Charisma - SYS

Transcription

Charisma - SYS

THE
O N LY
T
R
LIFESTYLE
A
V
E
L
MAGAZINE
D E D I C AT E D
TO
YA C H T
www.YachtChartersMagazine.com
VA C AT I O N S
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 2
Charisma
Graciousness marks every facet
of this
‘divinely inspired’
megayacht
ITALIA RIVIERA
Stylish Sailing
in Sanremo
MEXICO
FRANCE
Corsica:
L’Isle de Beauté
Great W
Shark D hite
iving
in
Guadalu
pe
Page
HAWAII
39
Kaua’i: The lush
Garden Island
Dubai:
Jewel of the
Arabian Sea
Page 12
A KIRCAALI MEDIA PUBLICATION
DVENTUR
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IA
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The Sea of Cortez
OOPA!
Holiday in
Greece
Page 57
2006
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60
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 2 2006
f e a t u r e s
18
Stylish Sailing in Sanremo
Cleverly combining shabby with chic
Sanremo, an hour’s sail from the French border and a mere
20 miles east of fairytale Monaco, it is the perfect stop
for those who crave the richness of a sophisticated city with
none of the downsides - except for the crazy drivers!
24
The Sea of Cortez
Abundant in marine wildlife and privacy
Dinner awaited – medium rare steak and butter-dripping lobster tail.
But...“I hate to do this to you just before THIS dinner but there’s a
mammoth pod of dolphins off our bow.” The announcement on the
ship’s loudspeaker sounded almost apologetic.
28
M/Y Charisma
Charisma has a Greek root meaning ‘divinely inspired’
Graciousness marks every facet of this 130-foot yacht built by
Hatteras Yachts in 1995. Dee Robinson was the original interior designer;
her conception was largely retained in an interior and
exterior refurbishment accomplished in 2005.
4
VOLUME:3 ISSUE:2 2006
34
Jervis Bay
Australia’s Newest Marine Park
Jervis Bay, approximately 250 kilometres south of Sydney,
abounds in sub-tropical marine life, especially in spring and
summer, when warm east coast currents push down
Australia’s east coast.
50
Corsica: L’Isle de Beauté
French island basking in the Italian sun
A natural paradise where the rugged coastline dips regularly into
bays lined with white sand beaches, hung with a backdrop of
snow-capped mountains, and hemmed with a turquoise sea so
clear you can see the fish without the need for a snorkeling mask.
60
Lycia: Sailing Through Centuries
Packed with some of the finest wonders of the world a
Today there is a whole raft of nautical charts and coastal pilots
available for people cruising there. Yet only 200 years ago this
coast in the Eastern Mediterranean was a complete blank
on the earth’s atlases.
YACHTCHARTERSMAGAZINE.COM
t a b l e
82
o f
68
c o n t e n t s
74
c o l u m n s
9
Interview: YV&C TV
d e p a r t m e n t s
8
Peter Hurzeler, CEO, Ocean Independence
12
Middle East: Jewel of the Arabian Sea
Take an insider’s look at Dubai, the year’s most talked about luxury travel destination
38
Adventure Charter: Ghosts Beneath Guadalupe
74
78
A brush with white death and a Jaws legend
54
Travel Diary: OOPA! Girls Holiday in Greece
Recommended Yacht Charter Brokers
Recommended Air Charter Companies
Yacht Profiles
Best of Breed: M/Y O’Mega
Pacific
Quaint, Cosmopolitan
Kaua’i
82
Yacht Profiles
84
Technology
86
Luxury Goods
94
Cruising Cigar Man
96
Gadgets&Things
Sacks Group’s Yacht Toys
Four twenty-something’s leave the world behind for 7 days to cruise the Greek Isles
58
Mediterranean: Super Yachts Go Treasure Hunting In Cannes
Diamond treasure, secret maps and perfect sailing conditions make the race a hit
64
Industry News: Charter Broker
June Montagne joins Northrop and Johnson Yachts – Ships, Inc. Fort Lauderdale
66
Interiors: Tanks A Lot for A Lot of Tanks!
Nothing better complements an ocean sojourn than a magnificent aquarium
68
In Touch While on Charter
Big Boys’ Toys of Summer
Hot Hondurans!
Luxury Electronics
Jet Charters: Private Jet Travel
YVC speaks with Jonathan Breeze, of Air Partner’s JetCard
72
Dining: Le Cirque
A Restaurant that is everything New York
special: luxury goods
90 Floral Fancy:
Cartier dazzles the world with striking baubles in delicate floral forms
Known as the standard bearer in jewelry design for more than a century, Cartier could choose to rest
on the laurels of its legendary signature designs.
6
BROKERAGE . NEW CONSTRUCTION . CHARTER . MANAGEMENT AND CREW PLACEMENT
YOUR CHARTER EXPERIENCE
ELEGANT, PRIVATE, RELIABLE
M/Y ARGYLL
5 Staterooms — Elevator to all levels
June Montagne joins
Northrop and Johnson
Fort Lauderdale!
June brings 23 years of yachting
experience to the Florida office. June, a
member of the Florida Yacht Brokers
Association, the American Yacht Charter
Association, and a board member of
Charter Yacht Brokers Association, is well
equipped to handle any charter scenario,
M/Y SOVEREIGN
6 Staterooms — Great charter crew!
worldwide. Service, honesty, and hard
work are June's trademarks!
June Montagne
954-522-3344 or june@njyachts.com
F O R T L A U D E R D A L E • B O S T O N • N E W P O R T • C A N N E S • N E W P O R T B E A C H • S E AT T L E • A N N A P O L I S
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8
NOTE: THIS LIST IS PROVIDED AS AN ADDITIONAL SERVICE TO OUR READERS. THE PUBLISHER DOES NOT ASSUME ANY LIABILITY FOR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS.
Dream Sailing specializes in luxury, crewed sailing yachts from 55ft. based in St.
info@voyagecharters.com | www.voyagecharters.com
INTERVIEW
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YV&C TV
Peter Hurzeler, CEO, Ocean Independence
ROBYN FORMA: Welcome back to Yacht Charters Magazine.TV. We are again reporting from the MYBA
Charter Show here in Genoa, Italy. Today we are talking with Peter Hurzeler, who is the CEO of Ocean
Independence, a charter marketing and brokerage firm. Peter, how are you today?
PETER HURZELER: I’m very excited about the interview, and I’m very happy about the show because
it’s a fantastic show.
FORMA: It’s going well for you so far?
HURZELER: I think it is going excellently. We have,
talking from an association point of view, a wonderful selection of yachts; for Ocean Independence we
are displaying eight yachts and they are looking fine
with great crews, and we are looking forward to the
results of the show.
FORMA:Tell us a little bit about Ocean Independence,
the background of the company. I know you recently
acquired another company so let’s discuss that a
little bit.
Watch this interview and more at
HURZELER: I think Ocean Independence may be
www.yachtchartersmagazine.tv
the fastest expanding and growing company in the
industry today, and it has been for the past couple of years. Basically, there are two or three companies
that are at the root of Ocean Independence as it is today. One company, which was my company, is Ocean
Crews, used to be Ocean Crews, which started in 1992, first as an operator of large motor sailing yachts,
the 36 meters. Then since 1994 I’ve started to develop it as a – how shall I say – multi-service yachting
company, so offering all the services like chartering, sales and purchase, management and new construction. In 2004 or 5 we purchased a yachting company in Monaco. At that time we had about six offices
worldwide, and in 2005 we merged – took over Sea Independence, as it used to be called, and changed
our name to Ocean Independence. Now we are a company with about 40, 42 people with 10 locations
worldwide in all the yachting areas of importance.
FORMA: How many yachts do you manage for charter?
HURZELER: I would need to look at the list to see how many there are exactly but I think there are about
45–50 yachts that we charter at the moment, both sailing yachts and motor yachts in sizes ranging from
60 feet – plus/minus 60 feet to 220 feet.
FORMA: Our audience is obviously a charter audience interested in charter. What are the main things
that somebody looks for in a charter? What should somebody look for when they’re looking to book a
boat, to book a destination?
HURZELER: What we look for when we are talking to people who inquire about charters is to try to find
out about their wishes, their requirements in the first place. As it is a – whatever you choose – a highpriced vacation, it should also be a high quality and a very rewarding type of vacation. To achieve that
you need to know precisely, if you can find out ahead of time, what the requirements of the client are with
respect to whether they like to have a very active type of holiday, whether they are more interested in the
scenery, whether it is a sailing boat or a motor yacht, whether the [tonies] are of importance, as we say.
So that’s the first thing and in a way the advice to people would therefore be to think first as much as they
can, or to discuss as much as they can with the charter broker what their requirements are. And going
from there we then look at the right boat and the right crew, which is also very important for the client.
FORMA: Yes, the crew is very important. Do you have any processes that you go through? Obviously
you’re here at the show and you inspect the boats and talk to the crew. Tell us a little bit about how you
familiarize yourself and your brokers with the boats that are available for charter.
HURZELER: As you say, we’re at this show and there are two shows basically for our industry. There are a
couple of smaller shows in addition to that, but there are basically two shows that are of importance exactly
9
INTERVIEW
the purpose to familiarize ourselves with the
Haida G Formerly: with
Rosenkavakier
FORMA: Since we are on board Haida G here, tell us about it. I know Haida G has been part of your
charter fleet now for about a year and now is available for sale – is that true?
HURZELER: That’s correct. Haida G – under the name Rosenkavalier –was one of the most wellknown and most successful charter yachts in the past ten to 15 years. Many brokers here know her
as Rosenkavalier and I guess that’s a name that
will always stick to her in her future life. She
was bought about five years ago by the current
owner, and she was actually in quite a desperate state at the time. She’d been very actively
chartered but not very actively maintained at the
time. I think we’re all fortunate, the industry and
the vessel, that he was somebody who had the
necessary funds and attention and patience to
put her back onto the water. We spent about two
years thinking about what to do because there
was so much to do. We then did a big revision in the engine room on the main engines, which are
still the original engines, which is in itself a miracle. In 2003 we then got involved in order to carry
out, supervise, organize, manage the whole refit, which was virtually a rebuild, I’d have to say.
FORMA: We looked around inside and it’s just magnificent.
HURZELER: I think she is. It’s really a credit mainly to the owner who was also wise enough not to
try to achieve everything that one could achieve thereby maintaining, in my opinion, the unique
character of this vessel. It took a lot, not only money – I mean money is always important in this
industry – but it took a lot of time and patience to get it done. She was actually delivered in 2005,
early 2005, and since then has been cruising with the owner, has done a few charters, and now he’s
offering her for sale.
FORMA: As I said she’s magnificent. It reminded me almost of a beach house, the décor inside, very
light and airy and beautiful. I wish you a lot of luck and a lot of charters and great business for
you and thank you so much for joining us tonight.
HURZELER: You’re most welcome.
“The professionalism over the
past few years
has increased a
lot, through
certification
and the
requirements
from the
authorities”
10
boats and with the crews, and also to see some
boats year after year – to see how they are maintained, whether there’s a lot of crew changes, a lot
of ownership changes, because that’s all an indication of the service that our clients will receive on
board. And our team of charter brokers therefore
is obliged to go to shows like these and to see as
many boats as possible, to take notes of their visits,
which we then exchange on a portal and with other
means among the company brokers who couldn’t
make it. I think it’s the basic knowledge that owners
have to pass on to the brokers and brokers need to
have to be able to sell the charters properly.
FORMA: If an interested charter guest is in the
area during the show, are they able to come on
board any of the yachts with your brokers?
HURZELER: Yes, that is a possibility. In principle
it’s not a public show, it’s really an industry show,
and I must say that our brokers with the size of the
show nowadays already find it hard to see all the
boats throughout the week or the five days that
they have. But there is a possibility for guests to be
taken into the show to look at yachts that might be
candidates for a charter.
FORMA: What do you see in the charter market
now and moving forward. Are there any trends
that we should know about? Obviously these
boats are getting bigger and bigger by the minute.
What new destinations are there? What are the
new trends?
HURZELER: I wish I knew, of course, because then
we would be even more ahead of the game than we
hope to be as well, but there are some obvious trends
like what you mentioned already. There’s the size of
the yachts; they get bigger and bigger and the interiors are getting more diverse. The minimalist trend
is a trend in some of the motor yachts. The general
trend, the positive message for a client, in my opinion, is the professionalism. The professionalism over
the past few years has increased a lot, through certification and the requirements from the authorities,
be it by the size of the boats and the new owners who
have other demands than previous owners used
to have 15–20 years ago. The whole industry has
become much more professional over the last – well,
especially five to ten years. I think that’s to the benefit
of the clients very much.
I would say in general quality has always been
a trend as the choices are much better today and
there are more yachts being offered for charter.
I would say that quality has become even more
important also for the owner to have a successful
charter yacht, again to the benefit of the client.
Then the cruising areas are actually quite a tricky
question because as MYBA, the Mediterranean Yacht
Brokers Association, we are at this moment putting
a project together to research new cruising areas
because we see that the Mediterranean is doing
extremely well and within the Mediterranean we have
the classic spots, the Cote d’Azur and Sardinia. Greece
has always been popular for a certain type of client
and a certain type of boat. Croatia is a bit of a new
area but it’s not yet from a – how shall I say? – from an
authority point of it’s not yet totally sorted out. Turkey
has its followers as well but they’re not new areas.
These are standard areas. We see at the moment, with
regret, that to some extent the Caribbean is suffering a bit, and has been suffering the past few years
for various reasons. It’s still a very beautiful area but
again the organization and especially the facilities for
large yachts have not kept up with the development
of the industry and therefore these yachts either don’t
go there anymore or they all bunch up in St. Barts
and St. Martin, which is not good enough for the
charter industry. We hope we will see development in
other areas maybe, as with Dubai possibly, the Indian
Ocean in general. But it’s something we are working
on because we believe the charter industry in particular could do very will with a new winter – European
winter or western hemisphere, northern hemisphere
winter in the future. But it’s not an easy.
FORMA: So there are new things to come and
you’re all on top of that.
HURZELER: Hopefully yes. Hopefully yes. YVC
MIDDLE EAST
Jewel of the
Arabian
Sea
WRITTEN BY AGHA KHAN
Take an insider’s look
at Dubai, the year’s most
talked about luxury
travel destination
Burj Al Arab atrium
Burj Al Arab
The sail-shaped hotel
sits on its own manmade island just off
the shore of Dubai’s
Jumeirah neighborhood.
It wasn’t long ago that Dubai barely registered a blip on the radar of American jetsetters
looking for the next “it” destination. They parked their yachts in the standard favorites of
Burj Al Arab pool
South of France, Monaco and Sardinia – the more adventurous stopped at the Italian island
of Pantelleria. But all of a sudden, Americans discovered what Europeans had known for
years – that with its year round sunshine, ideal location on the Arabian Sea, and luxurious
hotels beyond compare, Dubai is an exciting travel destination for those looking for a truly
luxe experience.
12
F
or its part, the city of Dubai has kept
pace with the tourist demand and
initiated an incomparable year round
schedule of special events to entertain the travelers who venture to the
port from around the world. A cosmopolitan city, Dubai attracts business travelers
from throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East
and leisure seekers from the United Kingdom,
continental Europe, Asia, and increasingly, the
United States.
The Emirates Towers at sunset,
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Background:
In the early 1800s the area where the creek
met the sea was settled by members of the Bani
Yas tribe, led by the Maktoum Family (descendents of which still rule the Emirate.) The strategic location soon became a leading trading port
in the region. By the early 20th century Dubai
had flourished with both a local population and
a 20 percent expatriate population who came
for the immense business opportunities. Dubai
was already a thriving business hub when oil
was discovered in 1966, which proved to be a
significant economic supplement to the local
economy, enabling the rapid development of
the city’s infrastructure. With its natural advantages of location, beaches and sun and a citywide telecommunications, education, health and
transportation infrastructure in place, Dubai was
poised to develop as a tourist destination in the
1980s and 1990s. Emphasizing luxury quality and
striking architecture, developers brought hotels
to the commercial centers as well as along the
beach, the primary attraction for European tourists.
Dubai continues to develop its hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and nightclubs for the
ever-increasing number of visitors, while the city
has also begun to cater to the newer market of
secondary home buyers. The most talked about
developments are The Palm and The World, two
man-made island groupings just off the coast
containing luxury villas, apartments and hotels.
Visitors now have the opportunity to view a rapidly changing Dubai, where it is as common to
see a dramatic sunset over the Sea as it is to see
a row of development cranes.
When To Go:
What was once a winter sun destination has
become a year round hotspot with events in
every season. However, the sun does beat heavily in the summer, so a visit between May and
September requires serious sun protection and
refuges indoors for all except the most devoted sun worshippers. The city runs a series of
“Summer Surprises,” sales and children-focused
events from June to September. Kids also cool off
all summer long at the Wild Wadi Water Park in
the center of the Jumeirah neighborhood along
YACHT VACATIONS & CHARTERS
Burj Al Arab royal suite
the beach. Though there are Fall events, the local
social season truly begins in December and continues through March.
The Dubai International Film Festival, taking
place this year from December 10 – 17, kicks
off the social season with a dynamic series of
film screenings and lavish parties. Attracting a
truly international group of film industry professionals, the festival screens films organized
around themes and geography. European films
comprise one series while American, Middle
Eastern and Bollywood movies are featured in
their own series. In recent years, the festival’s
judging committees have brought such a diverse
group of international stars as Morgan Freeman,
Catherine Deneuve and Orlando Bloom. The
opening gala is a glittering affair with a carefully
selected film to satisfy the curious. Every day
following features film screenings, discussions
with directors and stars and opportunities for
meeting and mingling. Of course, the evenings
are reserved for glamorous events culminating
in the closing night gala.
Following closely after the film festival is the
Dubai Shopping Festival, quite possibly the biggest shop-till-you-drop extravaganza in the world
– not to mention Dubai’s most popular worldwide
attraction. The festival begins on December 20
of this year and continues until February 2, 2007.
The month-long event draws at least three million
people to the city all with one shared goal – to buy
more for less than anywhere else. Dubai boasts
traditional souks, or markets, in addition to dozens
of hyper-modern malls. International brands like
Cartier, Gucci and Lanvin fill the malls alongside a
Saks Fifth Avenue, top Indian designer boutiques
and Villa Moda, an innovative Middle Eastern
department store which features selections from
Prada, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and
many, many more. Shoppers come for clothes,
13
SHIP
SHAPE
FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, YACHTING PARTNERS
HAS WORKED WITH YACHT OWNERS AND
CHARTERERS WORLDWIDE TO EXTEND THE
PRIVILEGE OF ACCESS TO THESE BEAUTIFUL CRAFT
AS YOUR PARTNER WE TAKE YOUR HAPPINESS AND
YOUR TRUST IN US TO HEART
IT’S A PERSONAL APPROACH THAT FORMS THE
BASIS OF OUR INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION
UK
+44 (0) 1273 571722
email: ypi@ypi.co.uk
WWW.YPI.CO.UK
FRANCE
+33 (0) 4 93 34 01 00
email: ypifr@ypifr.co.uk
USA
+1 800 626 0019
INTERNATIONAL YACHT BROKERAGE, WORLDWIDE CHARTER, YACHT MANAGEMENT &
ADMINISTRATION ISM, ISPS, CREW AGENCY, REFIT & NEW CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION
MIDDLE EAST
Wild Wadi
Covering 12 acres with 30 rides and attractions
Situated between Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah
Beach Hotel in Dubai, it’s a 20-minute drive from
the city centre
The Madinat Jumeirah beach resort
“Dubai is worth
visiting for its
hotels alone...
the hotel
buildings are
architectural
marvels
worth
visiting as
attractions”
jewelry (gold is sold by the gram weight), cars
and the latest electronics. But, as if the deals were
not enough, shopping is not the only draw of
the festival! To entertain shoppers and visitors,
the festival contains a full program of fireworks
displays and pop stars (think heavyweights like
Mariah Carey) from around the world to perform
exclusive concerts.
