Misplaced in Europe

This travel memoir chronicles my adventures on an 80-foot yacht cruising around the Italian coast, while I work as a "hostess" for a couple of elitist Monegasques.

It’s not such a bad gig really, except that, between you and me, I'm here under slightly false pretences. Having been a corporate journalist for much of my career, it wasn't much of a challenge to write the perfect job application, and it was even loosely based on fact. I can sail. Trouble is, in addition to a “bit” of sailing, a hostess is mostly expected to provide a silver service environment for the boat owners. This includes cooking, serving, cleaning, washing, ironing, changing sheets and turning down beds for any guests. How hard can it be? In fact, fudging the cooking, serving and ironing abilities is easy in comparison to learning how to adapt to a "servant" mentality.

Underlying the entire story is a growing dispute between myself and my new partner, Bob—a corporate trainer with some impressive sailing credentials—who has been employed as skipper. Bob’s early romantic attentions, quickly spiral into malevolent behaviour that eventually forces us into a sinister duel, from which there can only be one winner.

Written in the first person, the book includes local recipes, snap-shots of the colourful characters I meet along the way, interesting historic facts and amusing work-related incidents. I aim to expose the funny, poignant and sometimes sinister adventures of choosing a path less well travelled.