My yachting days were full of surprises to say the least. I have been so fortunate to meet some of the most amazing, powerful and eccentric people I wouldn't normally cross paths with. I am sworn to confidentiality and my word is sacred (plus I want to keep getting gigs;), so I will not share anything about the people I worked for, however I will tell this story leaving all names and details that are forbidden, out. Except Mr. Plant - I already said his name in the title for God’s sake.
After watching a documentary on Netflix about a certain record label genius in his upper 80’s, who has signed just about every great artist we’ve ever known, I was reminded of the time we had him onboard for a couple of weeks. I won't mention his name but I will say, one of the singers he’d signed was married to Bobby Brown at one time. I was also fortunate enough to have her onboard in the Bahamas on a different boat! Random, and a story for another time.
This particular summer I was in the Mediterranean on a very busy boat that had back to back charters. I was missing my boyfriend at home, we were on the hook most the summer (on anchor, for all you non-sailors) and we barely had time off to enjoy one of the most spectacular places on Earth. Which is why I always volunteered to do the trash runs in the tender with the deckies - it allowed me to be on land! This is also why yachties have a work hard, play harder mentality.
We don’t usually know who our guests are until right before they arrive. This American mogul arrived with his young and handsome partner, and a group of close friends - all of which were lovely! They had many parties during their stay, were easy to please, they were interesting people and enjoyed hanging out with the crew, and they kept us entertained.
"You've got to seize the opportunity if it is presented to you." -Clive Davis
We bounced around Monaco, the Amalfi coast and Cote d’Azur, and while underway to St Tropez, the principal decided to host a dinner party on the boat the next night. Now, dinner parties on yachts are not your typical dinner parties. We pull out ALL the stops, and per his request to host one of the finest parties ever to have seen Saint Tropez, we got to work!
The 25-person guest list consisted of a few celebrities, some of which you may know. The daughter of Luke Skywalker's’ sister was there, the famous ex-wife of a certain president was there (freshly dyed blonde hair and fully botoxed), accompanied by her young, ridiculously sexy French fiancée. And there was another actress there as well. Side story about her: the day of the party I was able to walk around town and stopped in a pub to catch some of the World Cup (happening at the time) and saw a commercial that caught my attention. I noticed the older actress in the TV add with the football players and thought wow, she’s up there in age but man, she’s got it going on! And wouldn’t you know it, she was one of the guests at the dinner party that very night - like how crazy is that? She went from on the TV to shaking my hand in a matter of hours!
Now, on to when I met Mr. Plant. I was on early duty and loved talking to the guests while having their morning coffee. It was the perfect time to have conversation and get to know them better.
On this particular morning, one of our guests was on her computer and Skyping with someone she called “Bobby”. She was telling him how much fun she was having, about how much she adored the Med, the boat, the crew, and then started talking about me. I smiled and ran around until she said, “Sara, Bobby wants to meet you!”, so I walked over and she introduced us. We chatted about this and that, had a couple laughs, then said cheerio. They spoke a bit longer then said their goodbyes. Smiling, she let me know Bobby was her life-long on again, off again love. Grrrrl I hear you on that.
Later that day, when speaking to the principal’s partner (who, by the way, was so fun and kind and an incredible guy in every way), he let me know the woman’s life long love was Robert Plant. As in, Bobby, the man I was on Skype having a few laughs with, was Robert freaking Plant! And the kicker? I had NO idea who Robert Plant even was!!
Let’s just say, there were plenty of people that were flabbergasted that I had no clue as to who the musical genius was that I had "met" that day, but I know now, he’s kind of a big deal.
I say “met” because I didn’t really meet him in person, but I did get to have a couple minutes convo with him via Skype and I made him laugh, so it’s sort of meeting him, right? And would you have even read this if it was titled “The Day I Skyped With Robert Plant?” Yeah, I didn’t think so!
Totally unrelated (cough), but if you’d like my recommendation on a fantastic documentary that’s currently on Netflix, “The Soundtrack of our Lives” is the heartwarming and insightful story of one of today's most powerful men in the music industry. Enjoy!
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