Taking advantage of the comparatively
breezier weather, Dubai organizes its annual
Tennis Open for late February to early March
followed by the Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament, both of which draw internationally
renowned players like Tiger Woods to host and
play. Dubai’s most prominent event on the
world stage, however, is the World Cup in late
March, known as the world’s richest horse racing event. The races are held at the city’s Nad
Al Sheba Racecourse, but the action starts days
earlier at the exclusive Arabian Nights party in
the desert. Streaming caravans of SUVs drive
out to the desert for an evening of endless food
served under torch-lined tents, belly dancing
performances, moonlight camel rides across
the dunes, hookah smoking under the stars and
enough glitterati elbow rubbing to compete
with England’s Royal Ascot races. The races
themselves are celebrated with all night parties
on the grounds after the adrenaline rush of the
premiere races. For the horsey set, it does not
get any better than the Dubai World Cup.
Where To Stay:
Dubai is worth visiting for its hotels alone.
Service is comparable to the best hotels in
Singapore and resorts in the South Pacific,
while many of the hotel buildings are architectural marvels worth visiting as attractions.
About the Writer
Agha Khan lives in Manhattan and writes for luxury
lifestyle publications.
Zulfi1@hotmail.com
16
The Famous Spectacle – Burj Al Arab
The sail-shaped hotel sits on its own manmade island just off the shore of Dubai’s
Jumeirah neighborhood. Institutional Investor
Magazine recently named it The Best Hotel
in the World, and it is certainly not alone in
its opinion. Staying here is a no-holds-barred
luxury experience complete with a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, exquisitely appointed
suites, personal butlers and every restaurant
and spa amenity it takes to make it an enclosed
world unto itself. Filled with dramatic touches,
the hotel contains an underwater restaurant, Al
Mahara, which requires submarine transportation to visit, and on the other end, The Skyview
Bar, which is a windowed structure at the top
of the hotel affording phenomenal views of the
Arabian Sea.
The Resort Experience – Madinat Jumeirah
Across from the Burj Al Arab and from the
same hotel group, lies the Madinat Jumeirah
resort complex spread across the beachfront
landscape. Built in homage to an ancient
Arabian citadel, the Madinat Jumeirah combines regional details and international luxuries such as its spa, many restaurants and high
tech amenities. Built along a man-made waterway, guests at any of the three individual hotels
in the complex – Mina A’Salam, Al Qasr and Dar
Al Masyaf – can enjoy the amenities of all via
water transportation (think Venice.) Not unlike
a city in itself, visitors can happily decamp to
Madinat Jumeirah and spend days enjoying
the beach, the views of the sea from the balconies, Middle Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean,
and North African food, and spa treatments.
The resort raises the five-star bar to a new level
of amenities and service.
Discreet Luxury Defined –
The One & Only Royal Mirage
Built to offer visitors an experience of old
Arabia, the hotel is a charming structure of
domes and arches, tucked away rooftop corners under the stars and courtyards made for
strolls. The hotel is part of the One & Only
group, known for luxury resorts in the Maldives,
Mauritius, the Bahamas and Mexico. The service is attentive, but never overbearing – the
hotel was made for private enjoyment. Built
on the far end of Jumeirah facing what will
become the Palm, The Royal Mirage is far from
Dubai’s beach-going crowds and families. It is
the perfect hotel for privacy-seeking celebrities
and any luxury traveler looking for a respite to
return to. YVC
ITALIAN RIVIERA
Stylish Sailing in
Sanremo
Sanremo sits on a wide gulf between
Cape Nero and Cape Verde
A bustling Italian
cosmopolitan coastal city
with its fair share of famous
designer boutiques and cultural
sights, it cleverly combines
shabby with chic
18
WRITTEN BY PAULA FARQUHARSON
Sanremo, an hour’s sail from the French border and a mere 20 miles east of fairytale
Monaco, it is the perfect stop for those who crave the richness of a sophisticated city
with none of the downsides - except for the crazy drivers! Thankfully the yachts adopt
a more prudent approach when entering Porto sole! Sanremo boasts a modern and old
port, a stylish casino, magnificent palazzos (including the renowned Nobel Villa), lush
green gardens and an old town that is a haven for artisans. Its night life promises the
best entertainment; you can start by learning the art of the aperitivo in its many bars.
T
Yacht Club
There is an Italian saying “Li gens de
San Remu navigou san remu”, which
means the people of Sanremo can sail
without oars! This prestigious yacht club
hosts important sailing events and prestigious regattas such as the Springtime
Pre-Olympic Criterium and the famous
Giraglia - one the most important high
sea regattas in the Mediterranean Sea.
Other important events are the WestLiguria Winter Championship and Italian
and international championships. At
the yacht club you can hire both sailing
and motor boats and sailing lessons for
adults and children are organised every
year. Courses for children last 15 days
during summertime, while courses for
adults are organised according to the
participants’ needs.
www.federvela.it/ycs
PHOTOS COUTESY OF WWW.SANREMOPROMOTION.COM
he view as you enter the modern
port of Porto sole is one of countless luxury yachts like other ports
throughout the world but Sanremo
is surrounded by hillsides of exotic
tropical plants and palm trees, glass
houses and terraced gardens ablaze with colourful flowers. No wonder the town is bestowed with
the title of Città dei Fiori (flower town) with the
slopes littered with glasshouses visible as you sail
along the coast. It didn’t surprise me to discover
that there are more than 2,000 botanical species
in the many gardens here. As you dock your yacht
the perfumed scent of citrus fruit trees in the air
leaves you in no doubt of the mild micro climate
the region enjoys.
Its privileged location is a draw for an international and elite crowd who enjoy la dolce vita and
the delicious cuisine, local wines and spumante
(Italian champagne). The luxury hotels and sumptuous villas along the coast and in the hills welcome visitors for the many events for which the
city is famous, including the illustrious Sanremo
Music Festival, running since 1951, the MilanSanremo bike race, the regattas at Easter-time and
the Antique Car Rally in April. Not to mention the
lure of the beaches; legend has it that the city was
formerly named Matuzia, after the Goddess of the
sea, who had a weakness for the beautiful gulf.
The town has historically always drawn international patrons so it’s not surprising that many
street names reflect the influence of the English
barons and Russian aristocrats, who fuelled the
town’s major expansion in the latter part of the
nineteen century and the early 1900’s. Corso
dell’Imperatrice, one of the most famous promenades on the Riviera, owes its name to Tsarina
Maria Alexandrovna, who after spending a winter
here, donated the first palm trees to the city to
embellish the Boulevard. To walk in her dainty
footsteps from corso Matteotti to corso Matuzia
will take you forty-five minutes. Along the way you
can stop in for a visit to the Marsaglia Park, where
the prestigious villa belonging to the Marsaglia
family once stood and where now rare plants
19
ITALIAN RIVIERA
Onion Domes of Russian
Orthodox Church
Sanremo public harbour
Open 24 hours, is protected by a long
quay, stretching from SW to NW, and a
shorter pier that can be used for fishing
and pleasure boats. There are 5 private
wharves where you can moor your
boats for a fee. You can also moor (free
of charge) alongside the “Bartolomeo
Corradi” quay for a maximum of three
days on anchor log with no services
or get connected to the hydraulic and
electric system for a fee. The port is
also the starting/arrival point of a sailing line for daily tourist excursions.
Porto Sole, via del Castillo 17, 18038
Sanremo. Tel: +39 (0)184 5371
20
and flowers flourish. For a panoramic view of
Sanremo and the gulf visit the Regina Elena
gardens with its beautiful terraced gardens, created after an earthquake in 1887 destroyed the
upper part of the old town (La Pigna).
The medieval town, La Pigna, which dates
back to the year 1,000 is a hive of well-preserved network of steep and winding streets
with arches, clinging to the hill. There is lots
to see, just roam and keep your eyes peeled
for neo-Gothic, neo-Renaissance and other
period architectural treasures, churches, towers, frescos, fountains and squares - the place
is steeped in history. The seventeenth-century
baroque Sanctuary of the Madonna della Costa
with its richly decorated interior and wooden
statues by Anton Maria Maragliano is worth a
visit; as is the Palace of Count Sapia Rossi on
via Montà where Napoleon Bonaparte stayed
in 1794.
A more modern attraction is the port itself;
Porto sole covers an area of 83,000 sq. m. and
docks more than 450 yachts and 50 fishingboats and welcomes the luxury yachts of the
world’s elite. The city’s other port, the older and
smaller Porto Vecchio is used by the locals and
where you can watch fishermen spill out their
catch, which will likely land on your plate in the
many seafood restaurants around town. Right
beside the harbour is the ancient fort of Santa
Tecla (a former prison) overlooking a lovely
little restaurant Dick Turpin where you can eat
al fresco in the warm spring air.
For dining you will find it difficult to choose
from the numerous trattorias, ristorante and
pizzerias. The gastronomic fare in Sanremo
derives from local produce in particular the
extra virgin olive oil from nearby Taggia. While
each town along the Ligurian coast has its own
pizza speciality Sanremo offers the ‘sardenaira
pizza, slightly thicker than the norm, with toma-
toes, anchovies, capers and garlic but without
the cheese (used by sailors of old). Homemade
pasta dishes and stuffed ravioli are ubiquitous
of course but a cundiun salad or the simple
pan e pumàta (hard bread dampened with
water and olive oil and spread with tomatoes
and fresh basil leaves) is what the locals dine
on. Whatever you choose wash it down with an
excellent Poggia or Bussana white wine.
At the market all the local food produced
in the region is sold at half the price and
double the quality. You can pick up wine,
olives, olive oil, focaccia bread, grissini (thin
bread sticks), bruzzo cheese and canestrelli
(biscuits) to bring back on board. A favourite
snack, “fast food” Italian style is the torta verde
– a pie filled with delicious green vegetables
and rice mixed with olive oil. You can visit the
colourful market in Sanremo at Piazza Eroi
Sanremesi, not far from the San Siro Cathedral
on Tuesdays and Saturdays morning. It lures
bargain hunters, many of whom come for the
faux designer accessories. However, beware
it is an offence to purchase counterfeit items
although the police turn a very blind eye to
the practice and the many illegal street vendors wander freely. In addition always ask for
a receipt at the market as the Italian tax police
are less lenient and do check – both seller and
buyer can be fined!
For the real designer wear hit the main
street, corso Matteotti; just five minutes from
the port, it is 3ping heaven and is bursting with
exclusive boutiques. Italian men and women
pride themselves on their dress sense and style
and Sanremo feeds this frenzy; you will have
your fair share of boutiques from which to
choose . In the evening dress up to try your luck
at the roulette table at the casino, built in 1905.
As well as a heart-pacing evening it’s a good
excuse to don your shopping acquisitions or
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©COPYRIGHT 2006
FIRST NEW ENGLAND FINANCIAL© IS A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF NORTH FORK BANK©, A $60 BILLION INSTITUTION AND THE COUNTRY’S 16TH LARGEST COMMERCIAL LENDING BANK. WWW.NORTHFORKBANK.COM
ITALIAN RIVIERA
Villa Nobel
A Moorish-style building and the former home to the famous Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel (from 1891 to
1896) who established the Nobel prizes. Open to the public with guided visits. Closed Mondays.
More to do in Sanremo
The Whale Sanctuary is located in the
wide expanse of sea between Tuscany
and France and boat trips to the sanctuary leave from Sanremo. Out on the
open sea you can spot whales, dolphins, and bottle-noses.
Scuba diving is also possible near
Sanremo where a stunning seabed rich
in marine fauna awaits you. Diving centres such as Centro Immersioni Aton
and San Remo Sub will take you to dive
in the best places to spot the giant sea
mammals that lurk in these waters.
22
a reason to win back the cost of the shopping
spree! Sanremo has one of the four casinos in
Italy and its Art-Nouveau facade and interior
is reminiscent of splendid days gone by resurrected for the lucky elite who pass through its
doors. Egyptian King Faruk claimed he could
win a poker game by exhibiting just three king
figures. “I am the fourth” he would say. Whether
you win or lose sink into a negroni and take in
the view of the port at The Victory Bar – a sure
bet.
You won’t be bored in Sanremo – the town
boasts film festivals, theatrical and opera seasons, fashion shows, gala evenings, sports
events, sailing, regattas (Sanremo Yacht Club
hosts the Springtime Pre-Olympic Criterium,
April 14th-16th), international tennis and golf
tournaments and of course its famous car rally,
the Sanremo Image Jazz Festival, the Sanremo
Blues Festival, and last but not least the star
studded Italian Song Festival (April 2nd- 4th).
Not to mention football matches at the stadium – the Italians love their football. A stone’s
throw from your mooring is Sanremo’s 18-hole
golf course, Golf degli Ulivi, one of the oldest
courses around (built in 1931). You can play golf
all year round but beware though the scenic
views with holes hovering over the sea make for
a distracting round. With perfect mild weather
in October (20-22nd) the Sanremo Yacht Club
hosts a combined golf and yachting competition.
Another outdoor pursuit, which really allows
you to soak up the ambiance of Sanremo stroll
Local Cuisine
Simple ingredients of olive oil, pine nuts, basil and
parmesan cheese belie its delicious taste.
along Corso degli Inglesi peeking through gates
and wrought iron railings that surround the
magnificent nineteenth and twentieth centuries villas. Many are open to the public such as
the string of pearls on corso Cavallotti where
you will find Villa Zirio at 51, Bellevue Palace
at 59 (now the Town Hall), Villa Ormond at
111/113 and last but not least the Villa Nobel,
a Moorish-style building and the former home
to the famous Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel
(from 1891 to 1896) who established the Nobel
prizes. Nowadays the villa thrives with prestigious cultural events (often attended by the
King of Sweden) and it houses a permanent
museum for this great inventor. Indeed a great
place for a great man and for us lesser mortals
to visit. YVC
www.villanobel.provincia.imperia.it
www.golfsanremo.com
www.casinosanremo.it
www.sanremorally.it
www.sanremo.rai.it
www.sanremoguide.com
www.noonsite.com
www.federvela.it/ycs
About the Writer
Paula Farquharson is editor of The Riviera Times newspaper. Originally from Ireland, she worked in New York
and is now based in Nice, France, where she learned
to sail.
pfarquharson@publiazur.com
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MEXICO
The Sea of Cortez
A beautiful stretch of sea,
also known as the Gulf of
California, abundant in
marine wildlife and privacy
Dinner awaited – medium rare steak and butter-dripping lobster tail. But...“I hate to do
this to you just before THIS dinner but there’s a mammoth pod of dolphins off our bow.”
The announcement on the ship’s loudspeaker sounded almost apologetic. This was,
after all, our grand finale dinner in a week of spectacular food.
WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY
BILL HIRSCH & YVETTE CARDOZO
24
O
ut there, hardly yards from our
keel were hundreds and hundreds of saddleback dolphins,
splashing and leaping and
twisting in the rays of golden
sunset light.
You’ve heard the phrase, “The water was alive.”
Well, yes it was. It frothed and churned and bubbled. For a good twenty minutes.
Then we headed in for dinner and were literally settling bottoms into chairs when Captain
Shawnda Gallup’s voice echoed again, “Uh. Folks.
We’ve got rays. Dozens of them.”
Sure enough, their large black bodies were just
inches below the surface. It was like being surrounded by shadows. Seven-foot-wide shadows.
And every so often, a set of wingtips would break
the surface. One of the beasts actually jumped.
Since when do rays jump?
Back to dinner. This time, the hot rolls actually
made it to the table.
“Er, you really don’t want to miss this. It’s a blue
whale.”
Capt. Shawnda didn’t need to tell us. A hundred feet of body slid alongside our boat. Good
God, the thing was only 20 feet shorter than our
entire vessel. And it came up hardly five yards
from our starboard side. We could see its dorsal fin
nearly filling the lounge window.
Blue whales are the largest in the ocean. A family of six could sit for dinner on its tongue, we were
told. A small child could swim through its arteries.
And it was just feet from our railing. It surfaced
not once but three times before our light faded
completely.
Welcome to the Sea of Cortez, American Safari
Cruises style.
Most tourists wind up in Cabo San Lucas, at
the southern tip Baja California. If you want to see
the rest of this stark and beautiful landscape, it
usually involves driving, often down the length of
the peninsula.
Or, you could take a boat ... a small boat with
only 22 passengers and nine crew, which is a lot of
crew and a lot of personal attention.
That first night, sometime between the prime
rib and the coffee frangelico, the first pod of dolphins appeared off our bow. It was an hour past
sunset and six of them were weaving back and
forth, their bodies outlined in bioluminescence so
they looked like glowing torpedoes under our keel.
And this was just the beginning.
The Sea of Cortez was actually formed by a
fracture on the San Andreas fault (yes, THAT San
Andreas fault). It’s five million years old, making
it an infant as seas go. And thanks to a rich stew of
plankton, it’s swarming with life: nearly 900 species of fish, half a dozen whales including those
mammoth blues, dolphins, sea lions, manta rays,
sharks. It’s like the Galapagos, only under water.
Above water, the desert comes right down to
the sea, resulting in a surreal mix of sand dunes,
cactus and mangrove. Expedition Leader Kevin
Martin explained that’s because the cool water
pulls moisture out of the clouds before they can
reach land.
Distances here, like some of the sea life, are
huge. Baja is more than 800 miles long (think
Seattle to San Francisco) and over 100 miles wide
in places. The sea, itself, is 130 miles at its widest,
explaining why we couldn’t see the other side.
We spent our first few days at Isla Partida just
north of La Paz. On one outing, we scrambled
across boulders to the other side of the island and
onto a windswept cliff with water stretching to the
horizon.
The next day, it was off for a swim near Los
Islotes, bulbous fingers of red basalt north of La
Paz worn smooth by weather and stained white
with guano. From a skiff, we slipped into the
water and were instantly surrounded by slick
black heads and twitching whiskers. Dozens of
sea lions moved with lightning speed, darting and
swooping, doing barrel rolls and folding their bodies backward like gymnasts.
The smallest pups were the most curious. One,
hardly bigger than a dog, surfaced in the middle
of us, lay back so just his nose and chin were out
of the water and slowly backstroked around us.
Then the group got a bit too friendly ... a grab here,
a nip there. On the rocks, a huge bull bellowed and
we figured it was time for a strategic retreat.
The service aboard the Safari Quest is what
separates this trip from most others. The food
was not only topnotch, it could be custom tailored. One woman, who had recently dropped 75
pounds, stuck to her diet. It was amazing what
Chef Gipson could do with Pam-fried egg whites.
Meanwhile, the wheelhouse supplied her husband with the latest NCAA basketball rankings.
As for us, Hotel Manager Michael quickly cued
into our love of mojitos (lime and rum drinks) by
the hot tub and made sure one showed up every
day when we hit the water.
Each day brought something different to do
and see. One morning, we landed at the foot of a
cardon cactus forest. It was a wall of huge cactus
fingers set so close together, a cat would have
trouble squeezing through. Another day, while
we went beach combing. Rich and Judy from the
Seattle area found a private beach to enjoy their
good bottle of pinot noir. Mary Anne and Joanne
from Connecticut went off to find shells. And five
others went boulder climbing.
Yet another day, it was kayaking along a cliff
where the sandstone had weathered into graceful
round pillars that folded at water level into thin
caves. Above, a curtain of lacy rock feathered out
and above that lay a crust dotted with cactus and
scrub.
And one other morning we cracked open red
rocks to find the most amazing batch of crystal
Whale Watching
Have you ever seen a 60’ whale up close? The
best way to enjoy such an experience is aboard
a luxury.
Sea Lions
Dozens of sea lions moved with lightning speed,
darting and swooping, doing barrel rolls and folding their bodies backward like gymnasts.
25
MEXICO
Isla Coyote
The only permanently inhabited island in the Sea
of Cortes, Mexico. Also called Isla Partida by the
locals. Here fishing boat has just arrived ashore.
Mi Casa es Su Casa
Ceramic house signs for sale in Todos Santos,
Baja California, Mexico.
Information
To charter this trip or any yacht you see in
this issue of YV&C, please contact any of the
recommended charter brokers listed on page 8
About the Writer and Photographer
This husband & wife writing/photography team specialize in adventure travel. Yvette Cardozo worked
eight years for major metropolitan newspapers;
has done freelance travel and outdoors articles and
photography since 1974. Bill Hirsch worked at a
variety of research and writing jobs in government
and private industry and has been doing freelance
articles since 1982.
whirsch@cardozohirsch.com
26
lined geodes (which we got to keep).
