Busy, Busy, Busy

The Guests on Queens Cay

“So… do you want a job?” Peter stuck out his hand to me and asked, having spent another hour blowing us over with all reasons we really should “Join the Club” and work for TradeWinds. I’m not sure we could have said no even if I’d wanted too… but of course we didn’t want to!

A few days later, on the Saturday of Halloween, we zipped around the point of Placencia, into the canal, and into the controlled, craziness of changeover day with TradeWinds.

At 5pm the guests were invited on board of Restless Spirit (Privelege 47’) and we headed out with Captain Geoff and 1st Mate Anna, along with John & Miriam, Harvey & Ann, and Bert & Kay to really find out what this TradeWinds Cruise Club was all about.

Over the next 6 days, while we were cruising some of the many tiny little Cays of the reef east and southeast of Placencia we tried
to absorb as much as we could about how to cook, clean, entertain and generally dazzle the guests into loving the crew, the boat, the experience and everything about the fab concept and reality that is TradeWinds.

I spent A LOT of time in the galley… inevitable really feeding 10 people on a yacht… or at least it did seem that way, but there was still lots of time for many snorkeling trips, games of spoons and pickled pigs, and taking the helm and sailing the boat through the rain – we had a fair amount of it, thanks to Hurricane Ida passing around us (though we had no idea about her at the time!).

Tadd busied himself helping Geoff out around the boat, picking up cocktails (I mean learning how to make them!) and wooing the guests, which was a particular success when he pulled out our emergency moustaches.

The guests were loads of fun, a great mix of ages, backgrounds and personalities and I think we all mingled pretty well… it can be hard when you’re thrust on a 47-foot boat with a bunch of strangers! So, by the time we arrived back on the dock in Placencia Friday afternoon, we were quite a merry bunch as we headed out to a local restaurant.

All in all it was a fun time, with a lot to learn… but the main thing is that it didn’t turn us off the idea of chartering with TradeWinds, so after a bit of a debrief and a couple of days relaxing we headed off for the next step in the training process.

We mustached the group!