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'Sea is our home': Meet UAE residents who live and work on yachts

From atypical working hours to the double-edged sword of restaurant meals, here's how these crew members spend their lives onboard

Published: Thu 9 Jan 2025, 6:00 AM

Updated: Thu 9 Jan 2025, 6:24 PM

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Consideirng the convenience and the nature of their job, a lot of crew members aboard charter yachts live on the same vessel they work at.

The seas have been Captain Chito's home for almost a decade now. He has been working and living on the same yacht since 2016 and, while the setup is not usual, he likes it. "Anytime there is a booking on the yacht or any expected trip, we get to go for that trip," he told Khaleej Times.

One downside for Chito, however, is when people sometimes come in the middle of the night to check out the boat for a few minutes and leave, which disrupts his sleep. “Once my sleep is interrupted, I cannot sleep immediately,” he said. He also added that this has happened many times as the harbour has no closing time.

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Like other crew members, Chito gets one day off each week but, sometimes, his schedule gets so busy that he only has downtime twice a month, which he uses to run errands like going to the barber shop or meeting up with friends.

Captain Chito

Captain Chito

There have been times when Chito has been awake all night on duty, only to continue working in the morning to accommodate other guests. But for the expat, there are no excuses. "As long as there is a trip, we have to go for that."

Jenessa Marcos, a stewardess who lives and works aboard one of the yachts docked in Dubai Harbour, loves the fact that her work and home are one and the same. She said it’s because everything is convenient and in one place. "Living on the yacht is amazing, seriously. It’s so nice because the crew and the captain are like family."

She arrived in the UAE a little over a year ago and started her first job as a yacht stewardess. Her working hours are atypical, since guests can come in for a boat ride at any given hour. Sometimes, the yacht trips end well into the wee hours, at 2am or 3am.

For Jenessa, this is convenient, as she doesn’t have to travel back home after a long day of work. Her room is just below the deck from where she usually works. She also doesn’t “have to wake up too early to cook food for breakfast or bring lunch. Everything is in one place".

However, because she spends most of her waking hours on a sea vessel, Jenessa struggles to socialise. She said that since she’s constantly working and helping the guests with their needs during trips and preparing the yacht for forthcoming guests, she has no social life.

The crew member also misses cooking. The crew usually orders from a restaurant. Captain Chito said the crew members usually order homecooked meals from a ‘kabayan’ [fellow Filipina].

Chito said “We almost never have time to cook food here so it’s much better to buy cooked meals.”

During the summer months, Jenessa said that yachts don’t receive many guests because of the extremely hot conditions. So for the most part, the crew would stay inside the air-conditioned rooms to battle the intense summer heat.

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