Day five was the mules, courtesy of a local
man named Alejo. Alejo’s mules wander free to
graze the landscape, which isn’t easy in a place
that hasn’t seen rain in two years. They’re sleek
and healthy looking, most assuredly because
they own amazing digestive tracts. Thorns,
dead palm fronds, scraggly scrub ... they eat it
all.
From the beach at Agua Verde, we rode up
a trail, over a ridge and into a vast valley that
looked amazingly like Arizona ... long lines of
pastel pink hills, scrub desert sand and thirsty
looking bushes. Then it was over to a palm
oasis, up a ridge and back down to the beach.
But the day’s excitement wasn’t over.
We had just settled in after lunch when Kevin
spotted fin whales off the bow. We hopped into
the skiff and took off.
“These are the world’s second largest whales.
But what’s really interesting is how they use the
oxygen they breathe,” Kevin said. “Eighty percent is stored for later use, letting them stay
submerged to look for food.”
Lots of fins. Plumes of spray. Then ...
“How about some hot cookies,” came a
voice over Kevin’s radio.
We swooped in for what Kevin called a
“touch and go,” grabbed a basket of melting
hot chocolate chip cookies and were off again.
Maybe the whales smelled the cookies, for
before we knew it, they were surfacing hardly
30 feet from us.
But that was only an appetizer for the next
day, when we drove across the Baja peninsula to
the Pacific side for gray whale watching at Bahia
Magdelena. From the local skiffs called pangas,
we watched a mom and two-month-old calf
swim in tandem, so perfectly synchronized that
their twin blowholes lined up perfectly.
Then the baby breached ... pushing his head
and even one flipper clear out of the water. Not
once. Not twice but more than a dozen times.
Our guide Judy explained that gray whales
go south each year from Alaska to mate and
give birth in the 30-mile-long, 60-foot-deep
bay. Here, safe from orcas, the babies drink so
much super rich milk a day, they can gain 70
pounds in 24 hours.
The lecture abruptly ended with a fountain
of spray. Mom and the kid surfaced only yards
from our boat, blowing a geyser straight into
our faces. The baby headed straight for us,
slipping cleanly under our boat and trailing his
white tail within inches of our fingers.
Our last day, we visited Isla Coyote, the
only island in the entire Sea of Cortez with
permanent residents. From a distance, it looks
like one of those rocks you see poking out of
the Aegean Sea. But on shore, it’s distinctly
Mexican.
Men were gutting and filleting shark-looking monkfish. These would be packed in salt
from nearby salt pits and exported to Asia. At
another table, huge manta rays got the same
treatment. Caught the night before in nets, they
would be sent to La Paz and served in seafood
tortillas. Three families live here, hauling fresh
water from outside or bartering for it with fish.
The houses are simple but they do have electricity, thanks to generators, and satellite TV.
And finally, our last night.
Dolphins and rays and that blue whale.
And steak and lobster and creme brulee.
And to top it off, more glowing fish in the
water, burning stars above and one last mojito
YVC
in the hot tub.
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YACHT PROFILE
M/Y Charisma
The word Charisma has a
Greek root meaning ‘divinely
inspired’... There is no way
to more fittingly
describe a charter
aboard this yacht
WRITTEN BY SCOTT ROSE
Graciousness marks every facet of this 130-foot yacht built by Hatteras Yachts in 1995. Dee
Robinson was the original interior designer; her conception was largely retained in an interior and exterior refurbishment accomplished in 2005. The owner has, to be sure, added
various additional personal touches to Charisma’s design scheme. He says: “What we
have added to the décor are special art works and crafts from ports we have visited. We
select them with a mind to their being representative of the areas Charisma has traveled;
Costa Rica, Cuba, Barbados, the Bahamas, Florida and the east coast of the United States.
We also have artifacts from dives, as well as a stunning helmet conch shell. Actually, one
charter guest liked our helmet conch shell so well that a crew member presented it to her
as a gift and then found a replacement.”
28
C
harisma is one of the relatively
rare charter yachts that cruises
the Caribbean in both summer
and winter. The owner points out
that most Caribbean destinations
are less crowded in the summer.
He also notes that in the area around St. Barts,
Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Maarten and Antigua, the
summer weather conditions allow easy cruising
among the various islands, with calmer anchorages than in winter.
It’s not as if with the 2005 refit, all improvements to Charisma came to a halt. As the owner
says: “Because we love anchoring out in scenic bays, we recently added underwater lights
for both Charisma and our 30 foot tender. At
night, these lights attract all kinds of underwater
creatures; the anchorage becomes our personal
aquarium. We have also added a new V Satellite
system that allows guests to access the internet
24 hours a day. We have a laptop aboard for
guests so they can check e-mail virtually anywhere aboard.”
I asked the owner what about Charisma is
most propitious to fine dining. After praising
the chef and his cuisine, he said: “Then there are
the breathtaking surroundings of the locations
we visit. Think of it; a secluded anchorage, with
expansive views of island towns or villages. A
bright moon, twinkling lights from civilization
in the distance, lots of stars above. As Charisma
slowly drifts while at anchor, the view changes,
providing a great panorama.”
Charisma’s crew is dedicated to making guests’
charters the picture of perfection. Captain Jared
Burzler was for six years the First Officer aboard
before becoming Captain in 2004. He says that
Charisma’s wireless internet system makes for
efficient planning during a charter. “It allows us
to receive up-to-the-minute, accurate weather
reports for choosing the best anchorage and daily
activities. We also use the system for our dockage
arrangements, provisioning, customs clearances
and fulfilling guests’ requests. Guests enjoy the
system too, of course, for its convenience.”
I asked Captain Jared to cite one of the most
unusual charter guest requests he ever fulfilled.
“We had a 28 day charter starting in St. Maarten,
covering the entire Caribbean, finishing in the
Virgin Islands. The people who scheduled that
trip had a son who is a professional tennis player,
and at the time, he was training for a tournament. They requested that during the charter,
tennis courts be reserved every day twice a day
from 9am – 11am and then from 4pm to 6pm
at each of the many locations we were visiting.
Combining the mandate to visit most of the
Caribbean with that to reserve the tennis courts
was a tad tricky, but we pulled it off to the guests’
complete satisfaction.”
Chef Shaun Williams Creations
Hailing from Australia, where he attended the
William Anglais College of Culinary Arts in
Melbourne. His menus are so distinctive that
together with the owner he will be releasing a
cook book.
29
YACHT PROFILE
Aft deck
Main salon
Master suite
“My favorite
places to
visit are not
shown as
anchorages
in charts or
guide books”
30
Then I asked the captain what he would
like for Charisma charter guests to remember
about him twenty years after their vacations.
He said: “What I would like to hear twenty
years from now is that when they were aboard
Charisma, I always made them feel comfortable, welcomed, and fully confident in my
abilities.”
I wondered which off-the-beaten-path
Caribbean destinations Captain Jared might
recommend to Charisma charter guests.
“While there are few secret destinations
remaining in the Caribbean, I enjoy showing guests anchorages they have never before
seen. My favorite places to visit are not shown
as anchorages in charts or guide books. They
are usually bays on the north sides or windward islands where you need to drop both port
and starboard anchors and back the yacht’s
stern up until it is just several feet from the
shore, securing stern lines to rocks and tree
trunks well-shielded from the weather. Guests
almost always ask to stay in these gorgeous,
unusual anchorages more than one day. At
night, our underwater lights shine on the reefs
and attract marine life to the surface.”
Captain Jared further mentions Charisma’s
emphasis on water sports. “We have abundant
water sports options. Among other items we
carry are two identical sailing boats suitable for
racing, kayaks, snorkel gear, an array of fishing
gear, wakeboards, bindings, kneeboards, tubes
and underwater scooters. We happen to also
have an excellent PADI-licensed dive instructor, Tina Fox.”
Charisma’s chef Shaun Williams hails from
Australia, where he attended the William
Anglais College of Culinary Arts in Melbourne.
His menus are so distinctive that together with
the owner he will be releasing a cook book. I
asked Shaun what he would serve if a guest
requested an 8 course menu dégustation of
typical Caribbean fare. The list is most alluring. It contains cracked conch with turmeric
tartar sauce, conch fritters with cocktail sauce,
grilled Spanish lobster tails, mahi mahi ceviche, curry chicken Rotis with mango chutney,
Caribbean jerked grouper with pineapple and
black bean salsa, fresh seafood chowder with
yucca fries, and a smoked mackerel dip. If
after all that you were still hungry for dessert,
you might well find yourself enjoying one
of Shaun’s favorite Caribbean treats; coconut
rum balls.
Stewardess Lindie MacGregor was born in
South Africa. She has many years of professional experience aboard luxury yachts to her
credit, and holds a sailing day skipper license.
Lindie stays at the top of her game in part
by reading trade journals such as Triton and
Dockwalk. She also reads consumer yachting
magazines to stay in-the-know in her field.
She told me that when the Charisma crew
must order replacement stemware, dinnerware, cutlery or the like, they often consult
www.replacements.com, which carries individual pieces of many rare and valuable sets.
Lindsie informs that aboard Charisma
there is an especially beautiful and elegant
set of Mikasa’s Utopia collection glassware,
Realize the Dream
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This offer is not directed to residents in any state [or the offer is void in any states] in which registration of the timeshare plan is required but in which registration requirements have not yet been met.
This advertising material is being used for the purpose of soliciting sales of timeshare interests.
YACHT PROFILE
Caribbean Architecture
Panoramic view of old Havana buildings and
bay taken from roof top.
M/Y Charisma Specifications
Length ...........................130 Ft / 39.6 M
Beam ................................. 25 Ft / 7.6 M
Draft ......................... 7 Ft 10 In / 2.38 M
Hull......................................... Fiberglass
Builder ...................................... Hatteras
Architect .............................JB Hargrave
Interior Designer ............Dee Robinson
Year .............................1995 / Refit 2005
Total Crew ............................................7
Cruising Speed ....... 14 Kts @ 90 GPH /
340 LPH
Stabilizers ........................................ Yes
Fuel Capacity ....... 7,000 Gal / 26,497 ltr
Water Capacity ..... 1,000 Gal / 3,785 ltr
Watermaker ...... 1,500 Gpd / 5,678 Lpd
Communications .......................... VSAT
(Wireless Internet),
Satcom & Cell Ph / Fax
5 Staterooms / 10 Guests ....................
Each stateroom is ensuite with TV/DVD/CD
Master. King. Main deck
His / hers-central Jacuzzi
3 Queen. Jacuzzi
Twin. Shower
Watersports .........................Water skis,
2 x 3-man waverunners, 2 x kayaks,
wakeboards, 2 x sailboats, snorkel,
4 x underwater scooters. SCUBA.
Excercise Equipment ... Elliptical trainer
Tenders ...............................18 ft / 5.5 m
Sea Pro /115 hp
***In some areas tows: 29 ft/8.8 m
Stamas /2 x 225 hp
w/extensive fishing gear
32
as well as Mikasa china dinnerware with gold
leaf trim and pattern. The Charisma crew
also let me know of a marvelous Caribbean
dining establishment notable not for its 5star elegance but rather for its native authenticity and excellent food. The restaurant, Sea
Grape Tree Rest is nestled in the corner of
Josiah’s Bay on the north side of Tortola in the
British Virgin Islands. It is run by a sweet lady,
Naomi, who serves superlative local cuisine.
Regular customers order, and then hit the
beach for a swim, returning in 45 minutes to
eat. Naomi cares not if they dine in dripping
bathing suits. The Caribbean flavor is not
restricted to the food; it’s typical to see relatives of the restaurant’s workers outside playing cards or dominoes and listening to reggae
music.
Broker Tim Nelson of Seven Seas Charters
recently engaged Charisma on behalf of a
Russian party that spoke very little English. He
reports that the client was thrilled with how
well the crew adapted, speaking very slowly
and clearly while providing thoroughly efficient service. Captain Jared was even successful in giving one of the Russians sailing lessons.
Tim has, incidentally, the highest praise for
Jared. He says: “Captain Jared is probably the
best at communicating with charter brokers of
any Captain I’ve ever worked with. From the
time the charter was initially booked until the
clients left, he let me know the charter process
was moving along as it should.”
Tim is specifically enthusiastic about
Charisma because of the arrangement of her
sleeping quarters. He says: “We can run into
a problem, as brokers, when four couples
request a charter. Whereas most yachts in
the 130-foot size range do not have four
staterooms with either King or Queen sized
beds, Charisma is one of the few to have a
master stateroom with a King, plus three
cabins with Queens and one with two Twins.
In summation, Tim says this: “The Charisma
crew have proven that they will do whatever
it takes to insure my clients have a perfect
vacation.”
For all its opulence, the Charisma interior
is marked by a comfortable, relaxed feel. The
bird’s eye maple prevalent throughout sets a
tone of cheer. Abundant, tasteful floral displays add luxurious accents. On board dining
settings include the sumptuous main dining
salon, an air-conditioned aft deck area seating
ten, and an umbrella-shaded breakfast and
lunch area on the boat deck. The baths are
notable for their hand-painted, gold leaf wash
basins.
“Days aboard Charisma offer lots of activities and fun, and every evening there is magic.
You dine in the company of great friends,
recounting the day’s adventures over an impeccably chosen bottle of wine. Slowly swinging at anchor, great music playing, Shaun’s
culinary creations delighting your palate, in
the background a revolving panorama with
the remnants of a breathtaking sunset, you
wonder why you should ever go home.” Those
are the owner’s words; they make you wonder
why you haven’t yet booked a charter aboard
Charisma. YVC
www.sevenseascharters.com
About the Writer
Scott Rose attended Harvard University at Master’s
level. He writes frequently on luxury markets and
travel. His work has appeared in such prestigious
venues as Bon Appetit and Power magazines.
scottcaliente@earthlink.net
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ADVENTURE CHARTER
Jervis Bay
Australia’s
Newest
Marine
Park
WRITTEN & PHOTOGRAPHED BY
TONY KARACSONYI
34
Jervis Bay, approximately 250 kilometres south of Sydney, abounds in sub-tropical
marine life, especially in spring and summer, when warm east coast currents push down
Australia’s east coast. A mecca for divers largely from Sydney and Canberra, Jervis Bay
has seen underwater film crews from France, England and Japan. They come to film it’s
unique marine life – bottom dwelling sharks, weedy sea dragons and the Giant Australian
Cuttlefish – one of the world’s giant cephalopods. Tony Karacsonyi brings us this report on
diving this unique oceanic bay, one of Australia’s newest marine parks.
I
t’s with excitement that we launch our boat
at the Murray’s Beach boat ramp, near the
entrance of Jervis Bay. The bay is glistening
a metallic blue colour. A white-breasted sea
eagle soars overhead. We scoot across the
bay, to a favourite spot named ‘the docks’.
We anchor near the base of a large cliff and roll
over the side. The huge boulders are buzzing
with reef species such as blue gropers, mados,
crimson-banded wrasse, and elegant striped hula
wrasse. We swim down following the 45 degree
reef and settle at 25 metres, where the reef meets
the sand, where some very interesting critters can
be found.
Here we’ll search for the rare and beautiful red
indian fish, which gets it’s name from the long
dorsal fin which stretches over it’s head, like an
indian’s head dress – often hard to find as they’re
well camouflaged.
We discover a pair of weedy sea dragons.
They’re feeding on small transparent shrimp like
creatures called mysids. The sand and reef is
teeming with the tiny shrimps. We swim further and see a lovely seahorse curled on a finger
sponge, and a Giant Australian cuttlefish guarding
it’s den. Giant Australian Cuttlefish are endemic to
the waters of southern Australian and are one of
the world’s giant cephalopods.
We explore further along the reef and despite
seeing many beautiful reef fish, we can’t find the
red indian fish. As we back track, I swim out about
five metres to a lonely rock covered in kelp and
sponges. The red indian fish is laying majestically against a sponge – we’re elated! A master of
camouflage in this sponge-filled environment, I’m
sure many scuba divers have overlooked this rare
fish, thinking it’s just a sponge.
We take a few photos and it’s time to leave.
Swimming up to 12 metres, we explore large caves
filled with sponges, bryozoans and reef fishes. The
bryozoans, which look like small mops, are home
to sea spiders and red amphipods – the same kind
of critters you see hopping around when you pick
up kelp on the beach.
With our air running a low and our diving
computers becoming saturated, we swim to the
shallows where there’s two large but shallow caves
extending into the cliff face. It’s always exciting
when we enter these caves, as you never know
what’s living inside at the time – Wobbygong
Sharks, Giant’ Cuttlefish, Octopus. Grey nurse
sharks sometimes cruise outside these caves.
We spend the last few minutes of the dive
under the cliff, where the reef is absolutely covered in sponges, bryozoans, ascidians, kelp and
sea urchins. As I look into the open water, I see
schools of pelagic yellowtail, slimy mackerel and
stripey mados. It’s a magical end to the dive.
Another popular dive is North Bowen Island,
which is a large rocky island just off the southern
side of Jervis Bay. Here the reef goes from 5 to 25
metres, and you can see similar marine life to that
of the northern side. Port Jackson sharks congregate here in the winter to mate. Sometimes, several dozen Port Jackson sharks lay on top of each
other. Off the front of Bowen Island is a deeper reef
where beautiful tiger anemones can be seen on
sea whips at times. Bowen Island is well known for
it’s colony of fairy penguins, which are sometimes
seen swimming underwater.
A favourite dive, which we usually do at night
is the ‘scallop beds’. This place is a sandy seafloor
which thrives with sand dwellers – sea pens,
octopus, doughboy scallops, Tasmanian scallops,
nudibranchs, giant sand stars, hermit crabs, blueringed octopus, and sand gobies. There are many
polychete worm tube structures, like trees, on
the bottom, which are adorned with marine life.
These create a mini-oasis underwater. It’s a magical dive which is best at night, but daytime can
be very good, especially when the sky is overcast.
Blue-ringed octopus can be seen crawling on the
seafloor.
Murray’s Beach is a fantastic night ‘shore’ dive
in summer, with dumpling squids, octopus, goblin fish, king prawns, bottle squid and wobbygong
sharks. It’s an amazing photo dive, as long as there
are no waves.
There are many fine, deep water dive sites
outside Jervis Bay, including the cave/tunnel dives
named Spider Cave and Cathedral Cave. Spider
Cave extends some 80 metres back into the cliff
Nature’s Colors
Rich colors found in Australia whether above
water or underwater
35
ADVENTURE CHARTER
“Jervis Bay is
a wonderful
place to go
scuba diving,
especially in
summer and
autumn, when
the water
is warm and
clear”
36
face, while Cathedral cave, almost the same
length. Spider Cave is about 25 metres deep just
outside the cave, and Cathedral Cave about 18
to 20 meters deep at it’s entrance. These caves
can only be dived on calm days, as swell charging into these caves makes them very dangerous. They are awesome dives on a calm day
though.
There is a deep water wall dive at 30 to 40
metres deep, about one kilometre offshore,
named Stoney Creek. With spectacular sea
whip gardens and rich southern marinelife, it’s
for experienced deep divers only.
Another notable dive site is the seal colony
at Steamer’s Beach, to the south of Jervis Bay.
Here in the winter months you can scuba dive
with a colony of Australian Fur Seals. There are
usually 60 or more living there through winter
and spring. Diving with the seals off Jervis Bay
is a fantastic experience, as the seals are usually very playful, but as with most seal colonies
there is some risk of shark attack. We’ve dived
the site several times but it’s a little spooky.
Montague Island, a couple of hours drive
south of Jervis Bay, also has a large seal colony
on it’s northern end, which is very popular. It’s
a better place to dive with seals, as the colony is
located in the sun, whereas the Steamer’s Beach
Seal Colony is in the shadow of a cliff.
In the past year or so, Jervis Bay has become
one of Australia’s newest marine parks, with
many areas now protected from marine life collecting and fishing.
It’s one of the most magnificent oceanic
bays in New South Wales for boating, fishing,
diving/snorkelling. Green Patch and Murray’s
are popular snorkelling spots.
There are plenty of places to stay for visiting
divers/travellers including motels, guesthous-
es, caravan parks and camping areas. Camping
areas can be found in the Booderee National
Park and at Huskisson. If you have your own
yacht or powerboat, you can stay on the bay
itself.
