SINGAPORE MARCH '08

I am still on with the gym and the tan but I am venturing away from Thailand for a few weeks. First stop Singapore.

To Do List:

• get laptop fixed
• get Thai Visa
• shop a little
• board my flight to Australia

I booked into an hotel online before leaving Thailand. I thought I knew where the hotel was so decided to go there myself on the MRT (train), but it turned out I was mistaken. I ended up getting off the MRT at the wrong station and dragging my suit-case (with a broken wheel) around the busy streets of Singapore at 10pm- Luckily I was in the safest city in the world, at least it wasn't 'The Bronx'. I finally acknowledge defeat and jump in a taxi that got me there in two minutes. I crashed out for the night.

Singapore is one of the hottest cities in the world and I'm sure the most organized in Asia. Everybody walks in lines and crosses at the 'green man', J walking is illegal and i did get pulled by a police man once for doing it. People dress very formal and smart, in the heat this is quite a skill. The people are lovely- very friendly and the best thing about it is there are no 'Brits on tour'. Singapore does have a lot of British influence, they drive on the left, speak English for first language, it's like being in China town in London but a lot hotter.

I did a lot of walking in Singapore, I thought that by boycotting the MRT I would see more of the city and I was right. Not sure I had the correct foot wear though, my 'Slim Havianas' left quite the blisters by the end of the trip. I don't like to give Havianas bad press though, I take full responsibility for pushing their limits and they are still my favorite flip flop.

I dropped my laptop off and purchased 2 years further warranty on it. I also met a 'delightful' lady at the Thai Embassy who told me I couldn't have a Thai Visa because I were to young- Oh would this be the same Visa I got 2 years ago when, evidently, I were younger. This was all from the lady giving out applications and she sent me packing- no Visa.

I joined the gym there, did a little shopping- rude not to shop in Singapore and watched a few films at the cinema to pass the time. Four days later I picked up my newly working 'mac' and headed for the airport, this time bound for Sydney.

THAILAND MARCH '08

Arrival in Thailand, what to do now...

My Parents have a great place out here- not a bad half way house. 

I have got some stuff to sort out, my laptop crashed, I had  it all backed up but not organized, so i'll be spending many a hours sorting out all of my photos, music etc and backing it up properly this time. It won't be all desk work though. I shall be hitting the gym hard, I love training, I love the feeling of being fit and having a good body to show for it, thats one thing that makes me happy so away I go. Also a tan might help a little too- I seem to have acquired a great farmers tan after two years of shorts and T-shirt for uniform, so putting a stop to that is high priority, I'm thinking SPF30, on arms and legs, and SPF6 everywhere else.

I'll let you know if I decide to do something more eventful than this. 

MARCH '08

Long time no see...

The last two years of my Blog, pretty much all of it, has been a diary of my life whilst working onboard a Super-Yacht that as been cruising around the world. I have had a great time on this boat, it as taken me to places i didn't even know existed, places that the keenest of explorers would have a hard time getting to. I can't even explain some of the things i have seen, just so... "eye opening".

I am only recounting all of this now because i have left the boat after two years living and working on it.

I have seen so many beautiful views, done so many exceptional things and met some great people along the way- some of my best friends.

I can't believe how easy it would have been for me to stay in Bolton, I would have missed all of this. I wouldn't have been less happier though, just unaware.

Anyway I left that boat now, mainly because 2years seemed like a long time to be without... reality I guess- I don't know. 

I am off to Thailand now to stay with my mum n dad for a while, as of 2nd March '08. My dads thinking of getting a yacht this summer and I'm keen to get some sailing experience on that.

Dominican Republic & Swimming With Whales

I write a quick update whilst doing bridge watch from Dominican Republic to Fort Lauderdale. Don't worry I'm looking out of the window at the same time. 

As I recall the last I wrote was about the crew time in BVI's. Well we left there and headed to the Dominican Republic which, for my sake, will now be known as DR. The Dr was most definitely a great ending on this yacht.

We were moored in a marina with its own "Ocean World" and Casino. We visited the Casino as a crew a few times and whilst Hannah ended about £400 up, I was down, not happy. I've been to Casinos about 5 times and I've work out that from my winnings and losses I end up about even. So back at even I have decided never to gamble in a Casino again, they are the devil!

We also did the Ocean World experience, a Sen Lion Encounter and a Dolphin Swim. Sea Lions are actually quite scary, whereas the Dolphin still remains one of the cutest things on this planet. A guy on our boat actually dislikes dolphins for being 'too' cute, "cute and they know it".

Also in the Dr is a beach called 'Cabarette'. This beach is world famous for being one of the best places in the world for wind/water sports such as kite boarding and windsurfing. On any given day there are about 50 kites flying and 50 windsurfers out there. I went there for a day and found out why this is. Apparently the conditions are perfect. There is a shallow reef off the coast which creates the perfect size waves for jumps, also the breeze blows across the beach, this together makes the best combination of angles for catching wind and wave. People come here especially for this.

