Dayworking in Palma de Mallorca
I am dayworking while I find a permanent job. If you need me, I live only 15 mins walk from STP yard and I still have access so I can be on the dock at short notice!
Call my Spanish mobile +34 627743644 to book. No job too big or small or grotty!
My updated CV is now online. Just visit the CV pages of this site or click the link below to download a copy.
New Job & Updated CV
Currently sole stewardess on 150ft Turkish Gulet : ‘Phelan Good’ (Formerly yacht ‘Sevin’)
Also, I have updated my CV which is available to download on my CV page. Click on the link above.
Travel blog NOW LIVE!!
I am leaving the UK to work in the Med this summer and I have started a travel blog at TravelPod. If you want to read about what life is like on board then you will be able to follow my adventures here : TravelPod
If you have any comments which you would like to add then the travel blog is the place to do it, also if you know of any great places to see while I am away then feel free to send me the details and I will check them out.
Jumping through hoops…
So I have done the hard part, I’ve passed my YM practical exam, but I can’t get my mitts on the piece of paper until I attend a first aid course. It must be of a minimum 1 day duration and must cover hypothermia, drowning and shock as part of the course.
Despite the fact that I am booked on to an STCW95 course which will include first aid at sea, I still have to pay for another 1 day class which costs anywhere up to £260!
A day off work costs me another £49 in lost earnings plus the travelling costs incurred getting to and from the training centre.
I also need a VHF licence which costs £110 for the course and licence fee.
Then there is the commercial endorsement. £37.20 to take the course and £6 every time you re-sit the exam (So far I’ve done it twice which I feel is partly due to the ambiguous questions provided). When you’ve passed the course, you still need to send in a fee for the endorsement!
With my cheque I must also submit an ENG1 medical certificate which can cost around £62 and then there is the STCW95 itself which is £800…
To get the ICC I have to either pay £45 or join the RYA which costs, erm… £45…
So far I’ve forked out the best part of £2k and I haven’t even booked a flight yet! If my fella’s wondering where his valentines prezzie is, ask the RYA!
and we didn’t even drink!
Last weeks Yachtmaster prep week and exam has been as much a test of endurance as a test of knowledge with severe gales making wind and sea conditions pretty tricky for practising manoevres. Cornish Cruising had provided us with a Bavaria 36 which would have been a really comfy boat had it not been January and blowing a force 8 most of the week! Subsequently I have spent 6 nights living in a soggy sleeping bag.
One triumph was a bit of clever ebayage and the arrival of two sets of Musto thermal mid layers onesies. One resembled a Musto shell layer jacket construction with waterproof outer and woolly fleece lining. The other was a fleece windstopper. The shell version was great during the day when you weren’t getting rained on very hard and just needed a bit of wind and cold protection, the other pair fitted so comfortably under my MPX trousers that I practically lived in them all week!
My idea of doing my exam in an area which was totally unknown by me was inspired and I have fallen in love with Falmouth and the surrounding area. It must be stunning in the summer months. Our skipper for the week, Tim Hallowes was awesome! If I could pick an extra Dad then he’d be it! His banter and sense of humour quickly bound us together as a team and I laughed harder than I have in months. (He also explained the workings of a Diesel engine in a way that I could understand which was brilliant!). Awesome guy and I can’t recommend him enough. You can find him at Plymouth Sailing School as well as Cornish Cruising.
So after a week in which we crammed in pontoon bashing, attempted high-line transfers with the Royal Navy Search & Rescue helicopter crew, man overboard, anchoring and mooring practice while encountering huge swathes of RYA fog (blind pilotage) it was time for our exam.
I hadn’t quite anticipated the exam to run for such a long time (24hrs), but we all three of us needed to demonstrate our abilities in a range of conditions.
We were lucky enough to bag some good weather for the start of our assessment which was a minor miracle given that the forecast for Friday which was given earlier in the week predicted 51mph winds gusting to 62mph! But when it came my turn to take us to Falmouth harbour the wind had increased to F7-8. As we approached Black Rock, a nearby anchored tanker decided now would a good time to start engines and enter the harbour… With pilot vessels motoring towards the ship, now giving me 5 blasts of its horn, I was wondering what else could go ‘wrong’ when we were hit by a sudden squall and engine failure!
A bum-crushing approach to St Mawes in the dark ensued and by 11pm we were secured to a mooring buoy though still swinging wildly in the gale which was going on outside, all four of us with our head in the engine compartment trying to bring it to life.
Despite our best efforts we were defeated by what appeared to be a fault with the injectors. So we grabbed some much needed kip and set an alarm for 05:00 (oh-five buffs for Tim if you’re reading this)…
By the time we were ready to leave our mooring at St Mawes the wind had decreased and the darkness was lifting to reveal a pale blue sky specked with soft clouds with bright orange edges where the sun was lighting them up. It was how we would have liked the whole week to be, but I was glad to have such favourable conditions for my final trip back to Falmouth marina. With no engine I had to beat up the River and park us on a pontoon which left what nerves I had left totally frayed.
The week was all worthwhile to get a pass in my YM Offshore even if I did fall asleep in my VHF course.
Snow Joke
The Met Office have issued a weather warning for our area and if the local constabulary are to be believed then we are should expect around 15″ of the white fluffy stuff to fall overnight.
Now, I love building a snowman as much as the next person but if the weather gods are listening, please can I have a minor heat wave for the week commencing 27th Jan for my sailing trip!
Happy New Year!
Christmas is a time for training and focus!
While all of you are tucking in to your turkey dinners and mince pies this Christmas, spare a thought for poor old me, who has already eaten all the pies and subsequently is on a strict diet before the start of the dreaded winter series and the looming Yachtmaster Practical in January.
I am also spending time getting together things like tickets, references and getting all my shizzle in order so that I can fly away in the spring with no gremlins waiting to leap from the closet the moment I go through security.
Clearing out the cupboards and putting my life on ebay has been rather cathartic although it is sad to see my 37 years packed up in to half a dozen cardboard boxes. And even then, I am wondering whether I should stick the box of DVDs on a car boot!
I have also had to face up to the fact that working flat out in an office in the city didn’t suit me and I have stepped back even further and started work in a local pub. It is much more sociable and I won’t be forking out £75 a week in fuel to get to Exeter every day plus I was starting to feel guilty that I would be leaving in 3 months time. It feels a little like being a student again so I am trying to make the most of it before spring comes around and I am working flat out again.
Yachtmaster Theory
It’s been a great week at Falmouth with Cornish Cruising studying for my Yachtmaster Theory certificate. It had been a long time since I did any proper Navigation… 16 years to be honest! So I was really worried about how I would find it. Another ‘El Guapo’ were lights and signals… I had been working through the Flip-Cards but I really wasn’t getting to grips with them at all!
I needn’t have worried though because the amazing Simon Rabett was on hand to get me through the course material and made sure that I passed the course! Much hard study was done every night in the Marina bar which, incidentally, serves great food! And I even got to ‘borrow’ the sailing school Dog for cuddles.
Falmouth Marina was lovely as well with the nicest showers (maybe they just felt the nicest because it was so bloody cold outside!) and I imagine that in the summer, the town is a very lovely place to be.
I can hardly wait until January when I am booked on to the Yachtmaster practical course! Toot Toot!
(thats a turn to Port btw! Lol)