SWISH private yacht

CHEF/HOSTESS REBECCA "BECKY" GARCIA

Rebecca Garcia’s friends call her Becky and describe her as good fun, lively and a tireless worker. She’s also an extraordinary cook with an extensive repertoire of recipes. She has run many kitchens, large and small, worked in five-star restaurants and cooked aboard yachts for some 25 years. It all began in the kitchens of her two Grandmothers, one English and one Spanish, when she was so small she couldn’t reach the table without a stool.

Becky spent her childhood in London, her teens and early 20s in Donegal, on Ireland’s rugged, northwest coast, and summers with Dad and his family in Spain. She did a lot of amazing things. Her “very hardy life” on a small Irish island in the North Atlantic required commuting by rowboat in very cold, rough water. She worked with the Irish Civil Defense ambulance emergency team. She helped a master boat builder construct a Viking ship. She achieved diplomas in holistic massage, anatomy, and physiology, reflexology and courses in Reiki.

Becky says, “I love fresh, healthy food, especially colorful vegetarian dishes with delicious sauces, and Mediterranean cuisine. Guests rave about my homemade bread, tasty pastas, fresh fruit salads, cakes, and puddings.” In addition to cooking great meals aboard SWISH, Becky might find time to chat about her family’s 1911 50-foot Norwegian gaff-rigged ketch, or her three Atlantic crossings, or the big posh yacht in Guatemala with an owner who accidentally threw himself overboard. With Becky as your chef and hostess, your charter adventure in the Bahamas could include delightful ingredients you never even imagined.

Guests enjoy sharing time with little Bella (a Schipperke dog), especially with the dolphin swimming or walks or games on the beach, but equally for clients that are not doggy lovers. In the 1690s, the Schipperke became popular watchdogs on the barges in Belgium and earned its name schipperke, meaning "little captain" in Flemish.