Friday 22 August 2014

A day in the life of a hostie...

The galley on board the luxury sailing catamaran Shore Thing, the only overnight live aboard vessel on the World Heritage Ningaloo Reef, certainly has commanding sea views but there's not much time to look around and take it all in. The preparation and cooking of three meals a day for Sail Ningaloo guests; as well as providing morning tea and sunset snacks, accompanied with requested beverages, will ensure the hostie is kept busy. In between being a passenger and general hand over the past month, I have been the relief hostie and this is what a typical day entails.
 

Bread is made fresh daily: wholemeal, white or multigrain loaves for breakfast toast, and various savoury rolls for lunch and/or dinner.


Always cereal and fruit salad is available, but on alternate days a cooked breakfast option is provided, sometimes being bacon and eggs on the BBQ. The start up of the boat's generator at 7.30am is the wake up call signalling that toast is cooking. 
  
 
However, the guests are usually up and about early anyway, keen to start any one of the activities on offer for the day, which include a few options dependant on weather: snorkelling, diving (if divers on board), fishing (as long as it's outside the sanctuary zone), a beach excursion, kayaking, swimming, sailing, marine life spotting, book reading or just generally soaking up the scenery.
  
 
 If a guest catches something within the legal fishing limits and they wish to eat it, under Sail Ningaloo's fishing licence it has to be prepared and eaten on board whilst on the charter. On this occasion, we couldn't identify the fish Steve caught so it lived another day.
 
 
 
While the guests enjoy their natural surroundings, the hostie is kept busy making morning tea, which is either homemade biscuits or muffins, or a fruit platter. Another activity gets underway as lunch is being prepared. If the hostie is ahead of schedule then she can reward herself with a snorkel, or two, with the guests.
 
Snorkel taxi
 
 
Katherine off for a snorkel; and no I am not in a swimming pool!
 
Lunch is buffet style consisting of: a variety of salads with fresh fish and spinach pie; or kangaroo and tofu skewers; or chicken and felafel wraps; or homemade burgers.
 
 
This feast is followed by a compulsory one hour food coma and another activity. This then brings us to 5 o'clock drinks and snacks: dips with carrot and celery sticks or cheeses with crackers and other salty, tasty treats. Sunset viewing is also compulsory, usually with a cold drink served by your friendly hostie. Who, by the way, at this stage in the day is feeling quite exhausted with screaming feet.
 
 
However, there is still dinner to get through. Dinner is always two courses; either entrĂ©e and main or main and dessert.
 Thai pumpkin soup
 
Fillet steak with sweet potato mash, red wine balsamic reduction and fresh greens
 
The guests are usually yawning by 9ish, which is just as well as I am falling asleep at the table! They retire to their beautifully made up cabins: me; I roll out my swag on the top deck next to the captain (who happens to be my husband!) and count the stars until I nod off. And that doesn't take very long.
 

 Shore Thing Stateroom
 
Awaking at dawn, I witness what I think is the best part of the day; sunrise. I savour the short time that I can lie back down and enjoy the light show, but too soon it's time to roll up the swag and take my tired feet back down to the galley to do it all again.
 
 
But it's all worth it when the guests give such positive feedback of their experience, and love and appreciate the food that has been prepared for them. That's why we do it. Oh, and the fact that everyday we have the opportunity to see turtles, manta rays, sharks, humpback whales (in season, so too with whale sharks), hundreds of fish, beautiful corals, dugongs, dolphins, and whatever else is out there on the Ningaloo Reef. And the sun is always shining.