There is so much planning that goes into each Charter. We have been doing back to back Charters for the past few months so this is what we do in 26 hours time.
I will send out a preference sheet as soon as they book the Charter where the guests will fill out and send back to me where I will then make the menu's, beverages and activities right down to their favorite music. This takes some time to prepare. I want to make it perfect for every single charter.
I download the music they like so I will have it ready. Call the restaurant according to their preference in St John to make their reservation for dinner. I put together their drink requests which the Captain will help make once onboard. We clean the outside & inside of the boat. (we did have cleaners but they did not do as thorough a job as we do, so now we do it ourselves, which takes about 4-5 hours for each area) Then we purchase the fuel, water & propane. Yes, we do make water but we purchase before each charter after using it all on cleaning and do not have the time. We then get the laundry we dropped off to have the next day.
The shopping....We take the safari (because the rental cars are almost always sold out) to 2 stores and ALOT of walking up and down hills to get there, then call our taxi to pick us up and take us back to Long Bay where we stay. Load up the dinghy and bring it to the yacht to carefully unpack into tight spaces:) it is not easy to get items in the Virgin islands, sometimes we have to spend hours looking for certain things. This means the whole island is out of something. Then I head to the smaller "premier stores" to get the items that are not in the larger stores (vanilla beans, special cheese, meats, etc.) The day of I go to the bakery and special produce store for the freshest ingredients. Then we go to yet another store and get 5 bags of ice and any extras we may have to get to start the trip. Yes, we can have the stores to "pack" our groceries but that has not worked out too well, I like to pick out my own ingredients. I'm pretty picky on what I serve my guests.
We then communicate with the taxi who we have already notified to confirm the pick up. I make what I can to prepare for Appetizer, Dinner and dessert.
We motor over to Crown Bay marina, hopefully we can get right in if they are not too busy and get into a slip an hour before guests arrival. Our taxi driver tells us he is on route and we are at the dock waiting for our guests with smiles and a cool cocktail for their arrival at the yacht.
We are always happy to see returning guests and new faces! There it is, that is what we do to prepare for our charters each and every time.
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