Two diving shops are based at Huskisson,
about 15 minutes boat ride from the dive sites,
and there is a liveaboard scuba diving boat
named ‘Ocean Trek’.
Jervis Bay is a wonderful place to go scuba
diving, especially in summer and autumn,
when the water is warm and clear. I think
March, April, May is the best time for diving
there, although June/July can be very good. See
you at the bay! YVC
www.oceantrek.com.au
www.jbseasports.com.au
About the Writer
Tony Karacsonyi is a professional marine photographer
who has been recognised globally for his exciting
images. Marine photography has taken Tony to some of
the world’s great places such as Papua New Guinea’s:
Siassi, Trobriand and D’Entrecasteaux Islands,Tonga,
Great Barrier Reef, Sabah, Ningaloo Reefs and
Australia’s Coral Sea. In 1998, he was awarded with the
prestigious Australian Geographic “Photographer of the
Year”, for photography on giant cuttlefish and won several international awards, including a ‘runner up’ position in the “Wildlife Photographer of The Year” award in
London, during 1996, 1997, 1998.
tony@tonykphoto.com.au
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ADVENTURE CHARTER
Ghosts
Beneath
Guadalupe
WRITTEN BY C. J. BAHNSEN
A brush with
white death
and a Jaws
legend
“Peter Benchley is on The Horizon,” our dive ops manager, Tracy Andrew, announced as
she disembarked from the panga boat and climbed aboard our 85-foot charter dive vessel, The Ocean Odyssey. I was among the 16 shark divers and 10 crewmembers who stood
bunched and excited on the afterdeck upon hearing the news. Hard as I tried to keep a dignified aura behooving a journalist on assignment, I found myself hip-checking through the
small crowd and, with overeager impatience, asking, “Did you talk to him!?”
38
I
t was November of 2004. Our vessel sat
anchored in the northeast leeward side
of Isle de Guadalupe, some 300 yards off
an area known as “Shark Heaven.” The
Horizon, sister boat of The Odyssey, sat at
anchor not far off, also loaded with shark
divers, led by ecotour operator, Paul “Doc” Anes.
I was signed on with Patric Douglas, youthful
swarthy-tanned CEO of Absolute AdventuresShark Diver, for a five-day live-aboard package.
Tracy had been tooling around on a panga with
the shipboard shark researcher, Mauricio Hoyos
Padilla, who was tracking acoustic transmitter signals from tagged sharks with a hydrophone. When
they motored past The Horizon, there was Peter
Benchley and his wife, Wendy, among the dive
party. “We just waved a ‘Hello’ to him,” she said to
my disappointment.
Guadalupe breaks open the sea 160 miles
offshore of Baja California Norte. Cinder cones,
geological folds, and vermillion striations of lava
rock are evidence of the island’s volcanic birthing.
It is a rugged, 22-hour, stomach-churning steam,
220 miles due south from San Diego Harbor to get
there. As far as weather during the journey, we had
drawn the short straw. And Patric hadn’t minced
words amid his welcoming orientation, forewarning us that seas were not ideal for the long crossing
as the boat pulled out of H & M Landing. “I hope
you’re all ready,” he said, “because this isn’t going
to be a trip, it’s going to be an expedition.”
To further send that message home, Cory
Grodske, head chef, emerged from the galley in
apron and a white paper hat and said, “Since
we’ll be traveling due south, we’ll be in a trough.”
To illustrate, he held one hand up as a makeshift
boat, rocking it side to side. He warned us to
pour our own hot liquids. Trying to find someone
else’s cup with a pot of scorching coffee in rough
seas would be an act of scalding stupidity. He
demonstrated how we should brace a shoulder
and hip against the center serving island, while
keeping one foot spread out, braced against the
base molding during the act of pouring. Cory
also requested that, as the seas deteriorated, the
male divers (there were four women among us)
sit down when using one of two heads to relax our
bladders. “The women will love you for it,” he said,
smiling serene through his reddish beard stubble.
My first thought was, Geezus, are we going thru a
typhoon?
When we hit 10-foot swells about five hours
into the trip, I realized my chewable bonine pills,
ginger root capsules, and Queaz-Away wrist
bracelets weren’t doing jack to ease the barf knell.
“As we travel farther south, we’ll be getting into
more unprotected waters,” Cory said, when I had
discreetly asked how bad the seas would get. Also
a scuba instructor with a 100-ton captain’s license,
Cory struck me as a nurturing soul gifted with
steel nerves. He looked out the starboard galley
window at the sugar-topped rollers then back at
me: “This is calm... So can I set you up with a little
bucket to have in your bunk?”
Alan DeHerrera, my dive bud from Fullerton,
California, gave me a knowing look as we sat in the
salon, being aware that my main concern wasn’t
great white sharks on this trip as much as it was
seasickness which dotted my past. Especially the
deep sea fishing trip as a preteen off Miami Beach,
when I ended up doing “the big spit” (as Hunter
S. Thompson called it) over the starboard rail, my
dad bracing me with his arms and body saying,
“Let ‘er rip, kid!”—which is how I ruined his brand
new Sperry deck shoes.
I went down below, amidships, to my bunk.
The berth was split by a bulkhead with five sets of
bunks—floor, middle, and upper—on each side. I
had chosen my upper bunk carefully. It ran parallel with the centerline of the boat, starboard side,
where there was less wave motion, and it had an
escape chute, at foot end, that led up to the salon
deck in case the aft stairwell exit became inaccessible. There was also a crawl opening in the bulkhead so passengers in the port side of the berth
could use the chute in an emergency. Alan’s bunk
was just on the other side of the opening. I could
see him lying face down, asleep and enviably free
of worries about capsizing.
I laid there falling in and out of a disturbed
nauseous doze, getting bashed silly, wondering
when I’d upchuck or if I’d get thrown from my
bunk as the seas grew angrier.
Somehow overnight, after holing up in my coffin-sized bunk for 10 hours, I had acquired my sea
legs. Alan rousted me at 6 a.m., chanting my name
until I pulled the privacy curtain aside and was
met by his chipper dark featured countenance. He
had already worked in his calisthenics on the bow
to a Mexican sunrise and was much too awake for
my morning sensibilities. But I had made
it to Guadalupe
without letting
my stomach fly
the coop and
was able to enjoy
Cory’s chow from
that moment forward.
Nineteen miles long and
five miles across at its widest point,
Guadalupe Island is a bio-diverse pinniped sanctuary: Northern elephant seals,
Guadalupe fur seals, and California sea lions
congregate at rookery and haul-out points
around its perimeter. There is also an excess of big
game fish that attracts sport fishermen, especially
yellowfin tuna and yellowtail. In 1998 long-range
fishing boats out of San Diego began reporting
great whites making shock-and-awe attacks on
their catch. Word spread like chum. The island
has since became infamous for hosting one of
Guadalupe
Guadalupe represents an aqua Eden for
researchers and shark divers. Unlike South
Africa, Australia, and the Farallon Islands,
visibility is often crystalline, well over 100 feet
on best days and, provided you chum the
water, white sharks are almost guaranteed to
show up everyday during the season.
39
ADVENTURE CHARTER
Shark Cage
Each one-hour dive rotation constituted dropping into on of two 10’ X 20’ cages deployed over
vessel’s stern, four divers per cage.
40
the largest aggregations of white sharks in the
world, making it part of what’s known as the
“Grand Slam” shark circuit that includes South
Africa and Australia.
We weren’t long at anchor when we learned
of Benchley’s presence on The Horizon.
It burned me that I was never able to get
close enough to speak with him during the four
days we were both at Guadalupe, being that our
vessels remained about 600 feet apart. So when
I returned to my bungalow in Orange County, I
sought Benchley out via his publisher. I wanted
to include him in the travel story I was working
on at the time. More importantly, I had to know
what he thought about the shark experience
we’d both shared, albeit from different boats.
His first email reply to me revealed he was
closely following the shark poaching issues
at Guadalupe. On January 5, 2005, he wrote:
“Did you hear that not long before we were [at
Guadalupe], local fishermen had come upon
a sportfishing boat with anglers hooked up
to two great whites? The fishermen asked the
captain of the boat to release the sharks but
were told to bugger off. So the fishermen cut the
anglers’ lines. The boat, they said, had covered
up its name, home port, and I.D. numbers.”
I had heard about the shark harvesting
going on in Mexican waters which are prowled
by trophy hunters and fin raiders—whose practice is slicing the fins off a shark and discarding
the still-writhing body to sea.
“Sharks are sold as food by the pound, so the
value is that they’re big,” Benchley told me on
Friday morning, January 28, 2005, after inviting
me to phone his East Coast residence. There is
a bursting demand for shark-fin soup (equated
with status and virility) in Japan, China, and
other Asia nations where a single bowl can fetch
over a hundred dollars. “I’ve heard a big white
shark jaw brings in 10K. I bought a fabulous
fiberglass reproduction of a jaw in Florida,” he
said. “You don’t have to kill a shark anymore
to get great jaws... And the shed teeth of white
sharks are no longer something people wear
as jewelry, although my wife still wears an old
shark tooth.”
Patric had mentioned a recent run-in with
poachers. “Four trips ago, a 40-foot fishing
vessel pulled up on our chum site and threw
a huge hook over the side with braided wire
and a big piece of meat on it,” he said, as we
waited for the roguish seas to abate enough to
dive on the first day. “Sure enough, they hooked
one of our sharks with the intention of killing
it.” Patric and his sharky crew were able to talk
them into releasing the animal. But another
great white was harvested not long after this
incident; probably the one Benchley was referring to.
“One set of great white fins on the open
market today is worth upwards of $25,000—
$5,000 a fin, plus jaw. Outsider Mexican fishermen have picked up on that,” Patric said.
“Something truly special is happening at this
island, and I believe it’s absolutely incumbent
for any ecotour operator to give back or channel funds into any sort of research going on. But
without direct engagement with the Mexicans,
we will lose this site.”
Patric has been an ardent sponsor and
ally, both financially and logistically, to
ADVENTURE CHARTER
“No mere
‘Shark Week’
could have
prepared me
for the overreaching
immensity
of my first
carcharodon
carcharias
rising from
below”
42
research efforts at Guadalupe by such renowned
shark scientists as Dr. Felipe Galvan, from the
Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar
(CICIMAR), and Dr. Peter Klimley, from University
of California, Davis, who has been featured on
Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week.” Mauricio, a
29-year-old doctorate student at CICIMAR and
frequent presence on Patric’s shark expeditions, is
working under the advisement of both scientists
in studying the fine-scale movements of great
whites around this island. He seems to maintain a
perpetual state of bliss from doing exactly what he
was born to do. During our trip when a diver asked
him how long he has wanted to study sharks, his
Spanish-accented reply was, “Ever since I was a
sperm.”
Guadalupe
Guadalupe represents an aqua Eden for
researchers and shark divers. Unlike South Africa,
Australia, and the Farallon Islands, visibility is
often crystalline, well over 100 feet on best days
and, provided you chum the water, white sharks
are almost guaranteed to show up every day during the season.
It was Benchley’s first time diving at Guadalupe,
and his last encore with great whites. He and
Wendy were celebrating their 40th Wedding
Anniversary on the trip.
“In South Africa, they do most of the cage
diving off these monster seal colonies,” said
Benchley, when I asked him how Guadalupe rated
against other shark sites. “The sharks are all over
you there; fifteen to twenty at a time in a given
day... I’ve been to South Australia half a dozen
times, and I’ve always had pretty bad luck there.
On one trip, we saw only one shark in eight days.
Guadalupe was certainly better than my experiences in Australia. There were more great whites
there, and they were much less shy. To have about
three or four sharks around the clock for four
straight days was top of the scale.”
I also saw sharks regularly during those same
days. Although Benchley and I were on separate
boats under different eco-operators, the drill was
essentially the same on The Odyssey and her sister
vessel, The Horizon. Each one-hour dive rotation
constituted dropping into one of two 10’ X 20’
cages deployed over vessel’s stern, four divers per
cage. Unlike everyone else on The Odyssey, I was
not a certified diver at the time—the reason why
Patric had stressed taking an introductory scuba
course, pre-trip. “Some people get claustrophobia
or panic,” he had warned. “The last thing you need
to worry about is breathing through a regulator
with great white sharks swimming in your face.”
Non-certs are allowed on these dives since you
don’t go below ten feet and breathing is done with
a hookah. Odyssey divers were each cinched in a
60-lb weight harness so we wouldn’t be bobbing
around like loose corks. The water temp here in
the fall averages 60-62 degrees which constitutes
coldwater diving. And because you’re standing
immobile in a cage rather than swimming, your
core body temp drops like Bush’s approval ratings.
“I don’t like coldwater diving,” said Benchley, who
wore a 40-lb harness and considered the water
temp “marginal for a wetsuit” versus a dry one.
On my first dive, I was bordering on sensory
overload as I wrestled into a 7mm wetsuit, then the
head-shrinking hood, boots, and gloves—all borrowed from Alan. The whole getup felt like a black
python had me in a goodnight squeeze. There
was so much to think about, like the rules Tracy
had laid down at first dive meeting: Never stick
any part of your body outside the cage, and never
make any sudden movements that might trigger a
“predator-prey reaction,” she admonished. It was
easy to get distracted by Tracy’s wholesome Sandra
Bullock looks, until she administered instructions
with disarming authority. By day she wore navy
blues—pants, collared shirt, and a tight cap, brim
low slung. But at night it was as if she stepped
out of a phone booth, transformed from seriousmannered dive ops manager into sensual hostess,
wearing a flowery sheath, her dark chestnut waves
braided and no longer stuffed under a cap.
Tracy would monitor us from the dive platform. Another sharky would man a push-pole
during rotations. “If a shark were to come in too
close to the cages, we push it off,” Tracy said. “It
doesn’t harm the shark. We just give them a little
extra nudge to keep them from entering the cage,
because sharks don’t have a reverse mode.”
Patric and crew had been tossing five-gallon
buckets of tuna parts, hang bait, and powdered
chum—made from dried fish and blood meal—
over both gunwales. “By using dried product, we
hope to not put anything into the environment
like parasites or bacteria,” Patric told me.
Down on the dive platform, a sharky threw
the weight harness on my shoulders, cinching the
belt snug while, sure enough, I fought off waves
of claustrophobia. “Show me how to purge your
mask,” Tracy said, making sure I was ready for my
first open water dive. I obliged then sat on the dive
platform. Each diver’s entry had to be carefully
timed in between wicked surges so we wouldn’t
smash loose limbs between the 325-lb cage and
the platform, or fall in between, vulnerable to
patrolling sharks. I thrust the reg in my mouth,
threw my legs into the lurching cage, and ... KERPLOOSH!
When the bubbles cleared, I was standing on
the cage floor. Tracy’s blurred face peered down
at me. Her hand was underwater giving me the
OK sign that I returned. I got tossed around a bit,
trying to fight the currents until I realized the idea
was to stay loose, knees bent in a boxer’s stance.
Visibility was at 25 feet, well shy of the usual
80-plus feet. A plankton bloom was turning the
blue water green and dusky, caused by deepwater
43
ADVENTURE CHARTER
Eco-tourism
There have been fears among conservationists and scientists that the advent of ecotourism and chumming is altering the behavior of great whites at this site. The island’s
fishermen have reported that, since shark diving charters started showing up about four
years ago, great whites have been shadowing their panga boats, associating the sound of a
motor with feeding time. This was not the case before eco-tours started in these waters.
The West Anchorage on the island’s windward side is a seasonal fishing camp for the
same returning consortium of Mexican fishermen, aka pangeros, and their families who
spend ten months harvesting Guadalupe’s abundant abalone and lobster that is shipped
back to Ensenada, where most of them come from. Patric ritually offers them a few supplies, like fresh veggies, meat, batteries, sodas—even though they ask for beer—and fishing gear to maintain good relations. Some of the pangeros have become invaluable aids to
shark researchers.
Mauricio doesn’t necessarily view this
behavioral change as a bad development
because these sharks need more fat than
is found in chum products or tuna. “They
have to hunt elephant seals because
their fat has twice the caloric value of
muscle tissue from fish,” he told Alan and
I while we sat on Odyssey’s afterdeck, tiki
torches irradiating the night sea with fire
tones. “So maybe they eat the fish, but
it will not become the main food of the
sharks.”
He has witnessed singular white
shark behavior over his many trips to
Guadalupe. “Last year, I saw a shark on
the surface opening and closing its mouth
in aggression as it swam sideways, about
two meters from this boat,” Mauricio said. “It’s like a dog showing its teeth. It’s almost the
same thing.” This behavior is known as aerial jaw gaping, mostly seen in males, the territorial sex. “Another thing I saw is tail slapping, when a shark smacks its tail against the surface or against another shark, but he did it against the boat, because the shark considers
the boat competitive... And we’ve seen full body breeches and leaps. It’s like a threatening
display against another shark.”
upwelling that comes from the submarine canyons here.
The rest of my dive team already stood in
shark-watching position, camera-wielding sentries each facing a different direction. There was
James Mott, an ink-laden guitarist in a punk
band called Casket Gasket from Farmington
Hills, Michigan; Ken Steil, a young Detroit police
officer; and my dive bud, Alan, a nature filmmaker here for the second consecutive year. His
footage of Guadalupe’s great whites—featured
in the Rio Films documentary, California Sea
Lions, narrated by Sean Astin—had convinced
me to come along and see these animals in 3D.
Standing in the cage weighted to negative
buoyancy felt like being on the moon at onethird gravity, only the hazy green cosmos was
inverted, plunging between my neoprene boots
(the cage floors are perforated, Swiss cheese
style), streaked by cornflower blues. Depths
quickly nose-dive to over 1,300 feet moving out
44
from the island.
A churning commotion in the neighboring
cage caught my peripheral. It was as if someone
had dropped a giant Alka Seltzer tablet into it.
When the foamy maelstrom dissipated, I saw it
was Paul Shinkman, a semi-retired neurobiology professor from University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, dropping into the cage like a
mini-disaster, legs peddling an invisible bicycle
trying to correct his hopeless entry trajectory.
He landed upside down anyway. The professor
had logged over 55 dives in tropical places like
Spain and Cozumel, but this was his first cage
diving experience in cold water with 60 lbs
of negative buoyancy that induces an abrupt,
almost hurling, descent. “I hate diving in a wetsuit,” he said one night as we tossed back cups
of Great White Chardonnay together. “I prefer
warm waters, floating in neutral buoyancy.”
Yet he was having the time of his life. “These
people are absolutely superior, especially Patric
and Tracy.” The professor’s awkward coordination juxtaposed against his erudite manner. His
mind was acrobatic. His thick paunchy body
was not. To our relief, he stood upright in the
cage, giving Tracy the OK sign.
We waited. Ten, 20, 35 minutes went by. No
sharks. I watched a long bamboo pole, ducttaped flat at the end, enter the water above us.
A sharky at the stern of the boat was slapping
the surface with it. “Sharks are tuned in to every
sound in the water,” Patric had told us, “so
when they hear something different, they want
to investigate.”
Then Alan was pointing down to our left. At
first I saw nothing, until part of the sea separated from itself, becoming a grey-green plasmatic
specter that took on form. The preternatural
girth of the animal—nine feet or so—reduced
me to an awed simpleton.
No mere “Shark Week” could have prepared
me for the overreaching immensity of my first
carcharodon carcharias rising from below,
3,000 pounds and 15 feet of shark nearing
our titanium-reinforced aluminum cage—not
much comfort as my eye caught the weld repair
to a strut in the cage window, a reminder of a
previous trip when a shark stuck its head in and
exerted about 10,000 pounds of pressure (the
bars are rated at 5K crush strength), buckling
the metal into scrap. No one was in the cage at
the time, and it remains Patric’s first and only
“mishap with these beasties” in four seasons
at Guadalupe, he said. “We learned from that
experience, and we dropped the aperture down
by two full inches.”
Solar vines shimmered off the great white’s
back like lightning flashes as the titanic fish
moved with eons of evolved efficiency. Even
at first sighting I knew the design could not be
improved on. Not as a cruising killing machine.
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Call Ray Weldon in Fort Lauderdale
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ADVENTURE CHARTER
Her beauty was so overwhelming as to take
away my fear. At that moment, I understood
why Benchley loved sharks, and why—through
conservation work, TV appearances, lectures,
and nonfiction books like Shark Trouble—he
spent the latter part of his life trying to defang
the empire of terror he created with Jaws, which
he meant as fiction, not as an excuse to go out
and headhunt sharks.
