Silence from me over a long period of time is rare! Can only mean 1 thing - I am offically SICK GIRL!!! got lots to fill in from American antics, Atlantic madness and 3 weeks holiday amongst nearest and dearest. However I came down with a liver virus at the end of June just as i was about to start the new season of work, have been housebound at home ever since.. YUK

All a bit boring and down but the old Amelia will be bouncing her way back in a matter of weeks - I can just feel it!!!!!

Caribbean Dreamin' !!!

I am slack slack slack and have so much to report.. There have been 2 more charters (very successful) - an amazing meet up with a good friends mum and the long hankered for Colombian holiday - mix all that up with some serious exploring, diving, running amok on other boats and a bit of Beach Boys for fun-I kid you not - and that about explains my last 2 months!!

Anyhoos back to the past 2 months our last charter (The English guys) had a few moments of madness involving the now infamous Alpine Ski Club night which included all and sundry donning ski outfits (yes in the Caribbean night!!) a flaming Sambuca bar, our special guest the Jacuzzi and general raucousness. As well, of course, as some good service for the guests.. They were extremely happy, we were nearly sacked!!
After some serious grovelling - and some well earned telling off - we were given a few days off in St Lucia.

A good friends mum lives there - Carole -

so we hooked up and she showed me around. Fish BBQ Friday proved to be good fun and an amazing Sunday at a secluded beach

was just what the doctor ordered.

I even managed a few dives, very good for the soul!! Refreshed and resolving to be good dogs we returned to Antigua (I for one was sad to be leaving St Lucia but Antigua and all our mates there beckoned!). Some serious partying and some sun tanning and gentle working ensued…we adopted a bar there - The Gallery -

as our (all 17 of us) local! And for the first time in a long time I felt really comfy - almost a bit like home. Didier the owner - pictured above - adopted us all and lock ins and dance offs were his gift to us, and ours to him..

Moving around all the time you miss the local feeling - and in Antigua I got to know people, I got sort of comfy, it was just what the doctor ordered!
But sure enough we had to move on, we picked up another charter in Guadelope and after a week of hard but rewarding work (I got to work on the dinner service which was really interesting) we landed in St Thomas the US Virgin Islands. It was a frenzy as its tax free shopping there and we were all tip laden. I managed to get a few things I really needed and even more goodies I probably didn’t need.

I also managed to help christen a newly purchased boat - by witnessing its stern deck blow up!!!!! No Joke after meeting this rather happy new boat owner

my friend and I agree to help him by christening the sale with a glass of red! After a quick tour we were left to our own devices while said capitan turned on the generator for music and lights then BOOOOOOOMMMMM...............

Wish I could thank my safety training but my reaction (please note it was 1 am after a rather long night) was something along the lines of.."Wow! what was that noise??..Anyway where is the music???" Instead of "Evacuate!"

So after shopping, sunsets

and beach exploration (oh and boat cleaning, tidying and preparing!) we were at last told we could take some serious time off… I bit that gift horses head off and promptly booked a ticket to Colombia… Let me explain, here is my thinking on it:
Firstly, I am in the vicinity. Secondly, it has been nearly 7 years since I last visited there and since that stupendous discovery I have been boffing on to anyone who will listen that I want to move there. It felt only right to check the place out just in case I had over romanticised the memory. At times I have been known to exaggerate, just a little! And also, on a practical note, I needed to double check things hadn’t changed drastically. So yeah that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!!! Colombia it was and my oh my what an amazing moment I had!!! 1 week was definitely not enough but it was just the little taster I needed .
I took myself off to Taganga

a sleepy fishing village on the northern Caribbean coast.

Great for diving and great for just kicking back. The plan was to train up to Rescue Diver level and get the feel for the place. However as always, the moment I got there things changed. I realised the only training I was going to do was improving my relaxation skills!! As is always the case I met some amazing people. I visited my old haunt of Santa Marta

(the nearest city / town), supped the famous Jugos,

popped into the Hotel Mirimar where I had stayed all that time ago and luckily I met some old faces! I also made a trip out to the glorious National Park Tayrona where I had a truly wonderful time sleeping in hammocks

and cruising beaches. From the moment I arrived I met a great friend in Lior

an Israeli traveller we quickly became 3 when Steve

an English legend joined our throes.

