Another Below Deck Podcast - Ebbs and Flows - An Interview with a Real Life Sea Rat

Episode Date: December 18, 2021

We sat down with a young woman named Gabriela Barragan to talk about what it's like out there on the high seas as a professional yachty. We talk tips, captains, engineers, chefs, going out, balls of snakes and everything about the life of a real-life sea rat.  https://www.patreon.com/anotherpodcastnetwork

Ahoy! I hope you guys are having a marvelous holiday season. Exciting news, we sat down with a full-blown sea rat. Her name is Gabriela Barragan. Gabriela Barragan. And she was very nice. We talked to her about what a life out on the high seas is like, what an actual professional yachtie does, the day-to-day, the tips, the quarrels, what the show gets right, what the show gets way wrong.

This is just a tease, but if you want to hear the full thing, go to patreon.com slash another podcast network um where you'll find tons more stuff like our coverage of below deck sailing out just it's content galore content galore um anyways we'll see you next week for more below deck reg and then we'll see you in 2022. merry christmas happy holidays see you guys next week he's a West Virginia. I have some questions because I want to get to the hard-hitting questions that the audience really

wants to know. What would God say to you at the Parole Gates? Well, first for me, I can't. I have to have a glass of wine to go to bed. When you guys are on charter, do they... Okay. Who was the rudest guy?

Now, don't give the standard answer, hey, they're paying whatever they want, they can take a dump on the front of the boat, I'll be fine with it. Do you have in your mind a rude guest that was rude beyond rude? Oh, I have many, yeah. Oh, let's hope these are fun stories. And this is not like hospitality,

like the customer's always right. Like, fuck that saying, saying it's old it's 2021 i don't care i'm too old first of all but you want to tip them i yeah but i'm not gonna let someone disrespect me yeah i'm not i treat billionaires and celebrities like my peers and maybe that's why i don't get treated like shit often i think so that's what they appreciate you know i treat them like a normal person you, and they really want you to kind of lean into the... Anyways, go ahead. Can you give us a particular story of a very rude jerk-off?

I've had someone call the chef's food inedible and disgusting, which loudly, purposely, so the chef could hear. And that was fucked up. Just to clarify, she said inedible, not inedible. That's yeah just to clarify she said inedible not inedible that's what we got we had uh she said inedible inedible it kind of like i don't know that's just unnecessary if there's a problem you talk to the chief stew and she talks to the she's the liaison she can talk to the chef um why do you think that a particular guest was doing that i think he was a man child and a bitch.

Oh, Gabby. Do you want another claw? You heavily slammed down the, not really. Are you judging me? I'm not. I felt like it was almost a signal, and then I cracked the one I had in front of me, and I felt like not a gentleman. You're not a gentleman. Because I should have offered you, but-

Yes, I'll take your white claw. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm sorry. No, you're okay. Was the food inedible? It was not. This was a really good chef.

I've had someone ask me for a bottle of wine from a special cask that was made for them. And I knew that it was turned. I knew it had turned. He insisted it hadn't. He insisted. He was turned too. No, no, it's fine. So I poured it.

He tasted it. Oh, yeah, this one's bad. Open another one. It's the same fucking. Right, right, right. Oh, my God tasted it oh yeah this one's bad open another one it's the same fucking right right right oh my god i'm like okay i open another one yeah this time they don't say anything so i keep refilling their glasses and they keep sipping at one point i see everyone put the glasses down and i'm like i knew it i knew it was bad i took it to the galley i tasted it it was vinegar vinegar and so i come back out and the owner was like what where's the red wine i asked for like he was trying to play it off yeah that he didn't ask me to open your winemaker shit and i was just like

uh i'm sorry i must have misheard you and that is even talking back too much you know so he was like well you need to listen better or something and this is in front of all the guests. There's like 10 people. And I was like, okay, I'll go get that right away. And then the red bottle that I brought from the same winery also turned. So they weren't stored properly. And I knew that because I'm a fucking professional and I'm an expert. He felt stupid. So he had to make me feel stupid.