The low viz, along with a great white’s notorious ability to change hues—different combinations of blue, silver, charcoal grey, sea green,
and bronze—allowed the sharks to manifest
like a haunting: near the surface a ways off one
moment, right under the cage floor the next.
The animals seemed to assemble from phantasmal mist, as if teleported from the deep. “It
was very eerie,” Benchley said about this phenomenon. “You’d turn around and there would
be one right there. Doc Anes, a real character
who ran the operation, told us, ‘Remember, it
isn’t the shark you see that’s going to get you, it’s
the one you don’t see that does’.”
Benchley nearly lived those words. “I had
my hand out to touch a shark passing the cage,”
A Note about Peter Benchley
When I first learned of Peter Benchley’s death last February 12 (he was 65), due to
complications of pulmonary fibrosis, I was gobsmacked. It was just over one year since
we had talked. My mind reflexively invoked his robust, gentlemanly voice—the way he
said “Good day” to me on first phone greeting; and the sound of his dress heels on a
hard floor as he moved about his home in Princeton, New Jersey. He gave off no indications of being ill.
I never did share the interview material, until
now. It seems right to give him a last word about
sharks to break the silence of his passing.
In the face of much controversy about ecotour operators herding more and more people
to remote dive areas, dropping them in cages,
and tossing chum in the water to attract sharks,
Benchley told me, “I think it’s fine to bring people
to see sharks. I’m for giving anyone who can
afford it the chance. Because the more you see
and understand these sharks, the more you have
the desire to save them and not run out and slaughter them.”
What he did not sanction are shark operators who promote excessive risk by allowing
divers outside a cage; or exploitive shark cowboys like Andre Hartman, who “leave a cage
and try to ride a shark for kicks,” he said. (Jean-Michel Cousteau recently supplicated to
Hartman’s Darwin Award-worthy influence, riding a great white in the “Sharks: At Risk”
episode of his PBS series, JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU’S OCEAN ADVENTURES.) “It’s
going to cause harm, because someone is going to get killed and then there’s going to
be more hysteria, then another spasm of nonsense where people want to go out and kill
sharks.
I had intended on keeping Benchley on the phone for no more than 20 minutes that
day, knowing he was a wanted man. But I couldn’t hang up with him, especially when I
realized he was talking to me, not as celebrity to journalist, but as shark diver to shark
diver. The conversation would have never ended had he not gently remonstrated me. At
the 50-minute mark, he said, “You know, we’ve been talking for quite a long time.”
46
he said. “Well, there was another shark following close behind that I didn’t see at all. Had she
wanted to, she could have easily had a hand or
an arm for lunch.”
It turned out the female great white that
cage-stormed my team was “Scarboard,” named
so because of the singular scars on her right
flank. Scarboard is almost always observed with
an escort school of pilot fish.
She is one of over 70 adult and sub-adult great
whites photo-documented in these waters by
Pfleger Institute for Environmental Research
(PIER), headquartered in Oceanside, California.
PIER is a major funding source for Mexican
graduate students like Mauricio. Headed by Dr.
Michael Domeier, PIER has placed over 60 satellite tags on Guadalupe sharks since 2000. Return
data has revealed these white sharks spend
at least half the year in deep pelagic waters
between the California Coast and Hawaii, but
what they’re doing out there remains elusive.
Nor is it fully understood why great whites
converge on Guadalupe Island every year with
the approach of fall then leave by December.
There may be a correlation between elephant
and fur seal migration and breeding patterns.
Elephant seals are a white shark’s favorite food
because of the high fat content. Young male
whites, averaging 11-14 feet, first appear in
early July; while larger adult females begin
showing up around September. The largest
shark observed by scientists and ecotour operators was 16 feet, but local fishermen have
reported sharks as large as 20 feet. Both males
and females are often gashed by scarring, and
some have chunks missing—territorial infighting is common. “We’ve seen a lot of violent
aggressive behavior among these sharks,” Dr.
Domeier told me during my visit at PIER, post
trip. “They’re just really mean to each other.”
A party unleashed later that night, the result
of boat fever that had settled over us after three
days at sea—26 people enduring a confined space
without relent. Landfall on Guadalupe Island is
prohibited by the Mexican government without
special permits, so divers are left to their own
devices during downtime aboard ship. Beer and
wine wasn’t swigged as much as it was shotgunned. Voices reached drunken crescendo. The
Bee Gees’ “Staying Alive” morphed the salon floor
into a retro disco—one of the divers, Alan Waltz, a
DJ from San Jose, had lined into the house stereo
system with his laptop’s dance mixes. The couples
aboard busted some moves, and one unattached
woman got lugged up enough to do a pole dance.
I couldn’t keep up, beaten down by the taxes of
coldwater diving. As I descended the aft stairwell
to my bunk I heard the DJ shout, “Okay, now
everybody do the white man’s overbite!”
My dive teammate, Ken, was the extreme
junky aboard The Odyssey. The Guadalupe trip
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ADVENTURE CHARTER
“The upper lip
crinkled back,
revealing
bloody gums
then a bony
ridge filled
with layers of
serrate teeth
like broken
razorblades”
Information
To charter this trip or any yacht you
see in this issue of YV&C, please
contact any of the recommended
charter brokers listed on page 8
48
completed the Grand Slam circuit for him. Some
people chase storms. Ken, 30ish and head-shaven, chases great whites. He is streetwise from
pulling undercover duty in Motown’s “Southwest”
gangland. His fellow officers have christened him
“Shark Bait,” figuring the nickname will become
a fulfilled prophecy if he keeps tempting white
death. On a diving expedition in Australia off the
Neptune Islands, he was only minutes inside the
shark cage when a great white rushed up from
below, hitting it so hard “the shark lifted the cage
out of the water trying to get to me,” Ken said. “No
bait was even in the water yet.” He theorizes the
shark was attracted to the blood red color of his
dry suit, the same dry suit he wore in our cage,
until it sprung a leak (thank you, God) and he
reverted to his 7mm black wetsuit.
Ken has been on repeat expeditions to “Shark
Alley” in South Africa, an area between Geyser
Rock and Dyer Island. It was there he witnessed a
predation, when a great white bit a sea lion in half
next to the research vessel he was on. “The front
half swam in circles until it bled to death,” he
said. He agreed with Benchley’s take that South
African sharks are “all over you,” estimating that
one in three sharks either bumped or bit the cage
during his dives. I got the feeling he liked that sort
of thing.
During a dive rotation on the second day, Ken
stretched one arm then a shoulder through the
cage window to touch a passing 13-foot white
shark. That was when a push-pole abruptly konked
him on the head—Tracy’s way of communicating,
That’s a no-no. Putting a hand outside the cage is
tolerated. Hanging part of your body out is not.
Patric expects absolute adherence to safety
protocol under his watch, yet he exhibits the same
fierceness about showing his divers a great time.
For him there are two branches of shark operators.
He categorizes himself with the “safe and sane
shark divers,” who are bringing shark diving to the
masses. Then there are the “divergent rebels who
are trying to one-up each other.” Guys like Andre
Hartman and Jim Abernathy. “[Abernathy] found
a place to dive cage-free with tiger sharks. And,
now, he’s doing nighttime diving with tiger sharks,”
Patric said. “You know, if you’re in the water with
an apex predator, you’re already at a disadvantage.
If you’re diving blind with an apex predator known
to feed at night, now you’re in the realm of the
insane. And there’s a marketplace for that.”
We only had one incident on the trip. Fourman teams were loading into the cages at mid
afternoon. Tracy was helping a diver with his gear
on deck when sharky crew were suddenly yelling,
“Tracy! ... TRACY!!” She ran aft, dropping down
the ladder to the dive platform. It was the professor, Paul. He was pulled out of the port cage sputtering, and hustled inside the boat.
The “Acknowledgement of Risk Release” that
divers have to sign for these trips includes unan-
ticipated risks like “falling, collision, head injuries,
equipment failure, striking obstruction or other
persons, hypothermia, and unforeseen attacks
by sharks.” We didn’t know what had befallen the
professor until Tracy emerged 20 minutes later
with news he was fine. I found him in the salon
seated in a booth, wetsuit peeled off his upper
body. He told me he had knocked his mask loose
when he dropped, pell-mell, into the cage. Mask
askew, one of his contact lenses floated away
and he got disoriented, panicked, and swallowed
some saltwater. Thankfully he came out uninjured. “They really took good care of me,” he said,
spooning some of Cory’s clam chowder.
The great whites we saw averaged between 11
and 15 feet. Until our last dive rotation on the final
day as the yolky sun waned over Mount Augusta,
Guadalupe’s razorback 4,257-foot peak. The sea
had turned docile blue overnight as the winds
died. We weren’t bullied by currents in the cage
and viz was 60 feet and improving. My consciousness was spilling into the big blue when a 14-foot
female materialized from below The Odyssey’s hull.
She passed close enough for a pectoral fin to rattle
the cage bars. As she receded another great white,
also a female, eclipsed my mask window. She
swam beneath the cage and ghosted away.
Both sharks were hidden, but you could feel
them out there. Movement erupted from the
starboard. The new shark was a giantess, moving under the panga boat that had returned with
Mauricio, lingering alongside it. I would have
rebuked her size as some freak underwater refraction; except her body ran the length of the panga.
That would make her at least 18 feet and about
two tons. Mauricio, who observed the shark from
above, corroborated this later.
The queen beast glided on pectoral wings, moving to the hang bait that floated just below the
surface off starboard, mouth toward us as it yawned
open. The upper lip crinkled back, revealing bloody
gums then a bony ridge filled with layers of serrate
teeth like broken razorblades. The cavernous passage to her gullet waited. She tore the bait from the
line with a fierce swipe of her head and continued
toward us fronting a slack-jawed grin. She moved in
along the cage, taking a good look inside. Her right
eye landed on me like a duel-judgment from God
and Old Scratch. I was looking into an omnipotent
black hole that slung me back 11 million years,
where nothing was ruined. YVC
About the Writer
C.J. Bahnsen is a freelance writer based in Newport
Beach, California. His stories have appeared in the
Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Scuba Diving
Magazine. He is currently working on the screenplay for
a theatrical nature documentary, Island of the Seals, to
be released next year by Rio Films.
cjbahnsen@earthlink.net
��
FRANCE
Corsica:
L’Isle de Beauté
Sail aboard
Blue Titan
around this
French island
basking in the
Italian sun
which has a
character all
its own
WRITTEN AND PHOTGRAPHED BY
MICHELLE BLORE AND ALAN OLIVER
Mention Corsica to just about any Frenchman and you’ll see a misty look spread across
his eyes. L’Isle de Beauté - the beautiful island - is one of France’s best kept secrets; a
natural paradise where the rugged coastline dips regularly into bays lined with white sand
beaches, hung with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, and hemmed with a turquoise
sea so clear you can see the fish without the need for a snorkeling mask.
50
W
e’d heard so many poetic
descriptions of the island
from our French and
Corsican neighbors, that
we were eagerly anticipating our cruise aboard
the sailing yacht Blue Titan. Arriving in Calvi by
ferry from Nice, our first close-up view of Corsica
was the port’s ancient citadel, built high on a
rocky promontory to protect the town’s inhabitants from unwelcome visitors. In today’s more
peaceful climate the town has spread beyond the
walls, and now the pretty quayside is lined with
smart cafés and restaurants. It was here that Blue
Titan sat elegantly awaiting us in the calm evening
air of late spring, as the sunset spread its hazy glow
across the huge bay, dabbing the distant mountain snow with rose pink highlights.
Blue Titan is a Mediterranean 88 sailing yacht.
She is unusual in that she successfully marries the
tranquility of sailing with a level of luxury more
normally associated with motor yachts. Even so,
her spacious interior and stability belie a powerful performance under sail. Her owners, who
were our hosts for the week, have sailed together
throughout the world, and every detail of the
yacht reflects their impeccable taste and style, as
well as a genuine enthusiasm for sailing.
It was in such comfort that we left Calvi the
following morning and were soon to be joined
by dolphins at Blue Titan’s bow. Through water
as smooth as glass, we were able to watch their
every move – including seeing them turning from
time to time to look up at us as we photographed
them. Dolphins are frequent companions in the
waters around Corsica. The area between the
Isles d’Hyeres, Cannes on mainland France and
Corsica is designated as a whale and dolphin
sanctuary, and whales are also often sighted when
crossing this part of the Mediterranean.
One of the first things anyone will notice about
the coastline here is the absence of buildings, with
the exception of small, round towers placed at regular intervals. Like a beautiful woman, Corsica has
constantly had to fend off the attentions of those
who wanted to possess her, or steal her virtues.
The inhabitants constantly fell victim to barbarians who stole their livestock, pilfered the harvest and also took the Corsicans themselves into
slavery. In defence, the locals retreated to live in
the mountains, where their villages were easier to
fortify against invaders, and in the 12th and 13th
centuries the Genoese fortified the ports, such as
Calvi and Bonifacio, which are still characterized
by their imposing citadels. The building of the
eighty five towers around Corsica’s 300 miles of
coastline was also ordered by the Genoese, as an
early warning system. Each of the “Tours de Guet”
is within sight of the next, so that whenever the
sails of a suspect vessel appeared on the horizon
the alert could be passed from tower to tower by
lighting fires. In this way, the whole coast could be
made aware of the incursion in less than an hour.
Being so constantly victimized did nothing
to help the local economy, and this is one of the
reasons that the Corsicans have never had the
pleasure of being able to govern themselves. The
other was the attraction of the island as a staging
post along important Mediterranean trade routes.
The Ancient Greeks were the first colonizers to
arrive in the 6th century BC. Sharing the sentiments later echoed by the French, they referred to
the island as Kalliste – “the beautiful”. Domination
from Rome followed, then, as the Roman Empire
declined, the island fell into the cruel hands of the
Saracens, or Moors. In the 11th century the Pisans
finally succeeded in driving out the Saracens and
took over, before the Genoese wrested it from their
control in 1288. In 1769 Corsica’s most famous
son, Napoleon Bonaparte, was born in Ajaccio;
the same year that the French took control of the
island.
Calvi
In the 12th and 13th centuries the Genoese
fortified the ports, such as Calvi and Bonifacio,
which are still characterized by their imposing
citadels.
Bonifacio
Perched impenetrably on top of striking chalk
cliffs, the citadel guards an almost invisible
entrance to the port.
51
FRANCE
About BlueTitan
Designed by Ted Hood, built by US YACHTS in 1988 and refitted in 2002, Blue Titan is the
perfect yacht for those seeking smooth sailing with the accent on comfort and elegance. Her
wide decks and large cockpit allow ample space for relaxing, and her sunbathing cushions forward provide the ideal spot for sun worshippers to stretch out. The spacious pilothouse means
guests may relax in air-conditioned luxury and enjoy uninterrupted views; particularly ideal for
the cooler evenings in early or late season.
Below decks, the full-beam saloon allows for sophisticated on-board dining as well as hightech. entertainment with TV, DVD and surround sound. The guest cabins are situated aft; each
has en-suite facilities, and all are spacious with generous headroom. The huge Master cabin
has an exceptional amount of natural light. The two further guest cabins have twin berths as
well as Pullman berths, making this an ideal family yacht.
Marina d’Elba
Its dramatically red rocks have been fashioned
by subsequent erosion into creases, pinnacles
and caves.
52
Charcuterie
Every butcher’s shop displays a profusion of smoked
hams and ‘saucission’ (dried sausages) which are also
often made from Sanglier.
The descendent of a family from Tuscany in
Italy, Napoleon later changed his surname from
‘Buonaparte’ to the French version ‘Bonaparte’.
It may well have been the constant turmoil of his
birthplace that helped Napoleon to become one
of history’s most talented and renowned military
strategists: “Victory belongs to the most persevering” he said, and the Corsicans certainly knew
how to persevere. Although he was ultimately to
become Emperor of France, he never gave his
homeland its independence.
As we passed a fishing boat, the dolphins
left us for what obviously looked like more
profitable games, and we turned towards land,
entering the Marina d’Elba to anchor for lunch.
Rather than being a man-made marina, this bay
was created 250 million years ago by the volcanic eruptions of Monte Cinto. Its dramatically
red rocks have been fashioned by subsequent
erosion into creases, pinnacles and caves. The
area forms part of the Scandola nature reserve,
designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
because of its outstanding coastal and marine
habitat. The reserve is off-limits to hikers and
can only be visited by boat. Snorkeling is permitted but diving is banned inside the park, and
the site is regularly patrolled by the reserve wardens. Those wishing to experience the diverse
marine life may dive on the edges of the area
with the diving school based at Galeria, which is
one of the largest in France.
After lunch, we headed into Girolata, a tiny
cluster of houses with a couple of relaxed beach
restaurants which makes a stunning overnight
anchorage. The village is inaccessible by motor
vehicle - the locals use quad bikes to get around
and meet the morning supply boat when it
arrives at 10.00am each day! It’s this absence of
roads that makes Corsica such a great place to
take your walking boots. The hillsides are crisscrossed by numerous well-marked paths, which
enable ramblers to experience the wildness of
the countryside, as well rewarding them with the
best views. It was a blissfully peaceful night at
anchor, and next morning we walked amongst
the garrigue, a tangle of vegetation which covers
the rocky Mediterranean terrain. Spring flowers
and wild herbs such as rock roses, lavender and
rosemary immediately enveloped us, giving off
their distinctive earthy perfume; an aroma so
pervasive that we could also breathe it from the
deck of Blue Titan at anchor, especially in the
cool night air.
The forested hillsides are home to the Sanglier,
or wild boar, that features regularly in the local
cuisine. ‘Daube de Sanglier’ is a deliciously rich
casserole, cooked slowly with red wine and herbs,
and every butcher’s shop displays a profusion
of smoked hams and ‘saucission’ (dried sausages) which are also often made from Sanglier.
Understanding this close relationship to the
untamed, natural environment, together with the
past insecurity of the island, is the key to developing an appreciation of Corsican culture and way of
life. Living in Corsica was never easy; families have
always had to stick together, and extended families – or clans - often took sides with the various
occupying powers that were fighting for domination. Being so distant from their foreign masters,
as well as so inaccessible, meant that on a local
basis the government held little sway; instead life
was characterized by feuding between the island
nobility, with Corsican matters often being settled
by violence.
From Girolata we headed off to visit one of
Corsica’s most spectacular locations, the port of
Bonifacio. Perched impenetrably on top of striking
chalk cliffs, the citadel guards an almost invisible
entrance to the port. Until one is close by, it’s hard
to spot the gap in the heavily striated white cliffs
through which the yachts slip before making their
way up the mile-long channel leading into the
harbour. Looking high up towards the impossibly
steep walls of the citadel as you enter, it’s easy
to imagine why it was able to withstand being
besieged by the French and Turks in the 14th century. Bonifacio’s unique harbour is also thought
to be mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, when the
Greeks were forced to retreat from a fortress called
Lamos by the threat of being eaten by a cannibal
king – clearly Corsica has always enjoyed a ferocious reputation!
For a truly spectacular perspective on the
citadel we walked along the coastal path which
also offers views along the weather carved cliffs
towards nearby Sardinia and the Archipelago della
Maddalena. Once inside the ancient walls, the narrow alleyways reveal arresting architectural details
at every turn: a Genoese tower, the patinated wall
of a church, a set of stone steps worn by centuries
of comings and goings. And every now and again,
a passage opens to the tops of the citadel walls,
giving dizzying views through the wheeling gulls,
down to the rocky shore below with its mosaic of
turquoise and deepest blue.
Lunch the next day was taken en-route, and
from our vantage point seated in Blue Titan’s
cockpit we effectively had front row seats for the
dolphins’ floor show that seemed to have been
specially laid on for our entertainment. Our journey this time was to take us to the tranquility of
Porto Pollo, yet another beautiful anchorage with
a perfect sandy beach and little sign of the impact
of man. The Corsicans are very well aware of the
riches that nature has bestowed upon their island;
large areas of the coastline are protected by strict
building restrictions and consequently the view
remains uncluttered by the detritus of the holiday
industry. Mass tourism has been firmly rejected in
favor of a more individual approach, which welcomes the independent traveler looking to explore
the island, as opposed to those wishing to pass the
time in a resort hotel.
