Life aboard Jade

6 January 2025

Life on board Jade

Hello friends,

We’ve just wrapped up a very busy two weeks on board Jade, our training boat in Sint Maarten. She is a 50 foot Privilege, launched sometime in the early 90s. She’ belongs to one of the Tradewinds owners and has recently been designated as the training boat. Being older, she has plenty of character (read “lots of quirks and little niggles that fixing”). Her interior is wood, her layout is fairly old fashioned. It’s been great fun getting to know her with the other trainees and her crew - our trainers. She sails well - I think we got her going quicker than any of the newer charter boats (12.9 kts), but perhaps that comes down to crew enthusiasm!

We moved on board the night before training started and quickly settled in to our starboard aft cabin. The training crew, Luke (South African) and Anaé (French) gave us a quick run down of the systems before leaving for their land beds. They are both likable, knowledgeable and generous. Luke’s South African manner and background is familiar and reassuring, and Anaé has loads of tips and tricks for boat life and is always keen to share them.

The other people on board are Captain / First Mate teams, Neil (SA) and Kat (UK); Charlie (UK) and Cody (Kenya); and a solo first mate Dee (SA). A range of personalities and backgrounds, and all with some experience in the industry. The training structure is fairly well figured out, though we are only the 5th group to be trained this way. Basically, Luke does boat handling and maintenance training with the captains, and Anaé does cooking and time management with the first mates, and we try sail when we can. Sharing the “charter” workload, we are each assigned different duties on different days during the first week, with lots of discussion and advice as we go along. For me, this was mostly cooking a meal, or running the galley for half a day, and helping the captain with the anchor or sails. For Chris, this was either helming and engine / systems checks (the most fun, I’m sure), keeping the cockpit and boat generally clean, managing drinks and ice (a special skill in this weather) or manning the coffee station and washing dishes after meals.

We left the dock at Port Du Plaissance the day after the charter boats and made our way to the fuelling dock and then out into the lagoon to wait for the bridge to open. The bridge offers a fairly narrow gap to the outside world, and there is always a queue of boats waiting to pass. The restaurant next to bridge fills their tables with people excited to see the boats pass through - we had definitely become “the view” for the tourists!

Happy to be off the dock with a fresh breeze and a new view of Sint Maarten, we ran an adapted version of the charter route that gave us enough time at anchor to get through all the training.

Sint Maarten, being an island occupied by two territories makes for interesting customs and immigration procedures - when driving around, we moved freely from one side to the other. When sailing, we had to stamp out and in at each change. And whether our passports were stamped or not seemed to be random.. Luke took care of this admin, making a dingy run each time it was necessary. He also brought us delicious fresh pastries from a little bakery accessible from the water, the island definitely caters to yachting!

As Chris expected, so much of this work is about the food. The galley, down in the port hull, was fairly crowded - all the Mates got pretty comfortable in each other’s personal space! And what came out of there was incredible - huge meals, yummy snacks, and fancy desserts; with almost everything made from scratch. Anaé is a straight talking, food-fussy French lady who has grown up in her mom’s kitchen. She has plenty experience cooking onboard and quickly I found myself making things I would never have considered trying - fondant, lemon mousse, parfait..

The Tradewinds menu is all delicious and simple enough to make 12 servings in a small galley. I think these couple of weeks were more beneficial than any chef school would have been at this stage. To plate all three courses of dinner is very tricky for me, especially so when we need to sit down and eat with the “guests”. I suppose this will come with time.

For Christmas Eve we made our way around to Marigot Bay: the French side. A great anchorage in a pretty bay with a characterful village (I saw it briefly when Chris stole me away for a dingy run to drop off our trash at the bins ashore). There was a festive atmosphere in the street as it filled with people dressed up for dinner, all happy, healthy and vibrant. Cute little shops, charming looking restaurants on the beach, and interesting buildings - we’ll try get back there after training if we have enough time in SXM.

All the first mates cooked all dishes - shared galley time with no pressure. We made platters of snacks, a big ham (glaze by Kat and the meat grilled by the Captains) I made veggie Wellington with a filling based on mushrooms and walnuts - thank goodness Kat was there to help with the puff pastry: that’s a new world I am not yet comfortable with! It was a really lekker vibe - all of us cooking together and having fun in the galley.

On Christmas day we woke up luxuriously late and made brunch - which ran late - it’s tricky to get all the timings right: everything takes me longer than I expect. It’s the thinking time - double checking the recipe a hundred times. When I get to know my menu and how to plan my day I’m sure it will run smoother and I’ll find time to step away from the galley. Anaé is a great help with creating this plan, and knowing that we’ll go to Antigua is extra helpful because she can share the menu with me and we can talk about how to deal with it ..