Another day off we had myself and 3 of the crew went to visit the 27 waterfalls. We arrived at a v-small ranch and for a small fee booked the trek to the 12th fall. We were given a helmet and a life-jacket, on the 20 min walk to the 1st fall we wondered what they were for exactly. The walk to the 1st fall consisted of us wading threw a few rivers and sampling the face masks provide by the natural clay in the river, of course we just drew warrior marks on our face. Then we reached the 1st fall and it became clear what all the protection was for. We had to physically wade, pull and climb our way way up each waterfall. Going from fall to fall meant swimming up a narrow river with high canyons either side. The rock formation was beautiful. When we reached the 12 waterfall  I wanted to continue to number 27 but, as my crew pointed out, we were too late, it would be dark soon. So we set off but and this was where the real fun started. Twelve waterfall we had to make our way down. Some of them over time had smoothed out the rock to form natural water-slides and the ones that didn't have a slide, well we just jumped. I would say that the second to last jump was the highest, I am 1st to go, no problem- stand on the edge...look down... jump... scream... splash, I'm alive, all is well. Now its Hannah's turn- same as above without the scream (I think she was too scared to scream) and now it's mick's turn (our Aussie Engineer) and it goes a little something like this- approach the edge... look down... shake head... step back... approach edge... look down... fell the pressure form the 2 girls who just did it... shake head... climb down a few meters... shake head... say no... (after about 10 minutes of this)... jump... scream like a girl... splash, all is well. Then its Macca, no worries, even a back flip!

I went to the DR with my parents when I was younger. We all got food poisoning and I fainted whilst playing mini golf. All in all my mum didn't quite rate the holiday and tars the DR with the same brush. But it was a great place and if anyone goes, please to the 27 waterfalls, you won't regret it!!

We left the Dr and headed North for 7 hours to a place called 'Silver Bank' where we were promised a chance to swim with the whales. We had guest on for this trip, just 4 days.

I'm sure there is some scientific reason to why the whales come here but if you want to know it you'll have to google it, I'll tell you what I know. 'Silver Bank' is a bank (go figure). It is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, its closest land fall being the Dominican Republic. From 2000 meters deep in comes up to 200 then the bank is about 20 meters deep, with a lot of bogies. I imagine that a lot of vessels have met their demise here. There are actually 2 wrecks there that you can snorkel around. The whales come here around this time of year to give birth and mate. Mainly what you see is mother and calf, they stay here until calf is strong. we had a guide and he took us in the boat to go and snorkel with these giant mammals. We would have to slide in the sea as quiet as possible (like a seal) and hover above. Basically what went on was the mother would lie on the bottom, about 10 meters deep, and calf would tuck itself under her head. Then every 3 minutes the calf would have to come to the surface for air. He would come up right next to you, play around for a little, practicing his tricks I guess, then he would go back to mummy. The calfs we were swimming with were about 3-5 weeks old, small on the scale of things but still the size of a small truck. The calf would do this for about 30 minutes, until the mother needed to breathe then they would move on. I had a great time there and we had some great encounters with whales.

So like I said, when I started this I was on watched heading to Fort Laurderdale where I would be leaving the yacht. I am now sat in Bangkok airport after 27 hours of traveling, waiting for my connecting flight to Koh Samui where my mummy and daddy are waiting to pick me up.

Photos from the British Virgin Islands.

Pictures are all of our time spent in the British Virgin Islands. We did a lot there so I figured it needs its own page.

Photo *1: Me wakeboarding. This was the first day that I started doing jumps that cleared the whole wake. Had some pretty awsome wipe outs.

Photo *2: Me and the Chef, Pino. The smiles of winners before disaster struck.

Photo *3: Me and Hannah ready to go diving.

Photo *4: All the Pegaso girls, bar Hannah, at the Jumbies Bar, Virgin Gorda. We're the small ones.

British Virgin Islands

No, this is not an arsonists heaven, this is a Full Moon Party on Tortola, British Virgin Islands and these are the girls I work with. The BVI’s are where we have been for the whole of January. We have been out on anchor, which we don’t usually do without the guests on, so we are seeing a different side to being a crew on a super yacht. Each day the range of activities to choose from include: diving, wakeboarding, kiteboarding, chilling on the beach – ooo it’s a hard life sometimes. The Full Moon Party, pictured, is nothing compared to the Koh Pang Nan, Thailand version, but never the less still enjoyable. They set fires on stilts in the sea and you can get drinks from the shacks along the beach.

