From shore to ship, from ship to shore

It’s a hot Friday afternoon when I catch-up with Nuno and Jessie, the husband and wife team behind Earth & Sea. Despite the fact they have spent the day running around organising engineers to fix aircon units, negotiating chart topping DJs to play a private party, and balancing every other aspect that comes with running a successful business, they are completely relaxed.

 

 

It was such a pleasure to spend time with them, learning how the partnership works, where their inspiration came from and how they have successfully slotted themselves into the market. Ultimately Earth & Sea – Elite Lifestyle Management is a one stop shop for anyone with a property on land or a yacht on water that needs managing. They can hire trusted staff; source those, all too sadly unnecessary, World Cup Final tickets along with private jet to Russia; or simply provision for the weekend pool party.

 

Their enthusiasm is infectious, and I can really see this family run business going far. It’s has so far been based on their reputation and word of mouth recommendations. The growth is organic in the truest sense of the word. They personally vet every owner and recruit, as they only work with good people who they themselves would be happy to work for. The theory being that if crew or house staff don’t like their owners and vice versa, neither will use the company again. Repeat business is high, the theory is working.

 

I asked Nuno how he got into yachting and apparently it started with a single page in book. Trained as a civil engineer, a twenty-year-old Nuno spent his formative years looking after his father’s factory in Germany. After a two-month holiday in South East Asia turned into a ripped return ticket and a further seventeen months, the inevitable happened and money ran out. Needing to get himself home, Nuno went and stayed with a friend. And lo and behold, on his coffee table in Asia was a book that would change Nuno’s destiny. The book was “How to travel the world for free” and the page that Nuno happened to flick to? Why, yachting of course.

 

Fast forward a few years and we find Nuno on Motor Yacht Leander, forging friendships and ties that have lasted years. Yachting, it seems,  is often a story of timing and luck – one wet, straggly day walker handing out CVs in the rain found himself in the vicinity of a captain with a car. Two hours later he had a job aboard the boat. Five years, two enduring mentors and much hard work later, Nuno credits a lot of where he is today to what he learnt in that time.

 

Nuno eventually left yachting and was managing five properties with thirty staff each, plus several yachts, for a Russian oligarch. He’s recruiting staff, provisioning the houses and boats, organising everything from helicopters, to jets to private gigs. It’s towards the end of the seven years with his boss that he met Jessie at Volksfest, where she was dressed as Alice in Wonderland, and playing the lead in a National Tour of Romeo and Juliet. The two hit it off immediately. A professionally trained actress, with skills in post-editing, PR, marketing and event management, Jessie was the perfect ying to Nuno’s yang.

 

It was these first heady six months that the idea of Earth & Sea recruitment began to really come to fruition. They started with recruitment and property management in France and then London, filling penthouses and palaces with people they knew would fit. Bolstered by the steady encouragement of Jessie, and ready to come back to yachting, Nuno started to tap back into the industry that he loved, and within which he had so many contacts and trusted relationships. The name changed, and Earth & Sea Elite Lifestyle Management was born.

 

The company now offers a full-service agency to owners of houses and yachts, those who work on them, and partners who make the whole system work. If you need a grand piano in the middle of the night, if your nav system fails, if you want a chef proficient in cooking puffer fish, they will have a solution.

 

Nuno looks wistful as he tells me of the plan behind setting up the company. Years before, he had arrived in Palma a single man working up from deckie to captain. Now at lunch he is living his dream, having got married to Jessie, the strong and silent driving force behind the company, had a family and set up a successful business that is globally mobile.

 

At its heart Earth and Sea is all about relationships and helping others, whilst carving out a good living and having fun doing it. It’s about a love of the ocean and the land and giving impeccable service to each and every client.

 

Services:

YACHT MANAGEMENT

• Yacht agent
• Yacht crew recruitment
• Yacht Services and Maintenance
• Yacht management compliance
• Yacht crew finances
• Yacht crew coaching

 

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

 

• Private household recruitment
• Luxury ski chalets
• Domestic staff
• Luxury property management
• Family office personnel

 

RECRUITMENT

• Looking for a job on land or at sea?
• Looking for staff or crew?

 

CONCIERGE

• Luxury yacht charter
• Private jet training
• Commercial and private air charter
• Estate and property management
• Private consultancy
• Art consultancy

 

• Palma de Mallorca, Spain
  Spain Office: +34 971 896 791
  Spain Mobile: +34 682 032 056
• Contact email: info@earthandsealifestyle.com

 

By Victoria Pearce