Here they’ve probably seen enough invasions,
without encouraging more! After a week of relaxing in such a spectacular series of settings, it’s
easy to understand why such a diverse range of
conquerors believed it was worth spilling blood to
take, and keep, Corsica. Here is the Mediterranean
as it once was: majestic and untamed, without the
need for artificial embellishment. Being aboard
Blue Titan not only enabled us to visit places that
otherwise would have been inaccessible, but also
gave us a true sense of the spirit of the island.
Only a yacht affords the privilege of bringing one
so close to nature, without compromising on style
and comfort. We left convinced that the sentiments of everyone from the Ancient Greeks to
our French friends were justified - that Corsica is
indeed worthy of its epithet: the beautiful. YVC
“ Being aboard
Blue Titan not
only enabled
us to visit
places that
otherwise
would have
been inaccessible, but also
gave us a
true sense of
the spirit of
the island”
About the Writers
Michelle Blore and Alan Oliver both quit successful
careers in London to move to the French Riviera. They
now run Dream Sailing (www.dreamsailing.com) a
charter brokerage specializing in luxury crewed yachts,
including their own sailing yacht, DreamCatcher of
London. alanandmichelle@dreamsailing.com
Information
Contact:
Dream Sailing, +33 664 037020
info@dreamsailing.com
or www.dreamsailing.com
53
TRAVEL DIARY
Santorini Greek Island holiday sun
OOPA!
Girls Holiday
in Greece
WRITTEN & PHOTOGRAPHED
BY LAURA ALBERS
PHOTO: PAUL REID
Four twentysomething’s
leave the world
behind for 7
days to cruise
the Greek Isles
A year ago, I decided to spend my summer traveling in Europe and I made it my personal
mission to convince my sister and two best friends to join me on the journey. Lucky for me,
it didn’t take too much convincing.
M
y sister Melissa and friend Michelle both
have “real jobs”, really great ones too. My
friend Katie’s career allows her to make
her own schedule, and as for me, I’m a graduate
student. I have the whole summer off. Somehow,
we manage to meet up on the other side of the
globe for an amazing holiday in Greece.
Day 1: Athens Arrival
The Crew
(left to right) Laura, Katie, Melissa, Michelle
54
Katie and I land in Athens in the early afternoon and wait for Melissa and Michelle’s arrival. It
takes nearly the entire day for us to unite but, we
are finally ready to begin our adventure.
We make our way to the hotel, wash away the
travel dust, and go for a nice dinner in the Plaka
– a beautiful area of Athens with plenty of shops,
cafes, and restaurants. The food is delicious – souvlaki (think meat on a stick), tzatziki (an amazing
white sauce that will leave you wondering what
else you could put it on), olives, and much more.
The combination of a great meal, a late night, and
jet lag had worn on us and we were ready for bed.
There would be more nights to get into trouble.
Day 2: Touring Athens
Waking up late in Athens, we hurry out of the
hotel before the owner chases us out – he looked
as though he just might! We head to the next hotel
– Hotel Hermes – in the Plaka area; it even has air
conditioning (a real treat for travelers on a budget!). This is where we would later meet our cruise
ship companions and cruise manager, Ryan.
After check in, we set out for the Acropolis, only
one of the amazing ancient sites we would see during our time in Greece. First, we come upon the
Theater of Dionysos, the birthplace of Greek tragedy,
built around 342 BC. (I say that as if seeing things
from ancient times is a common occurrence – I’m
still having trouble wrapping my head around it.)
The day is extraordinarily hot so we don’t marvel too
long at Dionysos; we still have to climb to the top of
the Acropolis and stare in awe at the Parthenon.
Twenty minutes later, at the top we pose for all
the appropriate pictures one must do when viewing an ancient wonder. However, the heat is getting to us and we duck inside the nearby museum
for a bit of shade. Walking around, I begin taking
Day 3: Setting Sail
Six a.m. came early today as we haul our bags
downstairs to the hotel lobby. Today we set sail to
Mykonos. Mykonos is famous for its nightlife but
something most people don’t discover until they
arrive, is the island mascot, Petros. He’s a pelican
who long ago lost his way in a storm and made
Mykonos his home. Everyone loves Petros and
he knows it! He stops traffic everywhere he goes,
creating traffic jams of people lined up to pet him
and take photos, he puts on quite the show.
This being our first Greek island, we are beyond
thrilled and are literally dancing around with joy!
The architecture is breathtaking and the winding
roads are fun to lose yourself in. We then grabbed
a gyro for only 2�, what a deal! The key ingredients
of gyro consist of a warm pita, lettuce, tomato,
lamb or chicken, tzatziki sauce, and french fries,
you may raise an eyebrow at the french fry part
but trust me on it.
Unfortunately, we weren’t staying in Mykonos
past 10pm and were unable to experience the
nightlife, that doesn’t get rolling until 2am, so
we head back to the boat. Instead of tearing it
up in Mykonos, we intend to hit up the ship’s
nightclub – Club Maritim. However, that wasn’t
in the cards for us either, the ship started rocking
– a lot! People were actually falling over. It would
have been much funnier if the four of us weren’t
so seasick. We ended the night early, taking extra
strength Dramamine, and going to bed.
Day 4: What’s Greece Without Togas?
Petros the Pelican
Petros the Pelican - the unoffical masscot of Mykonos
PHOTO: ANDREY GRINYOV
Today’s schedule is action packed and on a
strict timeline, we only have 4 hours to explore
Kusadasi, Turkey before the ship sets sail again
this morning. Even though we set alarms in the
rooms, everyone fails to hear it, oops! Somehow,
Melissa wakes up and gets us moving but the tour
has left without us over an hour earlier.
The world is small when you can meet up
with friends from back home in Turkey, but that
is exactly what we do. We hire a cab to drive us
to the first site where we meet with our friends.
Once everyone arrives, we pile into a van and go to
nearby Ancient Ephesus. Ephesus, I later learned,
was a very wealthy port town until the middle
of the 3rd century AD. The people of Ephesus
believed the Amazonian Queen Ephesia founded
the town.
I say I later learned because our tour of Ephesus
is what could only be described as swift. By the
time we actually arrived in Ancient Ephesus, we
had less than a half hour to explore or risk being
left behind by the ship. Did I mention Ephesus
is one of the most extensive and well-preserved
ancient cities in the world? Well, our tour went
something like, “Run. Run. Ancient Columns. Run.
Ancient Toilets. Run. Run. Run. Look at that! What
do you think that is? I don’t know. You’ll have to
look it up when you get home! Photo Op. Run.
Run. R.U.N.!” It was tons of fun with a dash of
nerve but we made it safely back to the ship with a
memorable experience in Turkey under our belts.
Later in the afternoon, we stopped in Patmos,
a small island famous for the Monastery of St.
John the Theologian. According to tradition, St.
John wrote the book of Revelation in a cave during
a time of exile. It was a lot of hiking to reach this
little monastery but the view from the top always
makes the trip worthwhile.
Back on the boat that night, it’s Greek Night,
a.k.a. Toga Party. In order to have a successful
toga party, you must have a toga and so begins
the hunt for extra bed sheets. Enter Svetla. Svetla
is in charge of linens and isn’t the type of woman
you’d want to cross, but we’re on a mission now.
Michelle takes charge of this situation and asks for
extra sheets because the rooms are so cold (true
statement) however; Svetla had already provided
additional blankets earlier that same day. A wary
Svetla proceeds to inspect the rooms, showing us
the additional linens but Michelle stays strong and
insists on a few more. After a few moments and a
lot of cross looks, success! Svetla hands over the
prized bed sheets.
We each come up with a variation of how to
best wear a sheet and pull it off rather nicely. We
head to dinner, toga’s in full effect, only to discover
most of our ship companions didn’t share our
“spirit” and had opted to not toga with us. Some
of our new ship friends however, did have the
spirit and we finally made it to Club Maritim and
danced most of the night in our sheets, I mean,
togas.
Greece, Athens, Acropolis at the night
PHOTO: AMICHAEL PALIS
a few photographs of the relics and statues – it is
allowed. But I guess there must be a limit of one
photo per statue because as I was trying to get
just the right angle of one particular piece, a very
frantic woman starts after me asking “Why?! Why!?
Do you need more than ONE photograph?! What
are you going to do?!” I calmly assure her, it was
only for personal use, but that didn’t work and she
made me erase the photographs. Luckily it was
a digital camera, I can’t imagine what she would
have done had I brought my film camera!
Later on, we find ourselves in the Plaka again.
An overzealous, but very charming, older man convinces us to have dinner at his restaurant. We have
more terrific Greek dishes like moussaka for dinner,
which is similar to a lasagna but with eggplant and
baklava, a scrumptious pastry, for dessert.
After dinner, we make friends with three Greek
guys, Nickos, Fotis, and Takis and only 2 of the 3
speak English, making for interesting conversation.
We wind up at a nice outdoor bar; have a few drinks
and a lot of laughs. The guys try to teach us a couple
of key Greek words and it only takes me about 40
try’s before I can properly pronounce the Greek
word for “thank you”, efharisto (try to say it like
F-Harrys-Toe and it’s close enough). Everyone kept
laughing at my attempts but I had the last laugh. I
learned to say it so well, when I would thank people
in Greek, they would say “OH! You speak Greek!”
And I would have to say “No, just this one word.”
Who says practice doesn’t make perfect?
A view of Athens from Acropolis hill
Toga Party
Success! We have toga’s! Further success - they’ve
stayed on!
55
TRAVEL DIARY
A beautiful sunlit building
Day 5: Bus Tour and a Sing-a-long
Day 7: A Pirate Ship Adventure
Today we opted for the bus tour of Rhodes
and Lindos. Rhodes has one of the 7 wonders of
the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes. It was
not only a giant statue but also a symbol of unity
for the people of the island. The statue is said to
have only lasted 56 years before an earthquake
brought it down and it was never rebuilt after an
oracle forbade the reconstruction. After the bus
tour, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing
on the beach, all in all, a great way to spend the
day.
That evening was “elegant night” on board
the Sea Diamond. The four of us put on our best
outfit (we didn’t know there would be an elegant
night as this was more of a budget cruise than
a luxe one – we did our best). After dinner and
before Club Maritim opened, there was a lounge
act happening with Tony. Tony was a character
and had us all laughing. Our all-inclusive drink
card, purchased at the start of the cruise, was
certainly getting its use tonight. Tony played the
piano and sang us some songs and we started
singing along and then pretty soon, Michelle
was on stage singing and then Katie was on stage
singing. Together, they brought the house down.
Since it was our last day all together, we made
it the best one yet. That morning we hopped a
bus to the port and boarded what we affectionately called the “pirate ship”. (In reality it was a
sailboat with just enough “charm” to pass as a
pirate ship. If only there had been a skull and
crossbones flag...) I digress, aboard the ship we
meet two guys traveling together; James, from
Australia and Peter, from Sweden and two girls
Aicha and Ciara from England. We are instant
friends and the adventure begins.
First, we go to the volcano responsible for
sinking half the island of Santorini hundreds of
years ago. I would suggest not wearing flip-flops
if you want to hike a volcano. Next, we go to hot
springs where we jump off the boat and swim
around. The water is very rich in minerals and we
become mud people, covering ourselves in mud
that doesn’t really come off until a good scrubbing. Next, we head to another part of the island
for dinner, more authentic Greek foods! We board
again after dinner and set sail for our final destination of the day – only 8 short, wonderful hours
later – to Oia (pronounced E-aaa). Oia is located
high on the cliffs and the only way to get there
is to go up, luckily, we had the option to take a
donkey ride to the very top. What a laugh!
Once we reached the top, we walked around
until it was time for real reason to be in Oia, the
sunset. Everyone in Santorini knows Oia has the
best sunset therefore it’s packed. Not to be discouraged, we get creative and find a way onto a
low roof for an uninterrupted view. The eight of
us line up along the edge, feet dangling, camera’s
ready, for one of the most naturally spectacular
sights that happens every single day but somehow
is a little bit different in a place like Santorini.
We watch as the sun goes down, down, down,
until the very last bit of fiery light glows above the
ocean. The excitement in the air is palpable. Finally,
the last bit of light is swallowed up into the sea
and the sky is streaked in color. I am so impressed
with the sun’s glorious goodnight, I yell out the
best Greek word there is, a word that encompasses
everything in a moment like this – OOPA!
The crowd catches a breath and then shouts
ring out OOPA! OOPA! OOPA!
Give it a try sometime, you’ll know when the
timing is right, it’s the word of words. It’s my new
favorite word and the only way I can describe one
of the most beautiful countries in the world and
best times of my life. OOPA! YVC
Day 6: Arrive Santorini
Ephesus
Occupied ancient restrooms of Ephesus
“ Our tour went
something like...
‘Run. Run. Ancient
Columns. Run. Ancient
Toilets. Run. Run. Run.
Look at that! What do
you think that is? I
don’t know. You’ll have
to look it up when you
get home! Photo Op.
Run. Run. R.U.N.!”
56
Early in the morning, we docked in Crete but I
couldn’t tell you what it was like because the four
of us slept right through it. In our defense, our
cruise manager Ryan told us if we were going to
miss anything, to miss Crete because we wouldn’t
be there long enough to see much. We weren’t too
upset, especially since we were still awake when
the ship docked! When we ventured out, we went
straight to the top-deck pool area. We spent the
remainder of the day hanging out with all of our
new friends we’d made during the week.
That evening, when we arrived in Santorini,
Melissa, Michelle, Katie, and I debarked for the
last time. We decided to stay in Santorini for
some quality island time instead of returning to
Athens the following day, one of the best decisions we made.
We didn’t check into to our hostel, Villa
Holiday Beach in Perissa, until late that evening.
We were pleasantly surprised by hostel – it can
be a crapshoot to book a budget room online in
a distant country – but this was the best hostel
I’ve ever experienced. The room was large; it had
a private restroom (not often found in hostels), a
refrigerator, and a small kitchen. There was also
a beautiful private pool with a bar area outside all
for only 15� per person, per night! It was unbeatable and the hostel owners were terrific, they
even drove us to the airport at the end of our
stay.
About the Writer
Laura Albers is a graduate student and freelance travel
writer based out of St. Louis.
laura.albers@gmail.com
MEDITERRANEAN
Super Yachts Go Treasure
Hunting In Cannes
Diamond
treasure,
secret maps
and perfect
sailing
conditions
make the
new Cannes
yachting race
a hit
The winning super yacht Hyperion
WRITTEN BY PAULA FARQUHARSON
Australian Captain Barry
58
Diamonds are forever and it looks like the prestigious De Beers diamond -sponsored
sailing race that was inaugurated this year over the June 1st-4th long weekend
is set to become a permanent date in the social and sailing calendar on the
French Riviera. Strategically scheduled to take place directly after the Cannes
Film Festival and the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix, the new Cannes Croisette
Cup puts the Riviera in the spot light again with yet another deluxe event for
the world’s elite to enjoy.
I
t took place over four days of racing in the bay
of Cannes the fun, yet competitive race for
super yachts is unique in that it took the form
of a treasure hunt. De Beers have committed to
design a unique treasure for the next three years of
this partnership with the regatta; a sure incentive
for participants.
The winner of this year’s coveted cup and
the six-carat bejewelled medallion, worth�€60,000
was Captain Andrew Barry and his crew aboard
Hyperion, a 47-metre super yacht and one of
the most beautiful sloops in the world from the
Cayman Islands. Barry, who is Australian, told
International Yacht Vacations and Charters ‘It was
fun and the first of its kind event for me. We
received a wax-sealed bottle containing a parchment paper with a map and the clues and we had
to figure out the puzzle to find the markers and
finally the key to open the treasure box.’
Barry has been captain of the Hyperion for the
last five years and has sailed around the world with
his mystery owner – whose name he could not
reveal – and the many visitors who charter her.
The race is the brain child of Lionel Péan,
an avid and famous sailor and co-founder of
the Winning Edge Big Boat Foundation. He took
IYV&C on board his yacht to see the winner pass
the finishing line and explained why he founded
the event. ‘I wanted to create a private race tailored to super yachts. I am from Brittany, in the
north of France but I live on the Riviera now and
love this region. Cannes has the perfect port
and waters for such a race and it all made sense
especially with Cannes’ reputation, which fits in
perfectly with the image I wanted for the event. It
is also a means to help charity; �500 per entry was
donated.’
It made sense as well for Péan to be the founder
and organiser; he is well respected on the yachting circuit with more than 30 years of sailing and
350,000 nautical miles on all oceans behind him
as well as a list of distinctions, including Whitbread
winner, Yachtsman of the Year, honorary citizen of St Malo to mention
a few. He was also race director
of the single-handed transatlantic
Saint-Nazaire Cuba race.
Was he pleased with the Cannes
Croisette Cup event? ‘Yes absolutely. Everyone
enjoyed it and the treasure hunt added a unique
twist. For the first year of the event participation
was good and many other yachts that couldn’t
make it, have expressed their commitment to
2007. Sailing conditions were great and I am
grateful to our sponsors North Sails, De Beers and
Camper & Nicholsons, who made it happen.’
What more could there be for Péan to achieve?
‘On June 25th I am taking part in the new twohanded race, Figaro Bénéteau Cannes Istanbul on
board my Team Spirit (less than 10-metres long
boat) and then I’ll take a holiday with my family.’
With six children he has a ready-made crew so no
doubt he won’t be giving the sailing a rest.
The treasure course took yachts around markers at the Castle of Mandelieu, by the islands of
Lérins, round a buoy in the Cape d’Antibes, finishing up outside the port in Cannes. The super
yachts, which participated included Hyperion,
Attimo, Tamer II, Bartabas, Sklyge, Mariette, Julie
Mother and Wally B. They offered an unforgettable sight as they battled it out along the coast off
Cannes and Antibes as they figured out the clues
– those with some historical knowledge of Cannes
were at an advantage, so start studying for next
year if you want to join in! The Cannes Croisette
Cup 2007 will be held May 31 to June 3, 2007 in
Cannes, France. YVC
About the Writer
Paula Farquharson is editor of The Riviera Times newspaper. Originally from Ireland, she worked in New York and
is now based in Nice, France, where she learned to sail.
The Treasure
Created especially for
the occasion, was a
medallion in yellow
Talisman gold, encrusted
with 6 carots of rough
diamonds.
About the Event
The race was open to invited owners and
owner’s guests, Captain and crew of super
yachts over 100 feet. Three categories were
created for the race, Sailing Cruiser, Cruiser
Racer and Racer 100’ plus and three races
took place. First over the finishing line on the
last day to win the Croisette Grand Prix was
Attimo, a 31-metre Sloop, while Hyperion
finished third. But it was Hyperion, built in
1998 that won the Estérel Trophy and the De
Beers Treasure Hunt, which took place in the
bay of Cannes between the beautiful Estérel
Mountains and the Lérins islands.
The sailing event also incorporated a busy
social schedule with a gala dinner for owners on Friday held in the Palm Beach Casino
hotel in Cannes, where a special viewing
was held and private purchases of De Beers’
diamond jewellery were made. Partial proceeds from sales went to the Foundation
Nicolas Hulot for Nature and Man, aimed at
developing young people’s interest in the
Mediterranean Sea and its preservation.
Children in remission from serious illness
can embark on board the Foundation’s boat,
Fleur de Lampaul, classified a Monument
Historique, to enjoy the sailing experience. A
soirée was held at the 3.14 Hôtel in Cannes
for the crews on Saturday night. At their
disposal throughout the event, yacht owners were able to visit Cannes in luxurious
Bentley courtesy cars, sponsored by Bentley.
www.cannescroisettecup.org
pfarquharson@publiazur.com
59
TURQUOISE COAST
Lycia: Sailing Through
The Centuries
WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED
BY PETER SOMMER
Packed with some
of the finest wonders
of the world and a
coastline perfect
for sailing
60
Today there is a whole raft of nautical charts and coastal pilots
available for people cruising there. Yet only 200 years ago this
coast in the Eastern Mediterranean was a complete blank on the
earth’s atlases. The man we have to thank for its transformation,
for literally putting this part of Turkey on the map, is a celebrated
figure in all things maritime. His name is an absolute constant
on shipping forecasts and various instruments, for it became the
scale on which all winds are rated: Beaufort.