Just after Christmas we received heartbreaking news - our dear friend Sue was killed in a car accident. The crew were all gentle and supportive, and that morning we enjoyed a sail to neighbouring island Anguilla. A fine time to sit alone up on the bow and reflect. With good wind and a little swell we had Jade up at a good speed.. great to get her cloth flying and feel the wind in our faces.

By the end of the first week we had seen a few different anchorages and got a sense of the basic routine of a charter. We went back through the bridge to base to turn the boat around and take on fresh provisions.

Week two held another special occasion with New Years Eve to celebrate. It would not have been in the plan, but since the other charter boats were all going to Saint Barthélemy and needed provisions, we could be the delivery boat.

On the way there Luke got out the fishing rods - he’s a keen fisherman and has spent time working on Marlin boats. His comfort in that environment shows! And he set us up well to catch a good size wahoo (that Charlie reeled in) and a smaller bonito. Fantastic fare for our New Years dinner! Thank you Ocean, thank you Fish.

New Years Eve in Saint Barts is the epicentre of the superyacht world - as we approached, the first glimpse of the enormous opulent yachts looked like an extension of the land. A news article said there were 130 super yachts, we felt there must have been more. Of course there were countless smaller yachts that didn’t qualify for the “super” title - us included. We spotted the new Tradewinds electric yacht in its striking orange and turquoise colours, and Charlie took us closer to anchor near to her. We let out 60 meters of chain for the depth and lay within feet of the neighbouring boats. Thank goodness conditions were favourable!

What a sight - I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many boats in one place. Marine traffic showed a giant pink island of AIS yacht markers added next to the port of Gustavia.

We had a delicious meal comprising a variety of smaller starters and two roast chickens - another collaboration from all first mates and some captains! After dessert, we set an alarm for midnight and went down for a nap (being the big party people we are).

A minute or two before the clock struck twelve, the boats started sounding their horns - the cacophony travelled towards us from more than a mile away, like an audible Mexican wave, eventually engulfing us and travelling on, circling around to come back again and again. It lasted for at least a few minutes - one of those totally immersive experiences. Famously, St Barts puts on a spectacular fireworks show every new year. It was very beautiful, stunning sequences of colours, shapes and textures - lasting around 11 minutes.

Jade’s crew wished each other a happy new year and marvelled at the spectacle we’d just witnessed. Then Chris and I promptly went to bed. The next day was our “takeover day” when we would run all the tasks of the charter alone, with no special late start for the occasion.

We woke on time and got started at 06:00 - I was a little slower than I would have liked, but guessed it was bound to be the case. My early morning lunch and dinner prep - that should have been done before breakfast - was pushed later, which had a ripple effect that left me chained to my galley most of the day.

Captain Chris and I lifted anchor and he picked a line through the mess of boats around us - just as tricky as coming in I think. Our plan was to sail around to Ile Fourchue - which turned out to be my favorite stop in the whole itinerary. A collapsed volcano with a few mooring balls in the middle. No cell reception inside the high walls, an off-shore breeze that keeps the water flat and crystal clear, and a very scenic walk up and around the tiny island.

Though I saw only a little of my surroundings that day, I enjoyed every moment I spent outside, and smiled at the excited voices talking about what was going on there. Chris and the captains had the job of cleaning the hull - they dived her after lunch and then continued on a snorkel. Dee swam to shore and went on an impromptu exploration of the island - causing some excitement when she disappeared from sight and the captains executed a search and rescue plan!

By the time everyone was back on board for cocktails, snacks and dinner there was plenty to chat and laugh about. When everyone had eaten dinner Chris rushed me to get the dessert out - correctly noting that the crowd was fading and would all be asleep before I could present my lemon mousse if I didn’t hurry.

In the end the day went well, and we didn’t get too many notes about things to work on. We were more strict with ourselves than they were. Anaé was particularly impressed with Chris’ yacht handling when we collected the mooring ball - he was so gentle and precise. Of course I wasn’t surprised at this ;)

By the end of the second week we had each had a turn at running all the duties onboard and felt confident enough to move on to the next phase. We were all fairly tired and a little ratty - I can see that two full weeks of charter will be a tiring thing and the first days off will be welcome.

After a couple of nights we are headed to Antigua where we’ll do another training charter onboard with guests to see how it works in practice.

It feels a little strange to be saying goodbye to our new friends at the end of a chapter and moving on the start of something new again. We can’t wait to be settled on whatever will become our boat and properly start this!

Sending much love to you all xx

Charis