And I was just like, there's nothing you can say. Even me just saying like i must have misheard you was attitude or or talking back so now did those people they sound like they're going to tip like shit did they tip like shit they tipped well actually i got ripped off though how's that so this boat has a bad reputation and uh they've had like the highest turnover and one of my agents told me not to work for this boat because her company used to manage the boat and they quit anyways i did it anyways because it was a beautiful 165 foot well-known charter yacht and i was like trying to move up 20 meters no 20 meters is 70 feet sorry

go ahead so he's hot anyway um they hired me permanently made me think i was a permanent stew on the boat i filled out all the paperwork insurance paperwork da da da i joined halfway through a seven day or a 10 day charter so i only did five days as soon as we got to chelsea piers in new york city the guests got off they let me go called me to the bridge and fired me no idea why and they said it was my tattoos and i was like oh any problem with my work or what can i do to improve nope just your tattoos your tattoos. It's not going to work. Did they say they missed your tattoos when you came? It was on my fucking CV, first of all. And I'm pretty sure they saw the small one on my finger here.

Uh-huh. Nice, nice. And that's when the captain freaked out and decided to fire me. That's a cool tattoo. I wore like a cardigan the entire charter, so they didn't even see the rest. I have a bunch. Anyway, I thought that was a whack reason. And so just to add insult to injury, a cardigan the entire charter so they didn't even see the rest i have a bunch yeah anyway i thought

that was a whack reason um and so just to add insult to injury the captain was like i don't think you're gonna make it in this industry with all those tattoos at least not on the bigger boats not on the higher end boats sure and i'm like i've been doing just fine i've been working consistently since i entered the industry i think i'll be Yeah, it's insane that there are people that gross out in the world. He was 70 from like the South. Yeah. Here's a question. I don't want to talk about-

You know what I mean? Just hard R word. I don't want to talk about race at all. No, me neither. The show is kind of talked about a little bit, but where I want to go with this is, is basically all the captains either maybe 2% female white women or a bunch of old fogies like Captain Lee. It's all old dudes, right? Yeah, but you know what's great?

Because of the Silicon Valley and the tech industry and influencing, yacht owners are getting smaller and people that are, sorry, younger. And people that are chartering yachts are getting younger and more progressive, more hip people. All right, so when someone is paying $60,000 a day and that's agreed upon, how's the other stuff work as far as price?

I'm really bad at math. So when you guys say $60,000 a day, it fucking confuses the shit out of me. Well, how are you? It's $200,000 a week on boats over 50 meters. And that doesn't include uh petrol food alcohol the tip okay so it can be up to 350 000 300 000 a week so that's why the math doesn't make sense okay yes i got it all right sorry i've been meaning to say that to you guys for fucking years

thank you but i feel like it tracks i think you guys know that it's not correct though yeah we don't know that's such an asshole no we know it's not correct for what they actually paid to go on below deck because there's this giant discount but the the numbers you just described uh you said 350 000 could be for a seven-day charter we're usually seeing three or four-day charters so i would assume you would pay more you're not buying in bulk so it's it's going to be about $60,000 a day. Okay. So you guys are right then.

Okay. All right. So Gabby, you cleared up a lot for me too with this. So I always wondered like, so say you're like charting it for $200,000 a week

and then every day you down three bottles of Louis XIV, whatever. Like that can't just be deducted off. Like they're paying extra for that they want that particular tequila and that will be there and they're paying extra for it that's what the cloud does it's it it's a it's a clean drunk but it'll give you like when the idiots are taking

endless bottle of i'm not really not this big of a pig just it's a vodka soda it's fine okay i get what you're saying so i've worked on boats malt liquor um okay so i get what you're saying So I've worked on boats It's malt liquor Okay so I get what you're saying I've worked on charters Where We provisioned for them Off their preference seat And that's included in the price Okay

