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96 YACHT ESSENTIALS
NEED SOME
VALIUM?
Dear Anita,
I’m an ex-chief stew with a number of years of experience.
I recently recommended you to a young girl I met here
in Johannesburg. I was surprised to hear you didn’t know
how to get her a Schengen visa? Also, why are you telling
her to dockwalk instead of placing her on a yacht?
Madame Stew
Dear Madame Stew,
Yes, I received your mails, and yes, I’ve asked your protégé
to get herself where the action is in order to network.
She may be lovely, but she has sod all experience. Unless
we’re talking about those few boats that don’t care about
experience as long as you’re tall, skinny and blonde, I
haven’t heard of anyone who hasn’t set foot on a boat
being placed from so far away. I advised her as I advise
all new crew: dockwalking is the first step in finding a job
on a superyacht. As for getting people Schengens, unless
you want to pay me a nice fee, I don’t do that. I find
people jobs. I’m not going to tell a captain, “Sorry mate,
I can’t find your engineer right now because I’m getting
visas for people halfway across the world.” She needs to
consult her local embassy. That’s how it works; the laws
and rules change regularly depending on your country
of origin, so you need to ask the experts.
That’s their job, not mine.
ASK ANITA
Please email
valium@
yachtessentials.com
with any thoughts
or questions.
Dear Anita,
I was asked to leave my last yacht due to my eating requirements.
I choose not to eat meat or dairy products because
I believe it’s wrong to kill animals to eat. Our chef usually
managed to make me something nice, but when guests
were on board, his standards slipped with my meals. Can I
take the yacht to court for discrimination?
Deckhand Picky
Hey Picky,
Bet you use chamois leather on deck, don’t you? Are you
wearing leather shoes? And your belt is made out of...?
OK, let’s look at this from the chef’s point of view. He’s already
running around all day cooking for guests and crew,
and on top of that, he has to come up with something
nice for you to eat. Give the dude a break and suck it up!
If you’re going to work on a yacht, you have to be flexible.
If you can’t eat what chef prepares all the time, put your
chamois leather down and make something yourself.
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