Yacht Chef Lifestyle: What It's Really Like Living on a Boat

Instagram shows you the sunsets. Let me show you the whole picture — because I love this life, but you should choose it with your eyes open.

The living arrangements

You'll share a cabin roughly the size of a walk-in wardrobe with a crewmate, on a bunk, with a bathroom between you. Your worldly possessions fit in a locker. You live centimetres from the same faces for months — brilliant people, difficult people, messy people, all of it. Close confinement is genuinely the thing that breaks most crew who don't last. If you can stay calm and kind in a small space, you're already ahead.

The rhythm

On charter or with owners aboard: flat out. 16–18 hour days, weeks without a day off, up at 5am and in bed after midnight. Then the guests leave and the boat exhales — quieter weeks, crew dinners ashore, diving off the back deck, exploring whatever corner of the world you've woken up in. Yachting doesn't do nine-to-five; it does extremes of both.

The hard parts nobody posts about

Missing weddings, Christmases and birthdays is real. Some boats are flexible, but you should be mentally prepared before you sign on. The isolation on long crossings tests you too. I've been through a storm between Australia and New Zealand for six days with the stabilisers gone, genuinely thinking we might capsize — and I've been "stuck" in paradise so long I was losing my mind. Both are part of the same job.

The parts that make it all worth it

I've been face to face with whale sharks in Papua New Guinea. Swum with wild dolphins in New Zealand. Handed out presents to kids in Vanuatu. Had Prince Albert visit my galley for a chat. Anchored in Raja Ampat, the most remote and alive place I've ever seen. These aren't holiday memories — this was my commute, and I was being paid well, with no rent, while it happened.

Who thrives

The adaptable. The tidy. The ones who don't need to win every argument in the crew mess. Versatility, flexibility, composure, organisation and humility — the same qualities that make a great yacht chef make a great crew member.

The lifestyle costs you normality and pays you in experiences almost nobody on earth gets. Fourteen years in, I'd make the same trade again.

Wondering if it's for you? Module 1 of Become a Yacht Chef is free — it'll help you decide before you spend a cent.