And if They run out of that shit And they want to keep going Then we'll dig into the owner's stash And keep track of everything they drink And then So it's like a hotel Add it

Whatever you broke into the snack Whatever The mini bar Yeah the mini bar basically and then we have to replace it and then they and they pay for it um but we do have other alcohol on board it's just like some of these people really go through it really quickly and then you're like fuck you know like what do you do now you start well and then they're if they're partiers like they're not going to notice the difference between patron and don julio ah nice so you start filling those are both shitty tequilas like no one and once put a little juice in there does it really matter what it is no and sometimes when people are just too drunk i just don't make them what they ask for i just don't put alcohol in it all right so a question about the show verse reality so on the

show they charter for three days and then they gotta unload and they all go out together at the same restaurant despite spending four days with each other tired exhausted how close to reality is that do you guys all get in a uh a rented van and go to a restaurant no we want to stay the fuck away from each other like a lot of the times on on boats we work with a lot of couples like our industry is really supportive of teams couple teams that's the show's only feature one those people and uh sierra sierra wow i was gonna say what's her face that's another name they were a really good example i've worked with a couple like that he's a cheating bastard i think i think he definitely banged george i think he's engaged right now he's getting a little side to

someone else no i don't want to believe that they're over he's engaged if you're working and living on the same boat with your partner there's no way you're gonna cheat like i've tried to date in this industry it's so dumb like they're unless you're on the same boat it makes no sense all right so let's get into that sorry i'm gonna wait what was the question i was supposed to answer uh it was do you actually go out no we don't we want to go to our rooms read our kindle masturbate fucking go get a hotel for the night and go like fuck our boyfriend or whatever so you will leave the boat during those days off where you can go just get your own space if we have permission sometimes people can be like no one's going off the boat tonight and why would there's always someone on watch because maybe we have a pickup we have to pick up another charter tomorrow

like the boat i'm joining next week we have nine charters back to back from some of them are seven days what the longest one is 12 oh wow and in between each charter i only have two days off which are not really days off because we're gonna flip the boat then i have a night off but we'll pick up charter the next day so i'm not gonna get this is the job that keeps you till april yes okay really really quickly yeah oh my god the thought of chartering a boat for 12 days are they stopping off in a city and then staying at a hotel for a night or is there usually but kovat i have a frog in my throat it's white join the club fuck you white claw yeah um no kovat is fucking everything up because when

before guests would be like we're going off the boat for dinner at least the chef gets a break right but because of kovat most guests don't leave the boat luckily this boat is a heavy water sports boat and our captain and his wife the chef teach diving and they're dive masters so they're doing jet skis paddle boarding diving snorkeling so that takes care of five days right i mean the longest chart i've ever done was 10 days and and it was an owner's trip and i actually really love them they wrote me a letter of recommendation they're fucking dope but like people i don't know for 10 days like 12 even that's two weeks it's so what are we gonna do i'm gonna i'm gonna give like i've ebbs and flows of i think how a 12 day would go good pun the first 13 thanks first uh three days i think they're trying to get all the partying out of the way

right and then it's kind of slows down into a mellow stage, almost like a Monday through Friday. And then probably two days, the last two days are probably full on partying. Well, these people are used to this lifestyle. So I've seen people like day four, they're like all spread out. They're not even talking to each other anymore. And they're reading their books and like listening to their podcasts, doing yoga swimming like so then i get to chill a little bit but because of like my cocktail background and and i'm always the late person i'm always the one up till two or three in the morning making cocktails which is fine i'm used to it but like there's a there's a lull in the trip um and i

don't know what covid restrictions are gonna to be like now yeah but hopefully they can get off the boat speaking of money and this is a very rude question thank you how much do i make you better not i'm not going to ask you how much you make i'm going to say someone that works in the same industry as you for the same hours on similar boats what can they pull down in a season okay this is what I'm going to say.