Formal Informality

By Scott Dodgson

With the vessel prepared to charter, food stocked to the brim, fuel, flowers special gifts, it was time to get Beth prepared. Most charter vessels carry a number of Polo and T shirts with the yacht’s logo printed on them. I found a couple of shirts for her, but she needed shorts and shoes. So Laura and Beth went to the Chandlery to buy uniform looking shorts and shoes. Because we live so closely there is a balance that must be struck between familiarity and service. We are there, but we aren’t. It’s tricky. As the captain I spend most of the day with the guests sailing and talking. The crew is usually busy preparing the next meal, straightening out the cabins, or simply sitting off to the side out of the way of the guests. I have one rule, never express on opinion about the guests while they are on board during the charter. I found that once uttered, that opinion affected the service and attitude however subtly. Once years later while running a mega yacht, I found the owners had bugged the crew’s quarters and the galley. Half the crew was asked to leave after the owner left for no reason. I left shortly after discovering the owner was a complete jerk and wasn’t worthy of my service. He was under the illusion that his money would protect him from my anger over his insults. Once the word got out he had a very hard time finding crew so hard in fact he sold his boat and took up golf. There is an art to finding the balance and in general the guests set the boundaries and the captain and crew respect those boundaries. The guest’s boundaries and attitudes can be varied. I’ve had couple charters, honeymoon charters, married on the boat charters, wife swapping charters, gay and lesbian charters, nude gay and lesbian charters, nude family charters, dysfunctional family charters, family charters, atrocious weather charters, no wind sailing charters, party hard charters, tour of bars charters, adventurous charters, golf charters, dive charters, hunting charters, archeology charters, restaurant charters, mystical meditation charters and humanitarian charters. So you never know what you are going to get, but seeing Beth and Laura arrive in their uniforms and new deck shoes gave me solace that we would have our boundaries established professionalism so no matter what happened we would provide the most congenial experience possible. I left the girls to get ready for the guests while I rode in a mini bus to the airport to greet the guests. I hoped that this charter, booked by the grandmother for her adult children for three weeks would be relaxing, fun and non-eventful. But one look at the Swedish grandmother and I knew this maybe the hardest three weeks of my life.