Then when Jolande a dutch beauty cashed in on the trip to Tayrona we had fashioned our own little gang. At Tayrona we were joined by John and John 2 Americans and the once 3 musketeers became a hilarious sextuplet! Good Times!!!

Just to add to the mix and in true Amelia stylie I met up with a guy who is good good mates with my cousin back in Malta who also just happens to be a dive instructor in Taganga!!!! Small world!!!!!
Bottom line is Colombia is still the mother land. From the moment I left Miami, Colombia bound, I knew it! The people are so friendly, so open, so welcoming! The music is everywhere and so lively, full of passion, really part of the way of life. And if all that wasn‘t enough the countryside is bloody beautiful. So I am still going to be boffing on to anyone who will listen that Colombia is the place where I will try make a go of it!! Focus. Focus. Focus!!! Watch this space…

On my reluctant return to St Thomas our marina had its official re-opening with The Beach Boys headlining!!!!! Desperate for live music of any sort I popped along

we did have a giggle but took way too many photos - so much so the lead singer took a picture of us! Back at ya!!!

So I am currently cruising the The Bahamas. We have the owners on board for a month and so far all is going well! The work is cool I’ve integrated into the team and the owners seems to gel with me (they are from London! Hearing them chat is definitely making me more homesick than usual) . Following that we head to the USA for 2 weeks then a hop skip and jump back over the pond to the Med. Should be over that way in about 6- 7 weeks if all goes to plan! I am hankering for some home time but only time will tell!

It did occur to me the other day how lucky I am with this job - on my break I was sunbathing out on the bow as we were sailing to another anchorage in The Bahamas, it was a wonderful moment. I don’t always appreciate where I am or what I have. This environment is a strange one and can take its toll on your mental health - working and living in a confined space with the same 17 people for 5 month is intense- it’s like the real real big brother! I remember going to work in central London and passing all those houses on the train, all those lives and social networks thousands if not millions of people daily - having interactions with so many people on the street, in the shops, at work, at home, on email, on the phone. Contrasting that to here where we have us, 17 of us, sometime guests but rarely… yes we do dock at times in marinas but again a lot of our days are at sea.. It’s like my interactions, my involvement in the world, has been shrunk.. Like my world has been shrink wrapped!!.. It can be very intense - you have to try and keep your head focussed - your perspective clear! That’s why those moments of realisation - of how lucky I am - are so important….

I think that was !!!!!!

And yeah that’s me in a nutshell..
Hope all is well with you, my public,

I’ll be back in touch soon Until then….. xx

Crossing the pond, Caribbean’ing it up, Hollywood Schmollywood and Turning 29!!!!

Well Well Swell! I've left Barcelona, crossed the big ole sea and landed with a tremendous BANG in the Caribbean. Christmas, my birthday and new year has passed and I've been working my little socks off!!!

Where to start.... I suppose leaving Mallorca where I left off in the last blog..

After Adios to Europe, a brief offering to the Sea God Posiedon

for luck and a survival suit drill

we headed to our next stop = Gran Canaria a.k.a PIKEVILLE !!! Yuk yuk yuk! I visited it when I was 19 and I can confirm that it is as manky now as it was then! We had a few incidents there, one engineer had to go home because of a bereavement (we turned around 8 hours after departure to get him back!) then the other engineer = Martin = after a seriously excellent night of salsa spins and red cowboy hats,

got attacked with motor helmets and fists by 20 local yuts!!! After lots of blood, hospital visits and a well deserved group bollocking by our captain we left Pikeville, the African coast and all land behind us as we headed directly across the pond Caribbean-bound...

What an experience!!! 10 days straight across the big seas.. Being in this monster of a boat means that really you can't feel a thing - a sailboat would probably be a much more "real" experience, but I made sure I got outside to check out the water - miles and miles of it - and I always managed (thanks to a daily reminder call from the first mate) to see the sunset

they were spectacular coz we were heading West the whole way.

