Room for une petit bateau monsieur?

The big boys are in town
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

Here we go again! We collected our guests in Monaco. We are 25 crew plus 2 supernumeries and 6 guests!

The guests will stay with us for 2 weeks here in the Med and have probably paid more money for their two weeks holiday than the whole of Thomas Cook makes in a year! This comes at a price to the crew though. The question is... Is any 2 week holiday worth that much and how can we make them feel like it was? The other quirk to this charter is that the people on board would prefer to be alongside in port every night. It is a bit of a clever trick to squeeze an 80 meter ship into a marina in any situation... but in the hieght of summer and with only a few hours notice and less french than a year 8 schoolboy, this becomes an interesting problem!

Tonight the guests would like to be in Monte Carlo, we left the harbour in Cannes (pictured above) and edged our way out of the very narrow and shallow entrance heading for Monaco,. With no confirmed booking for a space, we have an alternative destination of Portofino in Italy.

Monaco is only 2 hours away BUT!! Portofino is 10 hours! As I write we are still not sure, so i should be sleeping instead of writing because it could be a long night. Maybe I should find a 9 to 5 job instead?

Na.. Don't think so. This is a bit hectic for sure but there is something about it...

Me n Ross

Me n ross
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

Getting ready to lift the Monte Carlo (thats the small boat just behind us) on board through the side door.

playing in the shadows

playing in the shadows
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

I told you that some oif the crew were shady types. This is part of the result of an after work beer.

Friday beer on Wednesday

sun set
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

This week we have been tiedup in Antibes in France preparing for our charter guests toi arrive on Saturday.
It has been busy and fun and the yacht is actually starting to be super.

On our recent small cruise around we have been to Portofino Italy, Monaco, St Tropes, Cannes and Nice. Next week we will do much the same just with different folks.
On one of our short journeys from the beach, 20 miles back to St Tropez, we responded to an emergency call on the radio. Now, this is not any big deal and is actually something that we are duty bound to do. However out of all the 200 or so boats traveling the 20 miles from the beach to St Tropez we were the only vessel to respond!!
The boat name was 'Friday' and once they were safely tied up later on, happy that thier engine room fire was not so serious after all. They dropped bye and offerd us some cash for crew beer.
So it was Wednesday and we drank the beer from Friday and watched the sun set , which is always nice.

Crew photo

Crew photo
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

The owner and his family left the boat all smiling and happy and we all dressed up to say goodbye.
It is not till we all stand about in one place that there feels like there is an awful lot of folks here.

Gorillas

Gorillas
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

And even gorillas dressed as pirates tshow up at the beach to entertain the kids. Boy thats ridiculous and hot work!

Pirates

pirates
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

And just like magic there are guys dressed as pirates with treasure chests who just show up at the beach to entertain the kids

Ballet

Ballet
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

More shots of us messing about in boats on the way to the beach.

To the beach

To the beach
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

I know that it has been a long time since I wrote !! That is beacause it is a long time since I had time that was not, either working or sleeping.
We left Monaco and have been cruising about down here in the south of France. Pretty much between Monaco, Nice, Cannes, St Tropez and a quick trip to Portofino in Italy.
I remember going to the beach with my family as a child, loading up dads car to the hilt with beach toys and food and all sorts of stuff.
We all used to love it!
Now when these guys go to the beach. They go to the beach in a very different way. This is us on the way from the anchorage at St Tropez to the beach 20 miles down the coast. They took this picture from the chopper of course and we braught the 115 foot day boat along as well.
When we arrive at the beach we launch the jet skis the water ski boat, inflate the banana and donut (stuff to drag kids on behind said water ski boat) then we flood the pool in the back and prepare the limo tender to take everyone to the actual sand. Then the bloke at the beach says our tender is to big to land on his small dock, so we launch the chopper again to take the guests the 200 meters from the boat to the land by helicopter! but there is not room for everyone in the chopper so we have to launch another smaller tender to take the others anyway! I dont think that I mentioned the floating trampoline! Oh and the treasure hunt that we had to set up for the kids.

Angels..

Angels..
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

Its totally mad!

its bloody snowing too

its bloody snowing too
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

About that reality. It was bloody snowing and there was angels complete with halos serving drinks!

ready for a party

ready for a party
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

Then we got straight into it! Spent the day getting ready for a big party on board. My mums friend, Marge will be pleased to know that those balls needed a damn good clean again.

backin in

backin in
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

Today I didn't go to work. I woke up in the hotel up the road and walked down to the harbour via the cafe and work came to me. It was pretty cool.

Stars n Bars

Stars n Bars
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

After a day relaxing in town I joined some friends for a couple beers in one of the very few affordable venues in Monaco. Stars n Bars.

day out in Monaco

day out in Monaco
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

So I will start with today, well yesterday. And then say more about the time at home
I really didn't want to come back to work, not to fly out to Monte Carlo or to join the circus. They said at home, time for reality! Return to work. Hmme…. haven’t seen any reality yet. For a start, the boat wasn’t even here, they were delayed in Italy. So I sat by the harbour, assembled my trusty stead and cycled about Monaco for my bonus day off in this very crazy town.
This is me up by the casino. Back to work tomorrow but certainly not to any kind of reality!

Oui! UBALDI

oui you
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

Oui UBALDI Get back to work ya lazy bastard and write something about your time off while you are at it!!