Poe charter yacht charter company

DYSFUNCTIONAL BOAT & DYSFUNCTIONAL CREW - AVOID!!! I booked a trip for my husband’s birthday; just us 2 on a cat with the skipper and a hostess. It would be the trip of a lifetime! I reached out in advance to both the hostess and the skipper, to discuss our 10-day trip to the Tuamotu. The hostess promptly got back to me. The skipper, however, did not bother getting in touch until the day of. I had wanted to discuss the itinerary to get ready and be able to have a discussion about what we wanted to see, what we could do…etc. When he called the morning of, he told me we were all set for our tour of the Windward Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, Tahaa, Bora). He was surprised to hear we had booked for the Tuamotu and expressed worry about the weather in the Tuamotu. I was stunned! I had just paid over 15,000 euros for a trip that clearly was poorly organized! He said he would check the weather and we would figure it out. We got to the boat at 4pm, met the crew, and saw them leave for the night shortly after. No dinner or offer of, or explanation as to why the trip wasn’t starting until the next day at 6am. Basically paid for a night on a boat in the harbor, which was upsetting already. Upon checking out the boat, we realized the marine head on our side had an awful smell, bad enough that it would make you vomit even if you weren’t seasick. We hoped it was temporary but it didn’t get any better the whole trip. It was disgusting! We would come to realize that the bathroom on the other side, which was going to be used by the staff, wasn’t working properly either so they had to use ours. 4 people with 1 disgusting bathroom - great! The pump wasn’t working well either in this head either and had to be manually activated at times. We were also told that the hatch over the bathroom had been sealed; it was still leaking and molding the wooden cabinets. It also leaked all over the toilet paper rolls by the toilet and inside the cabinet. We made do for a couple days but were eventually able to get new toilet paper rolls when we got to Rangiroa. But I digress. Going back to the 1st night, we settled in the room we were directed to stay in. The sheets smelled musty/moldy. So did the towels. The extra sheets were even worse. No comforter or blanket. When we asked about it, we were just told there was none and no one offered to bring one in. The hostess eventually came back to spend the night, and seeing that we hadn’t gone out to eat, offered to get us something to snack on. We thought, ok, maybe things will be ok. Let’s keep an open mind and it’ll be an adventure! The skipper and the hostess were both nice, but clearly did not get along. They would constantly complain about each other. The skipper, a young French man, while very competent at his job, had no respect for the older, Tahitian, hostess (who actually is a skipper herself). She would try to make suggestions about where to take us and activities we could do. We are not beach folks and do not enjoy just suntanning so we were eager to discover new areas, meet locals, learn about the islands. Yet, the skipper kept turning down her suggestions, notably refusing to take us to the town in Tikehau. We had to ask him directly to take us for him to finally agree. However, he spent his time trolling on the way there, as he was more concerned with his wants (i.e., fishing) than ours; by the time we got to the town, everything was closing down so we didn’t get to even grab a drink. The hostess was kind enough to give us a little tour. It was clear everyone there knew her, as she would stop and chat along the way. This confirmed what we had observed, namely that she knew these islands very well and should have been in charge of the itinerary. Going back to fishing… the skipper did catch a large fish on the 3rd or 4th day. He asked my husband if he wanted to reel it in, which made my husband very happy as he likes fishing. The skipper then talked about how he would filet it… etc. That’s the last we heard of the fish as the skipper had caught the fish for himself and had no intention to eat it with us. The experience repeated itself the last night there with the skipper catching fish after fish as if in a factory; fish that had been attracted to the boat by food the hostess had thrown in the water and the light of the boat. Encouraged by the hostess who wanted to bring fish home, he filled a large bucket and bragged about catching more than 40. My husband and I both expressed our opposition to that, as we felt that attracting fish this way and filling a whole bucket was not proper fishing and was not sustainable fishing either. The skipper wanted us to participate but we have more respect for the fish and the environment than that. He could not understand our opposition and continued. Though he kept his fish to himself, we shared every meal with him and the hostess, even intentionally ignoring his poor table manners (e.g., double dipping, grabbing from the communal plates directly with his hands). Now the meals… we had told the hostess we are not picky eaters and have no allergies. I did not realize I needed to explain we expected to have Polynesian food or at least fish while on the boat. We were served tasty meals, yes, but very unexpected ones in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. After the quiche Lorraine, we were treated to endives au jambon (endives wrapped in ham in a béchamel sauce), lamb legs, spaghetti and meatballs… and only once had raw tuna. It just seemed really odd!!! So if you do go ahead and book with Poe Charter (though you should really reconsider that decision to begin with), make sure to specify exactly what you expect. Also make sure to bring cash for excursions. Since the skipper didn’t bother contacting us to discuss the itinerary, we had no idea what to expect. When we were told we owed 14,000 francs cash for an excursion they had planned on Makatea, we were surprised. Luckily we had gotten some cash before embarking, but still felt ill prepared. The cherry on top was the return. We had paid extra to be dropped off on Moorea. The skipper had no knowledge of that apparently! He then tried to convince us that we needed to be dropped off at 11am so he could be back to Tahiti by 1pm as requested by the company. Our contract was clear that drop off was at 1pm on Moorea. We got to Moorea around 9am… Poe Charter is such a scam. We still held them off until 12:30pm. No lunch provided, however. Now, considering others’ horror stories involving Poe Charter, I guess we got very lucky and still managed to have a somewhat successful trip, but I would recommend thinking twice about chartering this company. It’s too much money to take the risk to have your dream vacation impacted by their sleazy practices.

We had a wonderful time in Tahiti. Great boat, perfect sailing conditions. Bruce and his team were really welcoming and helpful in handing me the boat and explaining all the details.