In our travels we have ended up in the proximity of many motor yachts. Oddly we haven't spent any real time with their crews. Stepping back I think that there are just different circles at work. Cruisers tend to be older retired folks. Professional yacht crew, excepting captains, tend to be very young. Cruisers spend their days on cruising and social activities, yacht crews work 8-5 M-F. Cruisers anchor in places big yachts can't get into and big yacht marinas are usually too expensive for cruisers. Also when the owners or guests are aboard a motor yacht the crews are pretty busy all the time.

The motor yacht Monaco is here in Martin's Marina and she is just waiting out the season until it is time to head to Florida. The crew work hard during the week to keep her in beautiful condition but they have the weekends and evenings off. Hideko and I have made friends with Jose and Louise the Mate and Stewardess and they invited us to a dock barbeque this evening.

It was a wonderful barbeque. Nicky, the chef on board, made a fantastic potato salad among other things, and Jose cooked beef filets on the grill. Blue Star and Kelp Fiction were there as well and a great time was had by all.

I really enjoyed meeting the entire crew, particularly the engineer. The scope of the systems he has to manage is staggering. Jose gave us a tour of Monaco, a lovely, classic Feadship, and very well built. Just touring the engine room and looking at all of the massive diesels will allow me to smile the next time I have to do a 250 hour service on Swingin' on a Star's modest motors. Monaco has a crew of seven and I can see why.

We will miss Monaco and crew when we leave. She is heading for the Mediterranean ultimately so perhaps we will see her and her crew again down the line.