Nobody remembers the knots. Everybody remembers the lunch. Food is half the charter memory, and it works differently on day boats and weekly yachts, so here is the complete map.
Day charters: three good options
Bring your own. Most day boats welcome it; the crew stows and serves and the cold storage is better than your cooler. Ask about glass; crews prefer cans and plastic by the water and they are right.
Catering aboard. From platters to a full served lunch, arranged with the booking and priced before you commit. This is the sweet spot for most groups: zero logistics, restaurant quality, eaten at anchor in a bay the restaurant can only look at.
The lunch ashore. The Mediterranean's institution: the beach restaurant you anchor off and tender into. The famous ones, Formentera's beach tables, Nerano's zucchini pasta on the Amalfi Coast, book out weeks ahead in season, and a crew that can get the table is worth their weight in reservations. Tell us the restaurant dream early and we will build the day around it.
Weekly charters: the preference sheet is everything
On a crewed week the chef provisions before you board, paid through the APA, and cooks to a preference sheet you fill in ahead: allergies, coffee, wine direction, kids' non negotiables, the breakfast you actually eat. Twenty honest minutes on that sheet buys seven days of eating exactly what you love without ordering once. Dinners ashore are on your card; the crew books the tables.
Drinks, honestly
Your bottles are welcome aboard on day boats unless the listing says otherwise; served, iced and poured by the crew. On weeks, the cellar is provisioned to your sheet. The one universal rule is the captain's word on quantity when the toys come out: swimming and the third bottle are sequenced, not simultaneous, and good crews manage it so smoothly nobody notices being managed.