A day in my life

My day usually starts around 6:00am.  I find when living on a boat, big or small, My sleep cycles fallows the sun.  It is also partly because my duties as the cook are to make the crew and guests breakfast.  I take a shower and wander into my galley close to 6:30 to survey what fresh fruits and bread we have left from the day before.  Quite often I will need to make an early bakery run before everyone wakes up.
A few days ago on my way in I noticed a new cruse ship had arrived in the bay.

 And from my observation, not your average Caribbean cruse ship.  This was a 250' tall ship!  My kind of curse.  I have seen it a few times since, but it was quite an impressive sight to wake up to that one morning.

I have been making a running menu every morning for the week.  I decide what to make, list my own personal alterations then when it's all said and done I make a comment as to weather the guests, Dom, and crew liked the food.  Also I comment on if it was easy to make, how the timing was for all of it and what I would do different.  This is another one of my early morning activities that is very helpful to the structure of my day.




My "chopping station" as I call it, is conveniently located next to a port hole through which I dispose of my food scraps.   In doing this I have made a few friends that come visit me every day.  Several 3'-4' Remora (sucker) fish have taken up residency under the boat scavenging any scraps of food I might bestow upon them.  Like dogs of the sea they simultaneously swoop in and fight over every morsel.


    

After lunch I usually have a few hour lull in my day where I'll go diving off the boat or spend a few hours on a beach nearby.  These Remora are not the only fish I come across gathering under our boat.  I will commonly see a Rey combing the bottom or large schools of brightly colored fish passing by.  But I have learned whenever there is a large school of small fish they are commonly fallowed by one or two large Barracuda.

We made our biweekly trip up to St Martin on Saturday.  A large portion of the previsioning I do for the boat is done there due to the different currency.  Currently the Dutch dollar is only 60 cents to our dollar.  It is strange the difference on island's distance can have on culture and race.  St Barth is majority French speaking and white population.  One Island up at St Martin the common language is English with a very largely black population.  St Martin is nicknamed, "the friendly island," which I found to be quite accurate in comparison to St Barth.

             As we set anchor in Simpson Bay, my view through the galley port hole was a pretty one.

My busiest time of day is dinner.  With three courses and a separate meal for the crew, I have my hands full.  All my work is usually done by 9:00pm.  I spend the rest of the night in my bunk doing my best to learn the basics of the very complex French language from an outdated book I found in the bookshop on St Barth.

That's all my happenings for now.  As the days go on I will gladly share my experiences with all of you via this blog.  If you keep reading I'll keep writing!

Thank you all

KB


Best wishes to my closest friend Darci Duncan as she begins her Long flight to Japan on yet another adventure abroad!  Bon Voyage!