Another place worth mentioning is ‘Willy T’s’. This is a floating bar, it’s a yacht that has been anchored in the same place for years and has been transformed into quite a popular bar. The only way to arrive is by tender – obviously. We went to this bar a few times and the girls decided to get ‘Willy T’s’ Tattoos. You know the hold water on for 30 seconds then let dry type. Well, wash off easily the guy tells us. Four days later I’ve still got the tat on my back, Hannah looks like a biker chick and wont wear a bikini because of the one on her boob and our chief stew has one slap bang in the middle of her stomach. Not a great look for any of us!

A few of our crew have started a little Wakeboarding club and I am getting quite good. I’m almost clearing the wake on my jumps and wakeboarding everyday is definitely an overlooked fitness regime – it gets every part of your body. It is now the 6th Feb and we are still in the BVI’s without guests. We just docked for the weekend and had Sat, Sun and Mon off work. Friday night the whole crew enjoyed a game of Truth or Dare and lets just say we have got some quite daring crew members on board. Then on Sunday we hired 4 ‘Hobbie Cats’ – little sailing Catamarans. Captain and Chief Stew on one, Engineer and Deckie on one, Deckie and Stew on another and Me, Hannah and Pino on the fourth, which ended up being free! We all set sail from the beach and decided to race to the other island about 2km away. Our hobbie was winning by far, we couldn’t even see the others, and then disaster strikes. Our mast stay broke causing the mast to fall flat in the water – sail and all and rendered us immobile, it stayed attached to the front of the boat and twisted the bow of one hull badly! Luckily no one was injured and someone on the island was watching us as we were coming in. He was an Irish water-sports instructor he came to our rescue and towed us ashore. Thanks Sebastian! We still had a good day on the beach and when the others finally arrived we all took turns doing single handed races, of which I was the champion. Oh yes Girl Power!

I will be leaving this boat in March. I am heading over to Thailand for a break and maybe to do some diving instructing.

I’d like to end this by wishing my cousin Grace a Happy 16th Birthday! May all your wishes come true Smelly Kelly.

Oh yes I will be tarred if I don’t mention this fact. As we were ultimately disqualified after tearing our vessel in half, the overall champions are Pippi and Ryan. These guys also had a few disasters…Ryan lost Pippi over the side and had to go back and rescue her and then they had a collision with an anchored sail boat. Well done guys! Oh and a massive thanks to Hannah who typed this while I am in bed sleeping zzzzzzzz. Yeah thanxs for that Hannah, i didn't say u could add to it.

St Maarten- St Barts- Barbados.

IRIE! Absolutely loving the Caribbean. I can definitely say that it is better than the Med trip that we just did. We have spent most of our time in St Maarten, part of the Dutch Antilles, since our arrival mid December. We left for a 1 week charter to St Barts with the owner and a 4 day crew holiday in Barbados to get our visas for America.

St Maarten is where I flew into to join the boat. She was moored in a marina called ‘Isle de Sol’ back to back with one of the islands infamous bar ‘The Sand Bar’. We were berthed in the marina with around 30 other Super Yachts, including ‘Xtasy’ the biggest Super Yacht of her time, owned by Chelsea manager Abromovich. To stand on our sundeck at sunset was a chance to witness a beautiful sight. The sun would set over all the other boat’s masts and it just looked surreal.

We worked our normal 9-5 weekdays and enjoyed the weekends off. Each evening we’d have sundowners in ‘The Sand Bar’. At the weekends we would hire a car and venture off to explore the islands beaches and shops.

I spent Christmas day here and had an excellent one. Christmas eve a few off the crew went to the casino, where I proved to be quite the shark- walking out 300 dollars better off. GO ME! Christmas day we all woke up to a feast and a half. The chef had been slaving away in the Galley since the wee hours of the morning and provided us with everything form pancakes to Champagne. After our feast we hit the ‘Orphans Beach Party’, a party that anyone without a family to see on Christmas gathered in mass. We took our cricket set and played all day. I was sent to field in the sea and spent hours swimming after stray tennis balls.

Shortly after this day we were sat in a bar and a man came up to me and Hannah for a chat, as the Yanks do. He told us that he had spent Christmas day at the Orphanage handing out presents, to which Hannah replied “Oh! We were at the ‘Orphans Party’ too.” He said “ No, not the ‘Orphans Party’, a real orphanage.” Shame Hannah! Maybe next year you can be Mother Teresa.

Then after a few games of volley ball we headed back to the boat for Christmas day and presents. Our captain dressed up as Father Christmas and handed all the presents out. Its was a great day!

Our guest arrived shortly after and we sat sail to St Barts (French Island) for a week long new year charter.

Although we had the guest on new years eve it was still something special. I managed to sneak off the boat with one of our deckies for a few celebratory beverages. Then we had the count down on the boat, 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1… Ow my God! The 100 Super yachts anchored in the bay all chose this second to flash every light, ring every bell, sound every horn and set off every fire work. It was the loudest, craziest, most amazing moment of my life.

