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.

Wednesday night partying!!

For some unknown reason, Wednesday is one of the big nights for partying! I have no clue why! Anyway... The Hop Store and La Gaffe are the best places to go on a Wednesday night, but unfortunately La Gaffe was closed, so Hop Store it was.

By now I've met pretty much half of te yachties in Antibes, since it isn't that big, so everyone we knew was at the Hop Store. There's a chilled vibe there, with live bands playing. Was awesome! The only hting I wasn't so keen on... The 5 euro beers!!!

To cut it short, we had pre drinks at the crew house, went out parting at the hop, most people left aound 12, so a few of us headed over to Ekinox afterwards. I had a girl buy me 3 beers there, costing a total of 21 euros (R210), possibly the most expensive beers i've ever seen!!! Around 3am, the boucers kicked everyone out the club because the building next door was burning down!! So after the 3 fire trucks rocked up and put it out we all left for bed! Was pretty awesome, I won't lie!:)

Chillaxing down at the beach;)

By now I have been in Antibes just over a week... and had spent that week stressing, settling down and looking for work. It was time to finally relax!

Two mates and I went down to the beach to meet up with a bunch of our friends. It was amazing... A whole day on the beach with about 20 friends just relaxing! I needed that!!!

Most of us were South Africans, but there were a lot of Aussies, kiwis and Poms with us. It was quite interesting conversing with al the different cultures. A few of us ended up going cliff jumping later on ofF a cliff about 13m high! With that out the way... it was time to get back and prepare for dock walking the next day.

Daywork!:)

While taking the captain and crew out on the Riva, I had to make way for a super yacht that was about to dock. We moved to the side and watched as the huge yacht came into the dock. As the yacht was almost in, the engines started roaring and smoke bellowed from the side... then the back end slammed into the dockside, taking out two big chunks from the side.

Later that evening, my friend wanted to go dock walking at 6pm. Everyone laughed and said we'd never find work at that time. Since I had a job pending... I wasn't really interested in day work and just went with to keep him company. I got over it pretty quickly and waited for him while he finished. Once he'd finished I found out he'd found a boat looking for a day worker to paint and he was not qualified, so I got him to show me the boat, since I was qualified and desperately needed the experience!! As luck would have it... it was the same boat I'd watched smash into the dock. I was hired for the next day.

The next day I met up with the boat and stripped the side of all the loose edges and began sanding. After the sanding I started filling the hole with this super messy and insanely strong putty substance. Half way through we had to leave the harbour and go anchor out in sea, so I was left trying to finish the job while bobbing up and down in a small tender!

The end of the day came and I'd managed to patch up the big whole (probably 1 squared metre), but had not had enough time to do the final sanding and painting. The deckhand was to finish that the next day.

The amazing thing about it... I got paid 100 euros for it!!!

My First Interview!!!

Ok... so until now... a week later... I still haven't had any lucks with jobs! While walking back from the beach the one day though, I decided to do a quick dock walk and see if anyone needed day work. Supposedly the best time of day for day walking is the morning, so it was a long shot dock walking now!

After asking about 20 boats, I came around a corner and saw my one Aussie friend asking for a chef job, and overheard the guy he was asking saying they were looking for someone with a tender license. Once he'd finished I tried my luck. At first the guy wasn't interester, but after chatting to him for a while, he started showing interest. I told him I had the tender license, and when I learned they were looking for someone to teach wake boarding, I took the opportunity and started 'bragging' about all the wake boarding experience I had. Eventually the captain came out, took one look at me, asked what qualifications I had, then told me to come for an interview the next day, so hopefully that#s a good thing!

The next day I went for the interview and found out I had to drive the captain and crew around in R5.5 million rand boat called the Riva. If I'd known the price before hand, I think I would've had a heart attack!! Anyway... I drove it well and maxed it out at 40 knots... The parking however I wasn't too great at, since this thing had soooo much power!! Anyway, the captain told me not to stress about the docking, and that he'd call me back for an interview with the owners some time this week... probably wednesday. Today is Monday by the way... so i'll be expecting the phone call soon!! Hopefully I'll get this call and make a good impression on the owner!! The job opportunity is absolutely amazing! If I get the job all I'll have to do is drive the Riva around whenever they need it and teach the owners kids how to wake board, while getting paid 2000 euros a month... untaxed!! Who could ask for anything better!?!?! So I've got my fingers crossed!

A few tips that could help newbies...

The train tickets are quite expensice sometimes, especially to Monaco and back. I used to buy tickets every time I travelled, until one South African girl told me buying tickets were useless. If you got asked and you didn't have a ticket, you just got a 35 euro fine, which was about two days of travelling. The thing was, because the time between each station was so short, noone actually checked whether you had tickets or not, so for the past week I have not bought a ticket and saved tons of money! However... I just found out today that you can buy a week's pass to the railway from Cannes to Monaco for 20 euro, so I think I might invest in that just to be safe.

The crew houses are also pretty expensive, starting at 120 euros a week. Most people move into apartments, and some people I spoke to even got apartments for 140 euros a week, for four of them, making it 35 euros a week. The only plus about the crewhouses are that you always around people in the yachting industry, which makes networking a lot easier, and you keep learning about the industry.

For those people looking for sim cards, Mobiho I found is the way to go. You can find the sim card at any tabac shop, and they are definit