got through it, but we did, and it was worth it! after that as my first gig, I felt like I really could embrace whatever opportunity came my way, I will FOREVER be grateful to Jason, for having the faith to put me forward for that job, and to Andy for being the best Captain I could’ve asked for!
