The hour before twilight in the Bahamas is magical. The robin’s egg and baby blues of the ocean slide to royal, peacock and sapphire. The fierce sunlight of day gives off a golden glow. A slight breeze cools off the heat.

We’d been cruising the Bahamas with the guests for the past few days. Each evening, as the light began to change, I would step out the galley door; bucket in hand.

“Is it time?” The missus pulled her Chanel glasses lower on her nose and peered over the rim at me.

Amy winced the minute I uttered the words.

“Shh!” She hissed waving her arms in front of her like a traffic cop in Piccadilly Circus. “Don’t say it out loud.”

“What? Why?” I asked.

“They never end well,” she whispered. Her chestnut brown eyes shifted from left to right to see who might be listening. “They are cursed.”

Before Amy and Scotty Angelo started roasting my favorite coffee, Oceana Coffee, a gourmet fresh-roasted coffee company in Jupiter, Florida, we all worked together on a charter yacht in the South Pacific. Each morning, before I sit down to write, I brew a pot of their latest blend and think back to our days adventuring together.

This is one of the funnier incidents...

An Allergic Reaction

I was lucky the yacht was equipped to handle the situation—not every boat could have.

It was during our morning meeting that I first recognized the problem.

“Here’s the charterer’s preference sheets.” The captain handed me four papers with scribbled notes on every line and into the margins. “It’s a doozy.”

This story originally ran in Dockwalk Magazine, an international magazine for crew on yachts, in my Dishing It Up column. It is a "somewhat fictional account" of what happens on yachts. The names have been changed to protect the incredibly guilty

If There is No Heat

My chef toque is off to the freelance chef. You are called into a galley that you do not know, to serve guests you have never met. You scramble to gather the special ingredients that make your food your own. You rummage through cupboards for particular utensils that don’t exist. You start from scratch learning the likes and dislikes of the crew with each job, just to be sent home as soon as you have things figured out.

I’ve only done it once. It didn’t turn out well.

This piece originally ran in Dockwalk, a magazine for yacht crew. It is a "somewhat fictional account" of what happens on yachts. The names have been changed to protect the incredibly guilty

A Day to Remember

It’s supposed to be one of the most important days of your life. One you will remember forever-your wedding day. And, What better way to create the perfect memory than to hold the ceremony aboard a yacht?

Let me be the first to say: there are A LOT of better ways!