A Yachtee Again

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The last week in Costa Rica….. Took the bus to the ferry and the bus again to San Jose to meet Candace at the airport. When she arrived, we went straight back to the bus, to the ferry, to the bus, and finally arrived back in Santa Teresa around 9pm.
I had already booked and paid for a room attached to a nice house right on the beach. We met the owner and he gave us the key to enter our room, which had a separate door to the outside. I booked the room for us because of its location and because at first glance it looked like something Candace would be impressed with. However, upon moving into our room we discovered huge red ants crawling all over the floor, walls, and in the BED!!! I told the guy we weren’t staying and I needed my money back. We had a long argument/conversation with the guy in which Candace did most of the talking because if I had started arguing with him, I would have attacked. In the end, we left, let him keep the $40, and found an incredible place to stay called Pacifica Surf Studios. The cabinas had just been finished and we got an awesome half price rate on account of the place just having opened…$60/night. The place is entirely constructed of teak. Our spacious room had a huge bed, nice kitchenette, couch, beautiful reddish brown, tile floors, and a huge balcony with four big beanbags to lounge on. OH! And the best part….Freezing cold air conditioning! Below our balcony were a really nice little pool and a path leading to the beach. As I think back to the week we spent there, I want to be there right now. My words don’t do the place justice.

Our first day, we walked down the beach and had some brunch at Casa Zen. Afterwards we checked out some tide pools and went for a swim. I cant remember what else we did that day. We spent all of the next day exploring the tide pools. At low tide the water goes out and exposes rock and coral and leaves pools of water to wade in and to spot marine life swimming around. The following day we did a canopy tour. Not much to say about that. We went flying down some cables thru the jungle and saw some incredible views of the ocean. It was a good time. The day after that we just lounged around the pool and the beach. Next, we rented an ATV and started off the day at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Rio Sanchez. Actually I have no idea what the name of the place was, but that sounds about right. They had the most incredible margaritas, quesadillas, and nachos. We had some lunch there and played some pool. Candace beat me a couple of nights before. Boo. Then we took off on the ATV, up and down windy hills in the countryside on our way to Montezuma. The ride was fantastic. We saw beautiful scenery and views of the ocean and a few herds of cattle that we had to beep out of the road. We arrived in Montezuma and parked the ATV at the trailhead to the waterfalls. What a funny image I have now of Candace tramping around behind me on our way thru the jungle, wearing a navy, poke-a-dotted bikini and tennis shoes. We made it to the first big waterfall and I informed Candace the we had to keep going up a steep hill in order to get to the waterfall that people can jump off of. She took a look at the hill we would have to climb and decided it wasn’t a good idea…a little too scary for her. After some persuading I got her to start climbing, but I had to continuously coax her into continuing on, as she was so scared she started to cry. Finally, we made it to the top and encountered another frightening endeavor that I had to force her into. We had to climb down to the waterfall using a rope to keep ourselves from falling down the very steep, crumbling, rock/mud hill. Long story short, we made it down and had a great time swinging from the rope swing and swimming around. No jumping off the waterfall took place this time…haha.

On our last day, I rented a surfboard, and went out to catch a few waves. Then I put Candace on it and pushed her into some whitewash. It was a blast. She was really catching the little waves and stood up on a couple of them, only to fall off a second later. This is great, typing this blog…bringing back some great memories. She was so funny out there. I awoke the next morning at 5 am to get one last session in before we left. I caught a couple, but I didn’t surf them very well. I stayed out until I finally got a pretty good one and road it in, then ran with my board tucked under my arm back to the cabina to get everything packed and ready for the taxi that would take us to the airport at 7. We arrived at the little airstrip in Tambor and then boarded our 9 am flight on a tiny plane to San Jose.

I booked a flight to Tampa that connected in Ft. Lauderdale. However, I decided the day before that because I was almost out of money, I needed to get off in Ft. Lauderdale and go find a job on a yacht to make some lute. When I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, I hopped in a taxi, and headed to Justin Arrand’s place. It felt so good to be back in the States and the feeling of being back in Lauderdale, seeing all the familiar places thru the windows of the taxi, knowing that I would be getting back into yachting gave me a permanent grin. I had sent Justin a facebook message asking if I could stay with him, but I wasn’t sure if he got it. I didn’t even exactly remember how to get to his place. But I figured it out, paid the taxi driver, and knocked on Justin’s door, but no one was home. So I dropped my backpack in his backyard and walked down to Anna’s place. I yelled her name up to the balcony that I thought was her place and sure enough she was there with Doug and her dad just getting ready to have some dinner. So I headed up to the apartment and had some dinner with my old buddies and my new buddy, Anna’s dad.

After dinner, we went to the Village Well (yachtee/pirate bar) and had a few beers. Justin showed up and told us that some homeless bum left a backpack in his backyard…haha. Justin and I headed back to his place and I moved in and claimed the couch as my bed for the next two weeks.

I played golf with Dave and Anna’s dad the next day in Pompano. I suck, but I really enjoy playing. I plan to get into it when I am no longer traveling the world on the high seas.

