WHERE I CAME FROM

I'm a Jersey girl at heart that always had an itch to do something different. I started working as an ice cream scooper/takeout when I was 17, moved to New York City a year later to attend Parsons School of Design and continued working in the hospitality industry. I worked at a variety of restaurants, one being the famous PJ Clarke's on the Hudson and the location across from Lincoln Center. I graduated Parsons with a BFA in Communication Design and was able to land an internship at a digital ad network that then turned into a full time gig. Since then, I have been at two healthcare agencies designing rich media banner ads, responsive websites, responsive e-mails and interactive iPad presentations.

​

After 10 years of living and working in the city, I needed a change. I needed to escape the brutal winters, expensive rent, and the feeling of being couped up in an office. For the past year and a half, I had the plan of moving to Santa Monica in California to find a job in consumer digital advertising, until a series of events happened that led me to the superyacht industry.

​

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

It all started in cafeteria aka "mosh pit" of my office in NYC, when a few coworkers and I started discussing our dream jobs. Don't get me wrong, I love design, but being in the healthcare side of industry seemed very soul crushing and limiting to me and I needed something more. I then reflected on my time as a waitress. I really enjoyed talking to people and making sure they had a great experience, but I hated the unknown factor of how much money I was taking home every day and the constant schedule shifting. Then I thought it would be pretty sweet if I could somehow get paid to travel.

 

Fast forward a few weeks, I was sitting on my couch watching the new season of Below Deck on Bravo (I know that anyone in the yacthing industry that's reading this right now is rolling their eyes). Anyway, the light bulb went off in my head. I could do what they're doing! And so, the research and obsession began. I read books, articles, blogs, anything that could give me more insight into this mysterious industry. The more I read, the more sense it made to me to try it out. A month later, I booked my Interior Operations and STCW courses, my one way flight to Fort Lauderdale, and a crewhouse where I would stay until I finished my training and landed a job on a superyacht as a Stewardess.

​

MY GOAL

I'm hoping this blog will do a few things. For right now, I want my friends and family, and anyone else to be able to follow me on this journey through my Instagram (@storiesofastew) and my stories. I eventually want to add a forum for anyone interested in this industry to ask me any questions they may have. I then want to aggregate all of the materials I've gathered through my research to put on this site so it can be a one stop shop for future yachties.

​

​