It was 9 in the morning we docked in St. Thomas.
The guests left with happy memories; their luggage and Crystal champagne in tow. But for the crew the work doesn’t quite end there…
You have 11 hours to change over all of the rooms, provision food and supplies- on island for the next charter. Organize everything and perfect the boat’s presentation before the next guests arrive at 9p. Next port will be the British Virgin Islands.
No biggie, right?
Typically a company delivers groceries straight to the dock, but they weren’t in service that day. There were four of us who made up the interior crew. We had to band together to provision strategically in order to accomplish each task.
One of the stews stayed behind to begin turning over each stateroom… aka loads and loads of laundry (one of the last guests was a sleep eater and required new sheets every morning…).
The remaining four of us hopped in a cab and headed ten minutes inland to (the Costco equivalent) Cost- U- Less. Upon arrival I divided the crew up. Each person was responsible for a specific list for a specific department.
Three of us, all in our yacht-embroidered uniform, are running around the store dragging at least two grocery carts as we collected the items we needed.
After maxing out capacity of my carts I circled back toward the registers. On the way I passed by my team and told them to meet me at the registers as soon as their lists were complete.
Settling into a good groove I was eager to check out quickly… but the cashier was on a different level. The cashier was fully engaged in a conversation with a co-worker at the other register. I tried to stress the urgency, as our order was only continuing to grow as the other crewmembers filed in.
Politely, I suggested to the cashier that she take a 15-minute break. She seemed indifferent and left her station. Neighboring cashiers saw me taking charge and supported me as I sent each item flying down the conveyor belt to my crew who was packing the items back into our carts.
I was calling out to the other cashiers, What is the code for Asparagus?
4080 one of them shouted as they laughed.
I probably should have won employee of the month, but they didn’t take my photo. Anyways, the order was nearly finished so I delegated 2 of the crew to order us a taxi to get some of the cold provisions back first.
The first taxi shipped off with the refrigerated items and we loaded the remaining 2 taxis with the rest of the order.
One taxi was full of all the liquor and did not have a crew member accompanying it back to the docks…
We waited on the docks and eventually the last taxi arrived explaining I had to get gas. All of our order made it safely! A total trip time of 2 hours to complete the mission.
Now we had to tackle cleaning and organizing all of the new goods onto the yacht.
Working on a yacht turnover can be intense, but I thrive on the energy a quick changeover has. It is amazing how the crew is able to come together and get the work accomplished.
Never be afraid to get your hands dirty. Once the job is done you will feel great and better yet you will impress your guests!
Cheers-
Jack