Back at Port Grimaud

Once we got back to Port Grimaud, the owner's two duaghters friends left and we were just left woth the Family. I'd shown their oldest son some insanely crazy magic tricks before his parents came, and once they heard this the whole family wanted to see them. So I blew their mind with the tricks and decided I'd show the youngest kid, Archie, how to do them. He loved them and spent two days walking around with a deck of cards, practicing the tricks and showing everyone them. He pulled them off very well as well for an 8 year old.

The family found out later that I was good at chess, when I killed their oldest son in it, and bought a chess board so that I could teach their youngest son chess and teach the daughters how to play it better. I ended up teaching the cousin's, who are on the sister boat to Chocolat, Hadley G, and the oldest son chess as well, and as I'm writing this I'm busy playing my captain, who is actually pretty good. I just want to point out though that I am still undefeated! lol.

Normally the family eats out for every meal, but lately they've been staying in the boat and eating on the boat. What's awesome is that every time they do this, they invite me the dinner, which is delicious, and give me money to take out the kids to get Haagen Dazs for all of us!! Amazing!! The wife has also made a habit of forcing a beer into my hand after I finish work each day, which I'm not complaining about.

The owner's wife's sister owns another boat in Port Grimaud, Hadley G, with her husband and two kids. The oldest son Harry, who's 20, I get along with very well. The other night the parents had their friends over and ordered two of the biggest seafood platters I'd seen in my life!! So while all the parents and friends were on Chocolat, we were watching movies and chilling out on Hadley. Anyway... getting to the important part, Harry's mom came later with the other seafood platter, which must be worth at least 200 euros, and told us to finish it all. To give you an idea... we couldn't get half the way through the platter... there was crayfich, crab, crab claws, Huge prawns, Two bowls of small prawns, about 50 medium prawns, some weird things that look like snails and some other stuff. Anyway... that was followed by three amazing deserts, one of which come from saint tropez!

Since being back we go out whenever possible, which is almost every day, to Pampelonne, and chill here and play on the jet ski and tender and tubes etc... Then the captain and I chill on the boat while the families go ashore for lunch. So far everything is going amazingly... and my first paycheck of 1500 euros is coming up end of this month!!! YAY!! We off to Cannes and Juan Les Pins for a few days tomorrow.

Qiuck recap of Chocolat

Ok... Since my last post, not too much has happened since my last post, but here's what's new:

I've sent in all the applications for my Seaman's discharge book. For those of you who don't know what that is... basically, as long as I'm employed on a boat, a seaman's discharge book will act as a British passport, and allow me to work in different countries without having to get a Visa!! Which kicks ass! It also allows me 40kg luggage and cheaper flights. That's busy being processed and I should have that by beginning of August.

We also spent two more nights in Monaco, and 1 night in Juan Les Pins (So far the most beautiful port). While in Monaco, I slept on the double bed on the fly bridge under the stars. It was so warm I didn't even need a blanket. Waking up to the sun rising over Monaco was definitely one of the highlights! I found out that the night before we arrived, Mika was doing a live concert there, and the day that we left, Calvin Harris was playing at one of the bars there. From Monaco we left to Juan Les Pins. Since Juan Kes Pins is next to Antibes, I went over to Antibes that ight to see Amy (see... I mentioned your name! lol) and my other mates, who i found out once I got there, had gone to the Calvin Harris thing in Monaco. I was so tempted to go... but getting back at 7am, half drunk having no sleep is not a great idea for keeping a job! From there we left to go back Port Grimaud.

Where I've been and what I've seen!

This is just a note for me to keep track of all the cities I've been to and all the cool stuff i've done or seen.

Monaco - Monaco Casino, Monaco tunnel, Maltese Falcon, Monaco Palace, Bugatti Veyron!

Fontviene

Cap d'ail

Beaulieu

Villefrance

Nice

Villenieuve Loubert - boob shaped towers

Biot

Antibes - Hop Store, Ekinox, Absinthe bar, Antibes Regetta.

Juan Les Pins

Golfe Juan

Cannes

Grasse

St Raphael

Port Grimaud

Cogolin

St Tropez

La Pamponelle

Toulon

Italy

San Remo - Saw my first whale at sea

Portofino

Vernere

Rapallo - bought my first laptop

Chocolat!

