Anyone who has actually spent extended time in Los Angeles knows that you're not really frequenting the ocean unless you live by the water.
Boatsetter is a "boat sharing" company, which means that it offers boat owners a platform to rent out their boats to "offset the costs of boat ownership," according to their website. It also gives normies like myself the opportunity to cosplay being rich. Win-win situation! They've actually been around since 2012, but I'm pissed I didn't know about it sooner, because it's an incredible option for celebrating something special.
They sent me a range of different charter options, and I settled on this 57-foot luxury yacht, which fits up to 12 passengers and comes out to $1,352 total for a three-hour ride. In other words, if you and 11 friends decided to rent this boat for the day, it would end up being $112.66 per person! Here she is in all her glory:
I ended up bringing seven people (my mom, my two brothers, my brother's girlfriend, and three of my best friends), so there were eight of us in total. The boat was docked at Marina del Ray, and it was an absolutely beautiful day, so we were all eager to set sail. Here we are, making our way onto "Outsiders":
Thankfully, the boat comes with both a captain and crew member to A. make the boat go vroom, B. make sure no one dies, and C. optimize our fun. We were blessed with the intrepid Captain John, and lovely deckhand Dotty. They gave us a quick rundown of safety guidelines, boat rules, and all the different places we could lounge around the boat (which ended up being basically everywhere):
For this service you need to bring your own food, so we brought a bunch of crackers, cheeses, chips, dips, fruit, and veggies. Dotty didn't want us to have to worry about setting it up, so she took matters into her own hands and created a beautiful spread for us.
I was also able to hook my phone up to a speaker that projected my music throughout the boat. I would highly recommend this Boat Day Playlist from Spotify — it had a great range of both old and new tracks that really maximized the ocean vibes. I think we all hit our peak when we were laying on the front of the boat, looking out onto the horizon. Even if it was just for a moment, I truly felt like I didn't have a care in the world.
My friends and I laughed.
My mom laughed even harder.
My brother Jake and his girlfriend, Jess, pretended they were Jack and Rose on Titanic.
Jess took a photo of me and my siblings chilling on the Captain's level of the boat and told us it was "the most Succession we've ever looked."
Dotty was readily available for wine refills, and anything else we needed. Somehow, she saw from inside the boat that my brother spilled his drink, and immediately came out with a cloth for cleanup. I only have a couple other boat experiences to compare this to, but it was 100% the best service I've ever received.
For the first hour, we were motoring around, but it wasn't long before a couple people started feeling sea sick, so we spent the last two hours slowly cruising around the docking area. Honestly, we were just happy to see the sunset and check out the other boats.
Overall, this was a 10/10 experience. Boatsetter has over 50,000 boats in 700+ locations worldwide, so do yourself a favor and check out some of the options for either a daycation or vacation!