After the charter the crew were ‘forced’ to take a 4 day break in Barbados to get our Visas. Seen as the boat insisted on paying for our flights and full wages while we were there, we didn’t mind too much. He he he. We flew from St Maarten to Barbados, a 2 hour flight, but after sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours waiting for a slot and then waiting in Barbados for the rest off the crew on a different flight, it took the best part of a day to get there. The crew on the other flight didn’t eve arrive till the next morning, they ended up delayed in St Lucia all night, Caribbean airlines eh. Our accommodation was unreal, the had hired us an old plantation house with 10 acres of land. We had 5 Bedrooms and a swimming pool, it was lush. We did the usual days at the beach and evenings dining out. We stayed in one night and two ladies came to cook tea for us. Then we sat on the porch and played a really funny game, the game goes, each person writes down 10 famous people, the names go in a hat then u split into 2 teams, one person as a minute to try n describe as many names as they IRIE can then over to the other team and so on. When you get to drinking you get some pretty fount ones. For example, Pippi, our stewardess, had to describe Heidi Klum She did so by saying “Er er er, you know, the gorgeous blonde Slovakian model, married to Sean.” Who’s Sean? “ Ow come on guys, you know Sea, really famous singer.”. It turns out she meant “ The German model, married to Seal.”.

Anyway we made our way back to St Maarten and are now heading to the British Virgin Islands to await our boss.

I’ll let you know about all the mayhem we cause there.

xxxx

Going to the Carib, IRIE!!!

Hello Guys,

This is just a quick update of my comings and goings over the last few months. October saw our arrival into Palma for a two month shipyard period. All crew were seriously looking forward to the Monday- Friday, 9-5 job that we very rarely get to experience. I was definately ready for my 5 weeks of holidays that I knew were coming up before Christmas.

The Shipyard period was good, ill give it that. It was a break from the norm and a chance for the crew to recharge after our Mediterranean season. Most of us joined a gym and went there after work each night, then we would spend our evenings chilling on the boat or go out for drinks. We spent our weekends cruising around the island, mainly hitting shopping centers as it was a bit wintry for hitting the beaches- October in Palma, a little chilly. The one time we attempted to lie on a beach we somehow ended up on a nudist beach and then the heavens opened up.

Nothing overly exciting happened at shipyard, just had a good time- that’s all that matters right?

All the crew took it in turns to take their holidays. October 30th came and it was my turn. I spent the first week with Mum, Dad and Bro in Ibiza, then headed to Bolton just in time for my nephews Christening on the 4th November. He was so cute when the Vicar was saying the vows to him. Brandon kept on nodding and smiling in agreement although he couldn’t possibly have had a clue what was going on. The Christening was a great opportunity for me to see all of my family in 1 sitting, RESULT!!!! Not much effort needed on my part. As always my dads great and he hired me a car. It’s amazing the freeness that comes with a pair of wheels, I just love jumping in the car and going for a drive. It’s a thing that most people take for granted or maybe not, some people don’t like to drive I guess, but I love it!

I drove to Berwick Upon Tweed for a couple of days at my room mates parents house there. Hannah and I have shared a cabin on the boat for 7 months and she came to stay with my parents in Ibiza. It was a 4 hour drive from Bolton to Berwick and spent the whole time driving there screaming (as opposed to singing) to my ipod. Berwick was so lovely, a great difference to Bolton. Small town where everyone knows everyone (especially Hannah’s dad who taught most of the town music at the local high school). I decided to stay there for 4 days instead of 2. Also I had a little drama there with my car key. I parked the car in town and when I went to get back in it the key phob wouldn’t open it so me and Hannah had to take it to a garage where they claimed there was nothing they could. A few phone calls later the Saab dealer told us that if you pull the key phob apart then there is a key in it. Back to the car we went and all was well.

After the holiday in Berwick-Upon-Tweed I planned to spend the next two weeks of my break in Switzerland skiing for a week then in the Caribbean for a week of sun awaiting the boat there after its trans Atlantic from Palma.

My Auntie Sue and I arrived in Saas Fee, same as the year before but this time we had planned our accommodation in advance- learning from last years mistake. After our first week there we decided to stay instead of going to the Caribbean. We skied everyday and really felt broken after that holiday. I did find myself in quite the dilemma one day after coming out of the restaurant at the top of the mountain to find my skis gone. A girl rocked up an hour later when she figured out she took the wrong skis. Think next time I’ll be trying my hand at snowboarding.

Well now its off to St Maarten for me to meet the boat after its Atlantic crossing from Palma. I’ll keep you posted.

Apologies for there being no pics as my iphoto as crashed. I’ll tell you all about my Christmas and New Year n the Caribbean once the problem is rectified and I can add pics.

So Ciao for now xxxx