The first week was basically a trial week to see if the owners liked me and whether I was right for the job. I got thrown in the deep end, having to polish the whole boat in a day and make sure everything was ready for when the owners came! I managed all of that really well and things were off to a good start.

The owners came with friends for a few days and we travelled to Beaulieu, Cannes and St Tropez! Which I have to point out that St Tropez is absolutely amazing!!! There are just stunning, model fit girls walking around everywhere!! and everyone around you is super rich and most likely either driving a Ferrari, Mazerati or Porsche!

Everything went well on the trip and I have the job!!!:) Right now I'm on the boat with the captain and owner's son waiting for the owners to get back in a weeks time with their youngest son and two daughters plus their friends. So it's going to be a busy few months from the 11th of July!!! Looking forward to it:) The owner also plans on spending two weeks in August travelling Italy!

My First Job!!!!:):):)

Like I said... the last week or two were pretty much straight partying, and I'd decided to work through the agencies and online, than do the dockwalking. www.angloinfo.com and www.jobonsuperyachts.com were great sites for looking for jobs. However... just like dock walking, I never got responses

One ad however, I saw several people had replied to and pretty much knew it was useless sending in my CV, so I left a message saying if the position was still open and he was interested, he should email me. The next day I got an email from him asking for my CV, which I thought was just luck... so I sent it through and was definitely not expecting the call that night saying I must come for an interview!!

Ok... I did kinda lie a tiny bit and say I was staying near St Tropez... which in fact I was staying a minimum of 3 hours away, but the interview and doing my first day day work, the captain didn't mind, especially since I said I'd happily move into a camp site next door to the boat.

That's pretty much how I got my first job. The boat I'm working on is called CHOCOLAT!!! I know... pretty much the best name you can give a boat!! It's a small boat... 21m, with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, lounge, dining area, kitchen, crew cabin and toilets and a fly bridge with a double bed!. We also have a tender and a jet ski... of which I drive the tender most of the time!:) and the captain is gonna show me how to drive the main boat when the owners get back, which will be awesome!:)

Recap of the last month!

Ok... it's been like a month or something since i've last entered in a post. Just to bring you guys up to date of what's been happening until I found my first job:

Since my last post, basically we just spent the whole time partying in Antibes. Ya... we should've been doing dockwalking and stuff... but after a few weeks of doing it, you get over it quite quickly. Plus with all the partying I met tons of people who gave me extra advice here and there.

The one day which did stand out though, was when me and Amy (one of the new girls at the crew house) went to Monaco dockwalking. We ran into another guy who used to stay at the crew house and who now had a job as skipper of a 17m chase boat. We ended up staying there the whole afternoon meeting his friends and having drinks on the boat inside the Monaco Marina! Absolutely amazing!

So far the best night I've had in Antibes was the one Amy forced us into!! It was either a Wednesday or Friday night and The Hop Store was pumping as usual... however, Amy decided we HAD to go to Absinthe bar!! Which is basically a bar that specialises in Absinthe and sells absinthe with everything!!! They also have loads of hats that you can wear for shits and giggles. This was the first time i'd had absinthe the proper way!! From there we went to drinkers club, then when that closed, The Hop Store and Finally off to the old faithful.... Ekinox!!! And came in just before sunrise!!! Amazing!:)

Upon walking into the crew house at 3 in the morning the one day, I found a piece of paper offering a 4 sleeper apartment for 50 euros for two weeks. I thought it was too good to be true, but figured i'd give them a call the next day. As it turns out, it was true, and the apartment was RIGHT NEXT TO the Crew house! I could throw a rock onto the crew house roof from the apartment! For the moment they just needed two people to move in, so I let my two mates move in, since they were in money trouble and agreed I'd move in the following week. As it happens, the two guys staying with them got jobs before the week ended, so I moved in soon as they left with my other mate from South Africa. So right now, Ryan (South African), Shaun(South African), Patrik(Namibian) and I were stating in an apartment, in the middle of Antibes and had only paid 50 euros for two weeks! It was the sickest thing ever!!! To make matters better... we found a brand new bar someone threw away and put it into our apartment and stocked it with stolen shot glasses and beer glasses! I would've preferred to stay at this apartment the rest of the year, partying every night and living off day work wages! Unfortunately... the third night I was there I had to leave... since I found my first job. But that i'll tell you in the next posting.

This is just a super quick review of what happened... I don't have the time to type out everything that happened.