YACHTIE YARNS - TALES from a YACHT CHEF - Part 1

The question I am always asked is "What gave you the idea to become a yacht chef?"

To answer that, the best place to start is from the beginning. I needed a way to survive with style. I had suffered a devastating bankruptcy and the loss of everything I had worked so hard for during 20 years of my own successful art and framing business in Los Angeles.

Just Over Broke

At over 50 years old, I was just surviving after the bankruptcy by working the Antique Show and Street Faire circuit, with punishing schedules of18 hour days and uncertain revenues. I often got up in the dark at 4am to drive up to two hours to the Street Faire location and set up my Booth alone, which took up to another two hours. Then I worked the show selling antique prints and memorabilia until 4pm, after which I packed it all up and drove home, arriving exhausted at about 8pm. Sometimes, I repeated this the next day in another location. That was just the weekends - mostly. During the week, I sold prints on E-Bay or did interior design consultations and custom framing. My living expenses cancelled out most of my earnings and I was not able to save much or start rebuilding financially for retirement.

I had always loved to travel, and had planned to retire early, rent out my house and travel around the world for a couple of years, writing and taking lots of pictures to illustrate my articles. Then my plans all fell apart. I discovered that my romantic and business partner of four years (in a new business which I had funded) had covered up his mis-management of the company, lied to me, stole from me, cheated on me with another woman, and left me with over $300.000.00 worth of debt! After four years in the Courts trying to make things right, I cut my losses and declared a Chapter 7.

Starting Over from Rock Bottom