O
f course the coast of Lycia was
well known and used long
before Francis Beaufort, a
British Admiral, began his survey in 1810. It was directly on
one of the main shipping routes
in antiquity, the way between Greece and Egypt
and in Christian times on the pilgrim trail from
Constantinople to Jerusalem. Anybody who was
anybody in ancient times seems to have sailed
along its coast or changed ships there – from
Anthony and Cleopatra to St. Paul, Brutus to
Hadrian.
Yet these sailors are relatively recent compared
with those who were travelling on one of the
greatest archaeological discoveries ever made.
The world’s oldest shipwreck lies off the Lycian
shore, revealing the extraordinary length of time
that people have been navigating along this coast.
When the Ülü Burun wreck was dated to 1,350
BC, it sent shockwaves through maritime history.
Here was a 3,350 year old vessel - a time capsule
from the Bronze Age – and no ordinary little boat
at that, but one carrying an extraordinary cargo
that gives some idea of the sophisticated trade
going on here in the dim and distant past. Aboard
were tons of copper, ingots of glass and lapis
lazuli, pellets of purple dye, swords and tridents, a
wax book, and even a musical instrument similar
to a lyre, probably used by the crew to entertain
themselves of an evening. A golden scarab of the
Egyptian queen Nefertiti is a clue as to the ship’s
possible origin.
Today travellers can cruise in comfort unimaginable in the Bronze Age or even Beaufort’s time.
The very best way to see the Lycian shore is
aboard a gulet. The word probably derives from
the French goulette, or schooner. For generations
these two-masted wooden vessels, sometimes also
known as caiques, have been used for transport
and fishing along the southern coasts of Turkey.
Typically designed with a sharp bow, broad beam
and rounded aft, they are now designed and fitted
with comfort, not trade in mind. Hand crafted in
Turkey they come fully crewed, with a captain,
cook, and additional deck hands. All passengers
have to do is lie back, gaze at the horizon, and
relax.
Much of the Lycian coast remains completely
unspoilt. Soaring limestone mountains drop sheer
into azure seas, carving the shore into a cavalcade
of tiny coves, hidden bays, and pristine beaches.
Hillsides are swathed in pine and olives trees. The
ruins of countless ancient cities, Greek, Roman,
and Byzantine cram the coast, limiting development to a few isolated areas. It’s the incredible
combination of historical wonders, sailing, and
superb swimming that make this coastline a truly
magical destination.
Back in 1952, Freya Stark, one of the greatest
women travellers of the 20th century, sailed along
this shore and fell madly in love with it:
‘Every bay or headland of these shores, every
mountain top round whose classic name the legends and clouds are floating, carries visible and
invisible signs of its past...There are not so many
places left where magic reigns without interruption...and of all those I know, the coast of Lycia is
the most magical.’
Where the native Lycians came from and when
is shrouded in the mists of time, but the civilisation they developed is utterly unique. Set between
the Persian Empire to the east, and the ancient
Greeks to the west, they borrowed ideas from
both, fusing them into an exceptional architectural style, best seen in the tombs they’ve left behind.
There are giant monolithic pillars crowned with
Kaya Koy
A place brimming with atmosphere and mystery,
the setting for Louis de Berniere’s latest novel.
This is a genuine ghost town, abandoned by
its Greek inhabitants when Turkey and Greece
swapped populations in 1923.
Arykanda
The view from the top of the theatre down a
steep sided valley to the distant mountains is
simply heart-stopping.
Fethiye, Lycian tomb
Dating back 2,400 years this tomb was literally
hewn out of the face of a cliff and fashioned to
look like a Greek temple.
61
TURQUOISE COAST
Gulet
Typically designed with a sharp bow, broad beam
and rounded aft, they are now designed and fitted with comfort, not trade in mind. Hand crafted
in Turkey they come fully crewed, with a captain,
cook, and additional deck hands.
62
grave chambers made of marble dating back some
2,500 years. Hewn out of cliff faces are gigantic
tombs fashioned to look like Greek temples. Other
burials were fashioned from the living rock to look
like houses, complete with roof timbers, exactly
like the wooden grain stores used in the surrounding countryside to this very day. Most common
are the Gothic looking sarcophagi, thousands of
them still litter the region, some decorated with
the head of Medusa or ferocious lions to ward off
tomb robbers. The lids of these sarcophagi curve
up to a narrow point, which if you look at them
upside down, appear like a ship’s hull and keel, a
significant motif for such a seafaring people.
Many of the greatest Lycian sites are directly
accessible from the coast. Cast off after breakfast
from Göçek, one of the main yachting centres
in the region, and within a couple of hours you
can have travelled back 1,400 years. Moor up at
Gemiler island, less than a kilometre in length,
and you’ll be able to explore the remains of a small
Christian community from Byzantine times, that’s
been surveyed by Japanese archaeologists over the
past two decades. Clinging to the island’s slopes
are no less than five churches, littered with geometric mosaics and fallen columns carved with
crosses. The northern shore is packed with houses
and shops equipped with cisterns where rainwater was collected and probably sold on for a tidy
sum to passing shipping. Climb up through the
trees and you’ll find an ancient processional way
used by pilgrims en route to the cathedral church
on the island’s peak. Time your visit correctly and
you’ll reach the top ready to experience one of the
very finest sunsets imaginable: the sea sparkling
with gold as ranges of craggy hills turn into shimmering silhouettes.
Just inland from Gemiler lies Kaya Koy, a place
brimming with atmosphere and mystery, the setting for Louis de Berniere’s latest novel. This is
a genuine ghost town, abandoned by its Greek
inhabitants when Turkey and Greece swapped
populations in 1923. It’s not very old by the standards of other ruined towns along the coast, but
wandering along its empty streets past crumbling houses and chapels is both pleasurable and
inspiring, and makes you realise quite how well
the truly ancient sites have survived.
Back on the gulet, life is like one long list of
heavenly pleasures: a morning dip into the warm
turquoise waters; a spot of snorkeling beside the
rocky shore; an adventurous turn on the windsurfer as a breeze comes up; a short expedition in
the kayak to scout out a hidden inlet. Needless to
say if you want to conserve your energy, there are
relaxation opportunities galore, from reading and
sunbathing to a full blown snooze. Then there’s
the parade of tasty treats sent out from the galley,
a real cornucopia of freshly prepared mezes and
main dishes; stuffed eggplants, grilled lamb, multicoloured olives, spicy meatballs, feta cheese, and
a whole host of salads tossed with local lemons
and olive oil. On top of that is the bounty of fresh
seasonal fruit: from mulberries to melons, pomegranates to strawberries. Turkey is a gastronome’s
paradise and the ship’s cook never fails to conjure
up mouthwatering sensations each and every
day.
As you set sail from another languid lunch stop
and the boat’s captain checks his position on the
GPS, spare a thought for Captain Beaufort cruising
along this coast at the start of the 19th century. He
complained in his diary how little he had to go on to find his way:
“the only accounts extant were those left by the ancient geographers...
there was no nautical description of the coast, nor any charts whatever
by which the mariner could steer”
His task was utterly painstaking. Dragging a 100 yard long steel chain
marked with flags and poles on the shore, they took meticulous sightings
and sextant angles, and plotted the resulting position points. Slowly but
surely his team of surveyors worked their way along the coast, putting Lycia
on the map, despite the heat and overgrown vegetation:
“their shoes cut on the rocks, soaked by the quagmires, or burned in the
red hot sands were of but little use’
One of the prettiest places along the whole coast is Üça�ız, which means
‘three mouths’. This tiny fishing village is connected to the interior by a thin
rutted road that twists tortuously through a wild landscape of knife edge
rocks. Not surprisingly the village is there because of the sea. It’s beautifully
protected by two giant spits of land as well as the long thin mass of Kekova
Island which forms a natural breakwater. This has been a vital harbourage
for some 2,500 years, and its history lies all about. On one side is an incredible necropolis (literally ‘city of the dead’) of stone sarcophagi standing
up to ten foot tall and dating back to the 5th century before Christ; on the
other; the storage buildings, churches, and houses of the Byzantine town a
1,000 years later. The modern village of Üça�ız is tiny compared to its predecessors. Here you can find a few small places to stay; a couple of shops
selling food and carpets, a tiny mosque, some restaurants and a bar. That’s
it. It’s a perfect place to moor up and idle away a couple of days.
Sail east and the Taurus Mountains suddenly recede from the shore
revealing a large fertile plain at Finike, which is the source of many of
Turkey’s oranges. A glorious hour’s drive inland rises up and up to the
ancient site of Arykanda. Set high on the side of a mountain this Greek and
then Roman town literally has it all. It’s been dubbed the ‘Turkish Delphi’
because of its spectacular location and excellent preservation, but unlike
the site in Greece you’re more than likely to be the only visitors there. There
are all the usual trappings of a prosperous antique city – agora, stadium,
temples, baths - but the setting makes it truly stand out. The view from
the top of the theatre down a steep sided valley to the distant mountains is
simply heart-stopping.
There is more to Lycia than sailing and archaeology. One of the great
highlights of the region now is the Lycian Way, Turkey’s first long distance
footpath. Rated by the UK’s Sunday Times as one of the ten best walks in
the world, the trail follows 500 km of ancient tracks and mule roads that
linked the region before the coming of the car. Waymarked with red and
white stripes, many sections of it follow the coast, so it’s perfectly possible
to drop anchor and venture off for a gentle stroll or serious hike. Some
gulet operators now offer specialist walking cruises, so you can trek along
some of the very best stretches of the Lycian Way, with a boat ever present
offshore, providing luxurious transport, dining and accommodation. What
could be finer than walking along a Roman road or shepherd’s track, discovering remote ancient cities with breathtaking vistas, and then having a
swim off the gulet at the end of the day?
In many parts of Lycia you can head a short distance inland and step
back in time to a simpler, pre-industrial age – to a countryside worked
much as it would have been in America and Europe a few centuries back.
Go in the right month and you’ll find women in colourful trousers sickling
down golden wheat grown on slender hill terraces. Walk along dirt roads
and you’ll hear the tinkle of goat bells filling the air, with a goatherd ushering on his flock of shiny black charges. Very occasionally you might even
come across some semi-nomadic charcoal burners arriving into harbour
with the fruits of their labours after several months living and working in
the forests.
It’s the timeless quality of Lycia that is one of its greatest attractions.
Although a lot has changed since Francis Beaufort first mapped the coast
and many of its ancient cities, there’s a great deal that he would recognise
today. His survey revealed a magnificent coastline and an untapped wealth
of archaeological wonders. It wasn’t long before a whole army of European
treasure hunters were out looking for the best ruins to ship home. When
the first consignment of Lycian ‘marbles’ – statues, temples, and tombs
– arrived at the British Museum in London they caused such interest and
excitement among the public that there was a Gothic architectural revival.
Fortunately there’s a vast amount left to be seen in Lycia, and more and
more is being uncovered by archaeologists every year. These ancient sites
form a perfect backdrop to a splendid sailing vacation. In many cases it’s
possible to sail directly into the ancient harbour of a Lycian city and moor
for the night. How much better can cruising get? Sailing the Lycian Shore
really is the experience of a lifetime. YVC
About the Writer
Peter Sommer runs a specialist travel company offering archaeological tours, cruises,
and yacht charters in Turkey. An archaeologist and documentary producer/director he
has worked on many acclaimed BBC/PBS/CNN TV series including In the footsteps
of Alexander the Great, Commanding Heights: the battle for the world economy, and
Millennium: a thousand years of history. His most recent series, Tales from the Green
Valley, about life on a Welsh farm in the year 1620, was shown to rave reviews last
autumn on BBC2 in the UK. For more information please visit www.petersommer.com
info@petersommer.com
Discover
With Archaeologist and Filmmaker Peter Sommer
Relive history on a fascinating
guided cruise of Turkey. Enjoy
the breathtaking turquoise
coast aboard a luxurious gulet,
as Peter Sommer takes you
back in time with the expertise
and passion of a master filmmaker. Peter has worked on
many acclaimed TV series
including ‘In the Footsteps of
Alexander the Great’.
Combine fine food and
superb swimming with
archaeological adventures
and you’ll see why these
holidays are often reserved
more than a year in advance.
Private gulet charters also a
speciality. Contact us now to
check availability and request
further details.
+44(UK) 1600 861 929
info@petersommer.com
www.petersommer.com
63
INDUSTRY NEWS
June Montagne joins
Yachts – Ships, Inc.
Fort Lauderdale
WRITTEN BY JUNE MONTAGNE
My first yachting experience was sailing
with friends aboard a Muira sail boat when
I was a young girl in Durban, South Africa. I
instantly knew, then and there, I had fallen
in love with the sea and sailing. Since then
I have been fortunate to be involved with
many wonderful yachts and adventures.
About the Writer
June brings 23 years of yachting experience to the Florida
office. June, a member of the Florida Yacht Brokers
Association, American Yacht Charters Association. and a
board member of Charter Yacht Brokers Association, is
well equipped to handle any charter scenario, worldwide.
Service, honesty, and hard work are June’s trademarks!
june@njyachts.com
64
Charter Broker
I
n my mid twenties I sailed from South Africa to
the Caribbean. Once there I cruised from Grenada
north to the Virgin Islands and discovered what a
great lifestyle cruising is. I worked on various Charter
yachts as Stewardess or Mate for the next few years
and married my Charter Captain. My husband and I
settled in Antigua where Jake, our son, was born.
Fort Lauderdale’s reputation as “The Yachting
Capital of The World” drew my family to move. I
continued my education in yachting and became
involved in crew placement. While working in crew
placement I met some of the most wonderful people
in the yachting industry. Crews are eager to work
the long demanding hours required of a yacht crew
in order to be part of the alluring world of yacht
chartering with the opportunity to travel, in some
cases, around the world. Crew is made up of a fine
group of professionals, which include: the Captain,
Chef, Stewardess, Mate, Engineer, and Deckhand;
the number of crew is typically dictated by the size of
the yacht among other factors. Charter yacht crews
are required to complete various certification and
safety courses coinciding with their positions on
board.
In 1996 challenge again beckoned, and I
joined a yacht charter company to perfect my
abilities as a Yacht Charter Broker. By 2001, my
love for assisting my clients in organizing their
charter vacations, matching them with appropriate crew, and the finest yachts prompted me to
start my own charter vacation business. I soon
realized my clients needed more resources than
I, as an individual, was able to provide, and I
yearned for the camaraderie and support of an
organization. The natural progression for me was
to join forces with Northrop and Johnson, Florida
and become part of the Yacht Charter Division. I
now have the ability to work with a like-minded
group of professionals to provide clients with
services such as: yacht charter vacations, yacht
management, crew placement, yachts sales, and
new construction.
I love to attend yacht charter shows and regularly attend Genoa, Greece, Marmaris, Monaco,
Antigua, St. Martin, St. Thomas, Tortola, and the
Newport Boat Shows; constantly inspecting boats
and their crews, learning which crews are the most
responsible, reliable, and professional, and which
yachts are the most luxurious and enjoyable. The
icing on the cake, of course, is getting to sample
the chef’s cuisine which only adds to the magnificent experience and enjoyment of visiting charter
yachts. My goal is to provide my clients with the
finest service and do everything in my power to
ensure they have the most relaxing, enjoyable, safe,
reliable, and memorable trip of their lifetime.
Northrop and Johnson’s Management Division
headed by Sandy Taylor holds the calendar of
many popular charter yachts, namely 153 foot
Argyll , 120 foot Sovereign, 91 foot Windscape, 122
foot Shogun, 88 foot Bellflower, and the 75 foot
sailing yacht, Bahamian Rhapsody.
To round this whole package off there are professional, experienced yacht brokers who assist
owners in making their dreams become a reality.
As you can see I clearly have the best job in the
world and look forward to passing on my skill and
expertise to my clients, so they can have the best
vacation in the world. I look forward to hearing
from you! YVC
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INTERIORS
Nothing better complements
an ocean sojourn than a
magnificent aquarium
Tanks A Lot
Writer Scott Rose reports on recent
advances that have made dreams of yachtbased aquaria easier than ever to fulfill.
About the Writer
66
for A Lot of Tanks!
W
hich yachts are best-equipped for charter-long viewing of glorious underwater life forms?
Those with aquaria aboard!
Wonderful as it is to scuba dive along a coral
reef, the activity simply can’t offer the same quality of relaxation as sipping Limoncello di Capri
while contemplating a lemon coral goby in a spectacular, custom-made tank aboard a megayacht.
Magnificent aquaria have long been focal points
in residences of exceptional distinction; now they
are increasingly seen beautifying yachts.
Modern technology facilitates the keeping of
such awe-inspiring species as the crescent tailed
fairy wrasse, the rough snout ghost pipefish, the
humu humu “Picasso” trigger fish and the gold
spangled angel. In a reef tank it is even possible to behold those undersea marvels known as
the peppermint shrimp, curlicue anemone and
open-brain coral. It all puts one in mind of the
American Imagist poet Amy Lowell, who in her
poem An Aquarium evocatively describes a scene
of “blue shadows against silver-saffron water.”
Fishkeeping has ancient roots. In ponds, the
Sumerians maintained fish they had caught in the
wild before preparing them for dinners. In ancient
Egyptian art we see depictions of Oxyrhynchus, the
sacred fish for which a Greek colony was named,
domesticated in rectangular temple pools. More
than 2,000 years ago, the Chinese began selective
breeding of carp, while under the Song Dynasty
goldfish were kept indoors in ceramic vessels.
Thus it is fitting that one of the great yacht-based
aquaria of today is found aboard Taipan III, a boat
originally built as the Royal Yacht for the Emir of
Bahrain and marked by exquisite Asian décor. Of
stunning impact in Taipan III’s main salon, the
bow-shaped aquarium is forty inches long, sixty
inches high, twenty-four inches wide and holds
three-hundred gallons. The aquarium is set into a
stainless steel frame welded to the bulkhead at both
the bottom and top. It was originally installed by
Living Color Enterprises, Inc., of Ft. Lauderdale, to
whose credit one also finds the three-thousand gallon cylindrical aquarium at the center of the Orlando
International Airport, a thirteen-thousand gallon
cylindrical aquarium at the Gulfstream Racetrack in
Southern Florida as well as hundreds of significant
commercial and residential installations, and even
the aquarium seen in the film Deuce Bigelow.
expert, as there are questions of interspecies compatibility. If it weren’t for that, you could house
together any number of marine creatures named
for terrestrial ones. The freckled hawk fish, the
bicolor rabbit fish, the black-blotched porcupine
fish; they all exist. Then there are fish showing
characteristics of more than one animal at a time.
The hedgehog butterfly fish and the zebra lionfish
are in that group. Even mythological creatures
have their fishy counterparts – witness the phenomenally beautiful unicorn tang!
Options abound for people who might want
a less-demanding aquarium on their yacht.
Lantz Enterprises, for example, manufactures
“Kooltanks,” slender, wall-mounted aquariums
which, with the proper anti-splash tops attached
have been successfully placed in limousines.
There are, of course, grand aquaria on private
yachts, perhaps most famously aboard Le Grand
Bleu. Through the glass walls of its aquarium, one
enjoys a lovely view of the large pool so thoughtfully placed aboard so humans could swim too.
Bart Roberts, meanwhile, is another charterable
megayacht with an aquarium aboard. The Bart
Roberts yacht manager Rupert Conner of the
Luxury Yacht Group tells an amusing tale about
this four-hundred gallon tank. “It was stocked
with piranhas, and then featured on a television
show. The Department of Wildlife got wind of
that, and it turned out that while piranha-keeping
isn’t entirely illegal in Florida, they are a restricted
animal that must pass quarantine and be bonded
to the boat. Through lack of knowledge of the
requirements, they had unintentionally not been
followed, and so the piranhas were confiscated
and removed. The tank remains, though, glorious
with other specimens.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF LIVING COLOR ENTERPRISES, INC
Taipan III, actually, was featured in the movie
‘Rush Hour 2’, including scenes with characters
meditating the aquarium. As the yacht’s manager
Skip Mansfield points out, the fish “survived the
7,000 mile trip to Hong Kong and back.” Because
seahorses are used throughout Taipan III as a
design element, carved into the banisters, etched
onto mirrors, the aquarium originally had an interior area sectioned off with acrylic sheets forming
a corral inside which real live seahorses were
kept.
