Looking for adventure

The one qualification which you may be lacking or not yet proven is seaworthiness. You need to make sure you have good sea legs and can manage your way around a boat. A galley is not a kitchen and a salon is not a living room. Products, stowage, movement, safety are all issues which are probably foreign to you at this point.

Judy

Hey bro, If you're good, and have a good personality, yeah, you can rock up in Ft Lauderdale and find work, but go right now because the Boat Show is about to start. Check in at the Grateful Palate on SE 17th St Causeway. They are in a little plaza just east of US 1 on the north side of the street. There's a gal there, forget her name, starts with an M that has been in the catering business there for parties and yachts for a long time. Lots of people go to her when they need to find someone quick, so she's a good contact. Smallwoods is a uniform shop right down from it, there are notebooks there to place your resume in, lots of people look there as well. Also, if you're serious about working onboard, go to Maritime Professional Training and do your classes for your STCW-95 BST (Basic Safety Training) as it's a growing requirement for working on more and more yachts, and you don't want to miss out on the opportunities that require it. You can also contact Susan Porta, www.sportablecrew.com I think, as well as a miriad other crew agencies. None of them charge you registration anymore, so you can sign up with all of them. LuxYachts on 17th on the other side of the road from Grateful Palate seems to be another one a lot of my chef friends have had luck with. Just get out there, visit all the brokers and do the "dockwalk" with everyone else. Tis the season, so good luck to ya. Oh yeah, print up a couple hundred cards with your picture on it, and if you have a good resume made up (or rather when) and a 7 and 10 day menu, even assorted menus (make a provisioning list to go with the menus, I like knowing my chefs have it together for provisioning), I'd suggest you buy a box of cheap small USB sticks with all that and whatever else about you on there to hand out. Put it all in MSWord, because that way the agents can just upload it as well into their databases. What I like seeing is a professional marketing them self. I'm not really looking for someone who's out after an adventure though, I'm looking for someone who wants a career.

All very true and good points, however not insurmountable either. The big issue I have taking hotel chefs and putting them on yachts is getting them to think about motion. Not much you can do except warn them to minimize hot unsecured liquids and secure heavy hot objects. I once had a guy hold up the pot clamps and ask what they were. A quick lesson on boat stoves and everything was ok. Usually people catch on pretty quick to how it works on boats. Most pros are adaptable and don't like getting burned. As for plating and serving, again, when they cook, the will also see the issues in plating and serving for motion. Most of the time for meals like that though, there is no major motion. When it's rough on a crossing or positioning run, everybody just eats cereal and snacks. Learning where the boxes of snack bars are stored is handy for the real rough weather, although it should be supplemented with fresh fruit and yogurt (I like dates for condensed energy food, those with mangoes and golden kiwis in vanilla yogurt is great stuff to eat when your wedged into your seat in the wheelhouse). I have chased a roast around the galley floor of a tugboat crossing the North Atlantic before.... that was comedy.

Seasick is the real wild card for greenhorns. (we don't have a barfing smiley on a boat forum??? What's up with that )

Cause it's kinda gross... puking head

The industry is slow this year, but don't let that discourage you, keep at it and you will find an opportunity. Remember to get the STCW 95 BST as soon as you're able. If you live near the water, check with your local community college to get it before you leave at a cheaper price. Ft Lauderdale schools are private for profit and charge a healthy penny. I did mine at Young Memorial CC in Morgan City LA for $135.

The biggest issue I have with new to yachting chefs (aside from the movement above) is that they don't understand the limited amount of refrigerator and freezer space on a yacht. They also don't understand some fresh veggies simply take up too much room in the refrigerator etc etc. And, can be replaced with items that don't need refrigeration right away such as whole melons (watermelon,cantelopes, honey dews) with different stages of greeness to last the trip. They have to be a little more creative on their menu and delete larger 1 meal items.....such as racks of ribs........and replace them with something more compact such as Filet Mignons.......

Very true on the refer space, and even pantry space. With very few exceptions, it's always less than optimal.

Ohhh! To pmb-ohio, almost forgot, don't forget to get on www.findacrew.net Full disclosure: I have nothing to do and nothing to gain from them. Just a satisfied user for over 6 or 7 years. 90% of my freelance yacht jobs in that time, including the one I am on right now, have come through that site. Lots of owners and captains use it because everybody lists there because it's free to list and browse. In order to contact each other, one of you has to be a premium member. It's not expensive, I usually pay around $80 to upgrade. They do not auto renew so you don't have to worry about a hit going to your bank account when you don't want/can't afford it. There is also http://www.theneptunegroup.com/, again, no affiliation, they have a "daywork" listing on their website, and are also one of the providers of short term crew housing where you can pay for a bed in a room of a house or apartment complex, usually 2 to a room is the cheapest there. Similar to tem and around a bit longer is Smart Moves. There are also places like Floyds on SE 16th St or Ct, I forget which, just west of the Dunkin Donuts on US1 right there. It's the cheapest available, but it's a full "Backpackers" type place, always noisy because of drunks, and don't keep your valuables there. There are also other private crew houses around that are semi particular about who stays there. They all advertise on the bulletin boards of all the crew agents and you can call them direct. There is also The Bridge at SE15th and Cordova that has a range of accomodations from private rooms to 6 person dorms. There's a pool and BBQ pit there, cheap dive certification, I believe even wifi now. There have been seasons where it was a pretty cool place to live. Didn't see that last time I got into town though so I passed on it. Plus the private rooms are pricey and you can get a full 1 bedroom apt with full kitchen cheaper. I'm not there now, but last time I showed up, people were willing to go month to month.

When you first rock up in town, stop and get a Metro PCS phone. It has unlimited talk and text for $50 a month, no contract, and you can add data for another $10 or so. That way you don't worry about a phone bill and you have a local number. Try to get a 954, but you'll probably get 754.

True. But what else would a puking head be?