If you are only just joining this conversation, for the last week we have been logging the daily accounts of a hostess working on a charter yacht in Croatia; today is day 4, a crucial turning point in the week.

Ah, day 4, a very interesting day. Not because it is half-way through the week (which is still nice), but because, after two years working as a hostess on a luxury yacht in Croatia, I discovered that day 4 can be a game-changer.

Day 1, after dinner the Captain always asks me – “what do you think about this group?” Being the optimistic soul that I am, I always replied – “yea, great, they seem nice”. I stopped saying this after a while and instead it turned into – “they seem nice but ask me on day 4.”

Why?

I don’t know if this goes for every charter yacht or if there are other factors involved, like price range, clientele, type of yacht… but from experience, I learned that people tend to show their true colours on day 4.

It was more about etiquette and attitude than personality and mannerisms. But, for example at the beginning of the week I had one woman go from asking for a drink politely – “Tash, can I please have a glass of wine”, to *waves hand and clicks fingers at me* “Today, I will accept a glass of white wine”.

I put someone’s usual whisky and coke in front of them (the same as they have had for the previous 3 days) and instead they tell me they only like 3 ice cubes or a woman decides that I am her personal servant, instructing me to pick up her hat (right beside her) and move it inside after she has left the table. I put bottles of water on the bar every night for people to take down to their cabins with them, by day 4, some people decide that they can’t possibly do this anymore and instruct me to put water in their cabin 10-minutes before they go to bed (for which I need to anticipate when they will go to bed). Once, I even had someone tell me I poured too much champagne (too much champagne, is that even possible?) and another decided that they only wanted me to pour ‘two-fingers’ of cider at a time, so it stayed colder (as in, I needed to climb to the fly-bridge every 3-minutes to top it up).

These examples don’t seem like much and honestly, it’s not that big a deal, but here is the thing – if you really need to have your drink with 3 ice cubes, then you say it from day 1; being specific about certain things doesn’t just happen. I have dealt with difficult clients in restaurants and onboard; from the rude and arrogant to the downright chauvinistic and malicious. It obviously bothers me a little, but you learn to deal with it. When people become rude or demanding after 4 days, it is as if they realise that they can have anything they want, they see they are getting waited on hand-and-foot, so they take full advantage.

Funnily enough, I have less respect for this, it shows a lack of integrity. From a psychological standpoint, it also shows how quickly people can change in a luxury environment, aka – how money can change people.

Thankfully, this week is not one of those weeks. My first impression on day 1 has followed through. They are lovely, kind, polite people.

So far it may seem like I am only talking about the negatives, of course there are positives – I will get to that. But first, I wanted to shed some light on how much work is involved and how physical it can be because I believe people should be aware of this. Majority of the yacht crew I know in Croatia, really care about what they do and give their all for four months straight; more often than not, it is a rewarding job but sometimes it goes completely unappreciated. So, this is my way of saying what no one else will say out loud.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, in four days, they have been off the boat for a total of 3-hours… but I will save this conversation for another time.