The journey was pretty smooth. I did have my National Geographic moment when a swarm of locusts flew by, en route to Africa. Freaky, surreal but cool!

I was working the graveyard shift 2-6 afternoons and mornings. During the day I basically worked around the interior of the boat. That was helpful, getting to know Callisto and preparing for the work in the coming months ahead. And during the morning, (middle of the night), I hung out on the bridge with the 2 deck crew who were on watch, looking out for oncoming vessels!! (of which there were none 1000 miles off land!!!) we did have a freaky man over board alert call one night - a captain had enough and jumped ship, literally! I thought we were going to have to go to the rescue but as they were 8 hours away someone else did the honours - sort of brought me out of my luxury surroundings bubble and back to the ocean of madness!!! Strange things do happen at sea ....

Being at sea on an 8 hour rotating watch meant it was a “dry” boat - not a problem except it was my birthday about half way through… I turned the glorious age of 29.… No champers I did however get ballons

and a little cake momentKeeping up traditions me and the girls did a bit of break dancing on the bow!!

And proved you don't need alcohol to act the fool!!!

I did try to sleep under the full moon

but it turned out to be a little blowy and sleep proved impossible…

With a promise of a big bday bash in Antigua we arrived n Barbados, I briefly met the owners of the boat- who decided to call me Heidi due to my plaited hair! Nice…
Antigua beckoned....

Callisto is the most expensive boat to charter on the waters at the moment! $485,000 per week (go to http://www.cnconnect.com/charter/yachtdetail.aspx?id=3646 to check out the boat). All the boats that were there, were waiting to see us!! So on our arrival all the girls went out onto the deck and started washing it down - totally styling it out!!!! Ha quite a scene!!

Falmouth Harbour is quite a cool little port

but basically full to the brim of cabin fevered yachties!!! The partying that ensued was Olympic I think I managed about 4 days on the trot with 5 am finishes and 7.30 starts for work!! The rum over here is incredible it puts jumping beans in your shoes!

I danced every single one of the bars and clubs down! Excellente!! We did manage a nice crew dinner courtesy of the boss, where I had my first ever lobster!!!

and a sunset steelband dance which inevitably ended in tears - but luckily for me I was tucked up early that night!!!

We had about 8 days of getting the boat ready for its, and my, first ever charter. We worked and played extremely hard..

As we were working Xmas Day we had our own little celebreations on Christmas Eve and the chefs cooked up a storm!! it wasn't the usual eat forever then lie on the sofa like a beached whale but a good meal was consumed as was some divine champers, red wine and some dancefloor action later! missed my mums xmas pudd but hey there'll always be next year!!

Our first group of guests flew in on 25th Dec - The Hollywood Xmas moment had arrived.. I must admit it was fun but hard work.. The family was great I had my A list moment and the boat got its fair share of A list visitors.. St Barts on New Year was Ok basically the St Tropez of the Caribbean.. Not my scene but very glamorous. I haven’t managed to actually visit any of the islands properly apart from Antigua. I did a moment or two in the water after convincing the kids that they needed me to swim with them - I wowed the crew with my back flips.. Went a little crazy in the water after being cooped up in the laundry for what felt like years! I even managed a Jet ski moment and a go on the “chariot” - toy that gets tugged by a speed boat - Note to self: defintely need a job where I can frolick in the water on a regular basis I love it!!

So our 1st charter has finished! Got the long hankered for tip… bloody good!! And we are currently, as I type, moored off the coast of St Vincent hopefully heading down to Tobago with a new charter, another group of guests , on board. These are English guys and I did smile when one asked me for a builders cup of tea. I have moved upstairs for Breakfast training and am out of the laundry for this week!!!! All this silver service malarky is really good but quite nerve racking for a smashing plates kind of girl like me - especially when the plates are worth half a years salary!!! Hey Ho you gotta learn!!!

That’s me for now getting ready to knuckle down for when the owners come on board(about time I hear a few of you shout!) and wanting to wish you all a bloody happy, lucky and full of fun 2007...

I have a sneaky suspicion this is going to be a great year!!!!!