I got myself hooked up with four crew agencies, all of whom told me they would get me a job quickly despite my late arrival in Lauderdale and the fact that most big yachts had already left for the Med and those still around were going to New England….I didn’t want to go to New England this summer. All of the agencies kept calling me and emailing me to tell me they had put me forward for this job or that job. But nothing came of it. I did some day work for a captain on an 86’ Hargrave called The Barclay down in Miami. They needed a freelance mate to go with them on a two-month trip all over the Bahamas. So the cap picked me up and we drove to the boat so that he could test me out for the day. I guess he liked me, so the owner, a guy from Atlanta, came down from his penthouse that overlooks the marina the yacht is docked at to have a chat with me in the salon. After his spiel about what was planned for the trip and what they expected from the mate position, we got to the most important part, the dinero. He tells me they would be willing to pay me $2500 per month and a $1000 bonus at the end of the trip. That adds up to $3000 per month or $6000 for the trip. I was insulted to say the least. The guy was offering me a temporary, freelance job, for which I should have been paid freelance wages…$200 per day. Most yachts would offer a fulltime job to a deckhand for $3000-$3500 per month with full medical benefits and the possibility that the yacht charters in which case you are able to make considerably more money in charter tips. This guy wanted me to do the work of a mate, steward, and a cook for the wage paid to a green decky on a cheap yacht, with absolutely no other benefits. The guy tells me all kinds of crap…”You expect me to pay you $70k per year…I could get an experienced fisherman or a trained chef for that”. Then go get one, I told him, because you’ve got the wrong guy. What a douche this guy was. So he decides to give me a better offer of $3000 per month without the bonus. Hmmm….that’s the exact same offer you dick!

The captain was a nice enough Aussie guy. He took me home and when he dropped me off he asked if I wanted the job or not. I thought it was abundantly clear that I did not. But I told him if he wanted to pay me $7k in cash I would do it. I’m so glad I never heard from him again.

Memorial Day weekend, Candace and her roommate Pam came down to Lauderdale. We hung out at the beach the first day and then went to a barbeque at Mick’s (Mick is the lunatic Michiganite who was the 1st Mate on Princess Sarah) complete with hillbilly golf, beer pong, and a slip n slide that we hurled ourselves down while the rain poured down. After the slip n slide, some of us hopped in the inflatable pool that Doug made into a hot tub with his urine. The food at the BBQ was riquisimo. We had another barbeque at Justin’s the next day. A guy named Joe came over with his cigarette boat and took us all for a cheek-flapping, eye-watering, gut-wrenching good time. A fun-packed weekend was had by all.

I kept looking for a job and did some day work on a boat called My Iris. They offered me a job, but I turned it down due to not wanting to spend the summer in Sag Harbor. I was feeling like I had arrived too late to find the job I wanted. I decided to make my way over to one of the shipyards where big yachts often have work done. It can be difficult for a yachtee to get passed security in the shipyards in order to drop off resumes. I told the security guard I was going to see a boat called True Blue (I knew True Blue was there from Justin). I started walking towards True Blue and then kept on going to the other yachts. But I got caught. The guard zoomed up next to me on his golf cart and hassled me a bit. I said, “hey man, give me a break, I’m just trying to get a job”. I guess the brotha sympathized with me because he told me to go ahead and do what I came to do. I dropped my resume with several boats that didn’t need anyone, one of which was Chevy Toy. The guy who took it told me he would pass it around to his crew and they might know of some boats that needed a deckhand. I didn’t think anything would come of it.

That afternoon I got a call from a girl who worked on Chevy Toy telling me to send my resume to her boyfriend, Pascal, who worked on a boat that might need a decky. At 10 pm I got a call from a French guy named Bertran who I could barely understand. He told me about M/Y Paraffin, the 197-foot Feadship, the 18 crewmembers made up of people from all over the globe, that they were in Seattle and were going to B.C. and Alaska for the summer, then to San Diego for a two-month yard period, followed by Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia. I was drooling. He told me to call and speak with the captain. I talked to the cap, Watson, and got the job. They needed me to fly to Seattle Saturday, so I booked a ticket with the yacht’s Ft. Lauderdale travel agency from Tampa to Seattle for Saturday and booked myself a flight to Tampa that afternoon to spend a couple of days with Candace.

I arrived in Seattle in the evening on Saturday and got a taxi to the boat. Seattle is a really cool city. So green. I love the evergreen firs. It seems that the designers of the city planned the construction with the environment in mind as many of the buildings blend into the natural landscape.

Sunday, I went for a run around Lake Union where the boat was docked. Then I met up with Mike who I met in the van on the way from Samara to Montezuma in Costa Rica. We got some food at a really good café and he took me around to buy some things I needed…books, Office for Macs, a resistance band to exercise with on the boat…I don’t know why I’m describing what I bought. Monday, work began on Paraffin and I met most of the crew. Wednesday the owners arrived. And Thursday we were off on the trip north.

This time around in the yachting industry, I’m really enjoying it. I like everyone in the large crew so far. I can’t think of one person that I don’t want to get to know better and have some fun times with. There are four South Africans, two Canadians, an Aussie, a few Brits, an Ecuadorian, a German, a Swede, a Frenchman, a Brazilian skipper, and three other Americans.

We anchored in the San Juan Islands and then crossed into Canada where we are now docked in Victoria, B.C. Tomorrow we are headed to Vancouver. Oh, and the food is ridiculously terrific. I would probably do this work just for the travel and food, but fortunately I get paid quite well in addition to the aforementioned benefits. Life is pretty good. Just need my lady with me and that might be a real possibility in the near future....so she tells me.

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