I was never one to follow the rules, I am a self-confessed black sheep of my family. I didn’t do the standard finish school, take a gap year and go to university... instead I took a gap year, tried university and in the 2 months I was there I realised that it wasn’t the place for me, I stepped out of the norm and unwrapped myself from the cotton wool and bubble wrap my parents suffocated me in and I haven’t looked back since.
I have always been a water baby, in fact I could swim before I could talk, it was not the love of the sea that quenched my thirst for sailing. My sailing career started with a boy, my brother brought him back to our house and introduced his six years old little sister saying he was one of the instructors at the Sailing Club, as soon as my little red face had gone back to its usual colour, I promptly ran up to my mother and said “sign me up for the next course!!” Well, it was because of this crush that my career course was set and a love was born.
Every Summer I took sailing courses and every day becoming more and more fascinated by the fact that nature could push you across oceans and around the world. I’m not going to lie, I was not a natural at feeling where the wind was coming from and changing the angle of your sails and don’t even get me started on my knots, but I just adored it.
On my gap year I decided to be a traveller that got paid to travel rather coming back to debt, so I trained in Ballymaloe and decided that I was going to work on yachts as a cook. I was very lucky to get my foot in the door early because I got my job through the cookery school. Getting to Antigua was so exciting the yachts, the sailing, the partying and the people but unfortunately I got on a bad boat and a jealous chef demoted me to a stewardess because of a dip I made and everyone preferred to hers (I haven’t made guacamole since...)
Words can’t even describe the yachting industry, it is another world, it’s a recipe full of celebrities, fine dining, travelling the world, amazing adventures with an undertone of working to the bone but garnished with a tax free salary and huge tips.
Since my first day of stepping onto that boat I have sailed the Atlantic 5 times to and from the Caribbean and sailed the Pacific for 11 months, I have trained as a chef, engineer, portrait artist, done some of my captains licenses, I’m a divemaster and now I am a certified masseuse… yes I have a short attention span for what job I do, I have even tried the land life and worked in an estate agents but the water kept of calling me back. I will now be going back onto yachts as a masseuse, I love my life and I LOVE my job, I travel and I get paid to do it…. It all started with a crush and 19 years later life is as sweet as a nut!!