The aquarium’s current caretaker, Kerry
Sugden, reports that it has been converted from
salt to freshwater. Freshwater tanks are less highmaintenance: Kerry says that through reading
books and consultations with experts, he transformed himself into a freshwater tank master.
Proper aquarium maintenance does require
access from above, yet the Taipan III aquarium
fills a wall to the ceiling, so how does Kerry do it?
His room is directly above the tank; by moving
a few cushions out of the way and pulling up a
wooden latch door, he has the access he needs.
Mat Roy is the Director of Operations for Living
Color, who currently are performing three major
installations of aquariums on yachts, including
one aboard Mirgab, being built by Burger Boats.
Mat says: “Whatever the desire, we can create the
aquarium, something that will be an artistically
designed piece of art and the centerpiece of any
yacht. Owners really can have gorgeous customized aquariums on board. They should let their
imaginations run wild, and we’ll make it happen.”
French writer Victor Hugo famously said “Dreams
are the aquariums of the night.” Little did he know
people would dream of aquaria and have those
dreams realized by day.
Installing an aquarium on a yacht naturally
requires specialized knowledge and capabilities.
A yacht aquarium must be designed to withstand
the load if the ship is to list five degrees. Because
saltwater weighs nine pounds per gallon, load
capacities must be reckoned into the equation.
Then too, large aquaria require adequate electrical spaces and they must allow for apposite
plumbing. Filtration for such aquaria is remote,
and there must be space allowances for pumps,
protein skimmers, UV sterilization, mechanical
filters, a chiller and other paraphernalia of the art.
Mat does add that “Our technicians are the most
experienced in the world and there’s no project
we can’t handle.” He says that for some of its
residential installations, Living Color has ripped
out marble flooring and walls, placed aquaria and
then restored the marble as though nothing had
ever happened.
For a marine aquarium to be successful aboard
a yacht, those maintaining it must be very wellversed in the culture of saltwater aquariums.
Water salinity, nitrite and nitrate levels, Ph, and
various other factors must be attended to meticulously. Even the selection of which fish and invertebrates to include in the tank must be made by an
Whether you wind up on a yacht whose aquarium contains sailfin tang, a Fu Manchu lion fish,
or a snowflake moray eel, you can take spiritual
inspiration from these closing lines of the poem
Aquarium by the Belgian symbolist Georges
Rodenbach: “Is this slow-moving fish not like a
thought, momentarily nuancing our soul, only to
move away, already but a memory?” YVC
Taipan III
Tim Nelson of Seven Seas Yacht Charters has booked
Taipan III several times with the yacht’s manager Skip
Mansfield. www.SevenSeasCharters.com
67
JET CHARTERS
Private Jet Travel
YVC speaks
with Jonathan
Breeze, of
Air Partner’s
JetCard
time – pointlessly flying in circles, probably asking
ourselves “Why?”’
Unlike the vast majority of people running
airline businesses, Jonathan is a former pilot, who
clearly has a passion for customer service, no
doubt honed from his years of being at the sharp
end of service and operational delivery.
Jonathan was a Pilot and Display Pilot for
the Royal Air Force, then a business jet Captain
piloting Citation XL and Falcon 900 aircraft.
Before joining Air Partner, he was the Commercial
Director of NetJets Europe. We asked him why so
many, if not all, of the fractional operators were
struggling to achieve superior customer service
and profitability.
‘Essentially, the fractional jet model does
not work at an operational level. The concept,
designed by NetJets’ Richard Santulli, was brilliant. Make large orders of private jets with the
manufacturer. Then “slice” the jet into fractions
and sell it to customers who do not have the need
for a whole aircraft. It allowed customers to buy
only the hours they needed, and allowed NetJets
to make a substantial profit on aircraft sales. As
first mover, NetJets was able to make considerable
sums of money as it sold significant numbers of
aircraft in the USA.’
So what went wrong?
INTERVIEWED BY
BILL BACHLE
What is it that made private jet travel
so special?
‘The pilot’s seat of an aircraft offers one of the
greatest views on earth. Realising quite how small
the world is, how close we are to one another, is
quite humbling.
Aircraft were meant to allow us to cross borders effortlessly so that we could enrich our lives
with new activities. We were supposed to be able
to live our lives in multiple cities and maintain
face-to-face relationships across the world.
Sadly today, for many passengers, this is not
the case. Air travel has become a grind – queues
to increasingly full international airports; limited
parking; sloppy concierge; queues at check-in, the
lounge, security and customs. Add in airport buses,
delays for missing passengers and extraordinarily
long taxi times, and it is no wonder that many of us
dread the use of commercial air carriers.
Of course, once airborne, things do not get
much better. Space is limited, service is often
patchy at best. Meals are not inspirational and
will occur at a time the airline chooses rather than
when it is convenient. Opportunities to have confidential discussions with travelling colleagues or
family are curtailed. To cap it off, we all now wait
in dread to hear from the flight deck about holding
68
‘The two main problems were competition
and service delivery. Other operators, including
the manufacturers themselves, flooded the market with similar service propositions and lower
prices. Margins were squeezed, profit turned to
loss. However, the biggest problem was that the
operational delivery model just didn’t work.
As a mathematician, Santulli calculated that
access could be guaranteed because booking patterns varied from person to person and would
average out over time. Whilst this worked in the
beginning when customer numbers were limited
to only four per aircraft, soon competition pushed
that number up to 32 customers, all fighting for
the same aircraft.
The reality today is that many of these customers want to fly on the same days of the week, time
of the year, and to the same special events like the
Monaco Grand Prix or the Superbowl.
Troughs of demand meant that expensive aircraft and crew sat idle, peaks of demand meant
that there were insufficient aircraft to service all
customers.’
What happens in these peaks of
demand in a fractional business?
‘It’s caused headaches. Aircraft have to be
chartered in. To be fair this isn’t too difficult – there
are lots of wonderful owned aircraft in the market
that are available for charter – but it does cause a
problem. To begin with, there isn’t much financial
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JET CHARTERS
“ Aircraft were
meant to allow
us to cross
borders effortlessly so that
we could
enrich our
lives with new
activities”
flex in a fractional model – aircraft have already
been purchased, so chartering hurts the bottom
line. The other drawback is that these chartered
aircraft are generally of a much higher standard
than the fractional jets.’
Why would that be?
‘A typical private jet flies around 300 – 500 hours
a year. It is owned by a private individual or corporation and managed by a commercial management
company that operates the aircraft to the same
standards as a commercial air carrier like British
Airways. Pilots and cabin crew will only fly that
specific aircraft. The jet will have its own mechanic
and be kept in a heated hangar at night. Any minor
problems with interior items – DVD, sat phone,
bathrooms, beds, seats, etc. are fixed immediately.
Think of these aircraft as air limousines.
A typical fractionally operated jet is flown over
1,000 hours a year. Crews come from a pool – they
have no affinity with any particular jet. Cabin
items that need to be fixed tend to be ignored – the
jet has to keep flying to keep the fractional profitable (or to minimise the losses). Think of these
aircraft as air taxis.
Fractionals were finding that their customers
preferred to be in the charter aircraft. Indeed, a
huge percentage of customers started to make
their flight bookings with as little notice as was
contractually allowed so that they would stand
a healthy chance of being “outsourced” to these
superior jets.’
So is there a solution?
‘Sure. And like most solutions it is simple and
elegant. Offer improved guaranteed access to aircraft. Offer improved service. And offer equal or
better safety.’
How do you do that?
Jonathan Breeze
Managing Director
JetCard
‘We charter every flight with our approved
operators, companies that have gone through
some of the most rigorous inspection procedures
in the world to guarantee safety – an Air Operator’s
Certificate, issued by the Joint Aviation Authority,
followed by our own service audit. Because we
don’t own the aircraft, we have no desire to fly
aircraft that are tired, or worry when the fleet is
stuck on the ground due to lack of demand. We
can call upon our virtual fleet of aircraft, day or
night, across the world.’
How do you do that?
‘Air Partner PLC is a UK-based, aircraft company listed on the London Stock Exchange. We have
20 offices across the globe to ensure our customers
are served where they live, work and play. Our main
operations centre in London accommodates scores
of the most experienced people in the aviation
business, ensuring safe and reliable dispatch of aircraft anywhere, anytime. We are the only supplier
70
of aircraft charter in the world to hold the Royal
Warrant granted by HM Queen Elizabeth II – we are
in the business of service excellence.’
You mentioned ‘improved guaranteed
access’. How can you ‘improve’ something that is already guaranteed?
‘Well, in the fractional world, guaranteed
doesn’t mean guaranteed. They have “peak” days
where flights can have departure and arrival times
moved, they charge customers for “high density airports” so as to discourage use, and refuse
upgrades or downgrades if they don’t fit into the
schedule.
To make things worse, their high aircraft utilisation model requires them to stack as many
flights as they can onto an aircraft, often with very
little slack in the schedule. If one customer is late,
it can often trigger knock-on delays for several
other customers.’
And you serve your customers better
with JetCard?
‘Absolutely, the JetCard exists as a service offering to ensure that passengers regain control of
their lives. They fly when they want, from where
they want on a business jet category of their
choice. No queuing, no sharing, no buses. We use
private and discrete airports like RAF Northolt,
Farnborough, Biggin Hill and Le Bourget. We don’t
wait for other passengers because our customers
and their guests are the only passengers. We don’t
taxi forever because we try to avoid international
hub airports. We don’t hold upon arrival – Air
Traffic Control radar vector us to our discrete destination. Truly it is another world.
JetCard offers 25 hours of flight time at a fixed
cost with total transparency. No airport or fuel
surcharges, no hidden surprises. We run a key
account manager system, to ensure customers
have a relationship with people in our organisation empowered to serve them. We encourage
customers to upgrade or downgrade their cabin
size as their demand changes. We offer customers multiple aircraft on the same day if that is
what they require. Limousines, helicopters and
concierge are all part of our service offering to our
customers.
In Europe, North America, Mexico and the
Caribbean we are proud to offer our fixed-price,
guaranteed response service. Outside these zones
we are equally happy to serve with bespoke flight
quotations.
Our aircraft and crews are the finest in the
world. Owned and cared for by professionals,
they are an airborne limousine service – polished,
beautiful, ready to serve.’ YVC
About the Interviewer
Bill Bachle is Chairman of the Luxury Marketing Council
Europe
71
DINING
A Restaurant that is
everything New York
Le Cirque
Ever since Sirio Maccioni opened Le Cirque in 1974, the restaurant has served as a latterday evocation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s New York. Le Cirque’s ambience has been steadily
colored by an aura of ultimate glamour and refined excitement. While the establishment’s
dining rooms are regularly star-studded, between the European cordiality of the host and
staff, a flute of Dom Perignon, the sublime tenderness of shelled lobster in a salad, and the
silken creaminess of a crème brûlée at meal’s end, Le Cirque is a grand poetic crystallization of everything that is bright and beautiful and ambitious in the city.
M
About the Writer
72
r. Maccioni, most often billed as a restaurateur, is in reality so much more.
His knowledge of and passion for haute
cuisine have led him to be a central influence on
fine dining around the world. His social savvy
and promotional acumen keep his enterprises at
the zenith of international prestige. He presents
a model that oh so many would like to copy,
though there is no means for doing so completely.
Were you to elaborate to him all of his accomplishments, he would shrug his shoulders, give a
twinkling wink, and repeat his refrain: “All I do is
sell soup.”
Le Cirque New York’s first mise en scène took
place at the Mayfair Hotel on East 65th Street and
Park Avenue. A playful design scheme included
PHOTO: ERIC LAIGNEL
anthropomorphized simians in the guise of aristocratic humans. The space was elegant though the
quarters were tight. That last quality turned into
a virtue; so many personages of great distinction
from around the world chose to dine at Le Cirque
while in town that their very proximity to each
other gave an electric charge to the dining room,
palpable upon entry.
The second incarnation of Le Cirque opened
May 1, 1997 in the historical Villard Houses
beneath the Palace Hotel. The restaurant at that
time was called Le Cirque 2000, the name adding a touch of dazzling futurity to an established
landmark. Designer Adam Tihany based his conception for the décor on how modern-day Italians
combine their cultural heritage with their present
day lives; they take the courtyard of a Renaissance
palazzo and park a Ferrari at its center. Brightly
colored fabrics and whimsical details contrasted
with the imposing formality of the extant wood
paneling and stone work; if the visual results were
not to everybody’s taste, that did not affect Le
Cirque’s stature one iota.
The new Le Cirque is located within The
Bloomberg Building, which occupies the entire
block between Lexington and Third Avenues and
58th and 59th Streets. The restaurant shares an
interior entryway, known as One Beacon Court,
with the condominium portion of the overlying
skyscraper. Those condominiums, as we know,
PHOTO: ROB RICH
almond cake served beside a scoop of mint/fig ice
cream. “Tropical Flavors” has a Hawaiian poached
pineapple and coconut rocher with white rum,
vanilla cream green apple basil sorbet. A mouthful is worth a thousand words; to understand how
irresistible that dessert is, you will simply have to
try it.
Yachting enthusiasts will be tickled to learn
how Sirio Maccioni came by his unusual first
name. Sirio’s father Eugenio greatly admired his
uncle Fernando for fulfilling his dreams by adventuring around the world by boat. At the time Sirio
was born, the newest liner in the Italian fleet had
been christened “Sirio.” What’s more, during his
formative years, Mr. Maccioni spent time working
aboard luxury liners.
Sirio Maccioni is, of course, the heart and soul
of Le Cirque. I have had several conversations with
him over the years and always been impressed that
his virtuosic knowledge of haute gastronomy and
his quintessential man-of-the-world qualities are
actually integral to the intense love he bears his
family. His family indeed has helped him to establish a restaurant dynasty. In New York, Le Cirque
enjoys a Maccioni counterbalance in Osteria del
Circo, serving characteristic Tuscan dishes, not to
mention the most deliziose lasagna you will ever
taste. The family oversees Le Cirque and Osteria
branches in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas and in
Mexico City’s Casino Real Hotel.
There have been critics who lambasted Sirio for
allegedly giving preferential treatment to the most
celebrated of his customers. Yet my observation
is that the man treats all of his guests like royalty.
I recall one time when Mr. Maccioni was working
his charm on a couple visiting from Oklahoma.
He proposed to them that they might like having
the label from their wine as a memento of their
Le Cirque experience, and had staff meticulously
remove it from the bottle and then present it to
them set with care on a high-quality album leaf.
The mezzanine level of the new restaurant
has three elegantly-appointed rooms for private
functions. Perhaps you will arrange for one when
making a port of call stop in New York. It is possible
to hold all manner of affair from cocktail parties to
full dinners. The printed menu offers a wealth of
gourmet specialties such as roasted pheasant in
cabbage leaves with foie gras and black truffles, and
a roasted filet of veal with black truffle sauce. The
restaurant’s experts can, naturally, also work with
you to present the dishes of your heart’s desiring.
Sirio Maccioni is, in truth, a land-based analogue to the consummate charter yacht captain.
His warm initial greeting by the reservations
podium makes you secure that you will be pampered from the amuse bouche to the petits fours.
His personal concern that your experience be
unimpeachable guarantees that it is. And his
hard-earned culinary and restaurateur expertise
ensures that whatever the weather, guests will be
made to feel they are enjoying a calm sea and a
prosperous voyage, as it were. YVC
PHOTO: PATRICK MCMULLAN
are among the most luxurious and coveted properties on the New York market. The courtyard, a
remarkable modern space, is a horseshoe-shaped
drive-through finished in elegant paving stones
and allowing for patrons to be dropped precisely
before the front door in a limousine. Decorative
glass panels on the exterior walls of the courtyard
give an impression of dizzying modernity.
You could be pardoned for thinking the new
restaurant had been designed as a visual metaphor for the glittering social butterflies that frequent it. There are wing-shaped areas to the left
and right of the entry; the formal dining room is
to the left and the rich, jazzy-looking café area to
the right.
It’s not just that no expense was spared in
decorating the new restaurant; it’s that no dictum
of Le Bon Gout, New York style was ignored. The
“Rouge de Roi” marble and polished, vein cut
honey onyx in the entryway floor are enchantingly
complemented by a custom-made silver leaf dome
light fixture with a macassar ebony frame, and
luxurious leather panels on the walls. The café area
boasts a floor of Brazilian cherry wood, atop which
are placed the polished macassar ebony-topped
café tables. A spectacular wine storage tower runs
between the bar area and the private function
rooms on the mezzanine. The main dining room
is dominated by an elegantly stylized circus tent
top that imparts grandeur to the space. The walls
are finished in a combination of polished Macassar
ebony panels and brown silk and linen fabric coverings. Prominent decorative touches are based
on the circus-themed works of Alexander Calder.
It is worth mentioning that if you like honey onyx
with black marble inlay, you are going to love the
bathrooms of the new Le Cirque.
Manhattan is at one and the same time the
capital of scene restaurants, and the capital of
gourmet perfection. Le Cirque is one of the very
few restaurants in New York that offers both a
scene and five-star, world-class quality fare and
service. Alsatian-born chef Pierre Schaedelin prepares classic Le Cirque offerings along with many
new dishes, all evidencing the fusion of French,
Italian and American influences that have characterized the restaurant’s repasts.
No sooner had the new restaurant opened on
May 31, 2006 than the New York food world was
abuzz with talk of the delectability of a new appetizer, sweet English peas and wild mushrooms
presented in a trio of preparations including a
chanterelle-flecked cold pea soup, a pea casserole
with morels, and pea ravioli with almond mushrooms. The “Plume de Veau,” Veal Tenderloin
main course, served with a sweetbread ragout,
artichokes and chanterelles, and crispy bone marrow is conceived to make you swoon.
In addition to turning out the classic Le Cirque
desserts, executive pastry chef Regis Monges is
offering eight new “signature desserts.” “Provençal
Figs” has the namesake figs flavored with red
wine and set atop a southern-French-style warm
Sirio Maccioni
A restaurateur whose knowledge and passion for
haute cuisine have led him to be a central influence on
fine dining around the world.
Le Cirque
One Beacon Court
151 East 58th Street
New York, New York 10022
(212) 644-0202
www.lecirque.com
73
MEGAYACHT PROFILE
Best of Breed
M/Y O’Mega
is the be-all
and end-all for
entertaining
large groups
at sea
WRITTEN BY JAMIE MATUSOW
About the Writer
Jamie Matusow is a freelance writer based in New York.
jbmatusow@optonline.net
74
Looking for a spectacular venue for your next family reunion, special occasion, or corporate
event? Think outside the box; think megayacht!
T
he 271ft M/Y O’Mega belongs to the new
breed of megayachts: those that have been
recognized as a preferred venue for vacationing with extended family or entertaining
select business associates. Why book a block of
rooms at a stationary resort when you can have
the flexibility to pick up anchor and travel at the
height of comfort and luxury to enjoy a new vista
whenever you like?
Prior to megayachts, it was difficult to travel
with large groups via private boats. Often two,
three, four, or even five large yachts had to trail
along to accommodate the number of guests in a
party. This presented logistical problems such as
attaining dockage in popular ports, and making
it physically impossible for all guests to dine and
relax together. M/Y O’Mega solves the problem
with her capacity to sleep 32 guests in 16 luxurious cabins: one master, five VIPs, five doubles and
five twins, each with a sumptuous en-suite marble
bath, many with private Jacuzzis.
Bigger is Better
Alexandra Lefakinis of Golden Yachts, the firm
that brokers M/Y O’Mega, says clients are now catching on to the advantages of chartering one large vessel, and says the O’Mega has the ability to accommodate and suit the needs of all sorts of charter parties.
She says O’Mega is designed for maximum comfort
and luxury for private charters, while providing all
the facilities corporate clients demand.
“A great joy of vacationing is being able to
spend time with those you are traveling with,”
says Lefakinis. “Clients want to enjoy their meals,
watch movies, and sunbathe together—and want
the space to do so,” she says. “The O’Mega provides
this while still being intimate enough for guests to
experience the true meaning of chartering.”
Demand for megayachts has been on the rise
with corporate groups as well as private parties.
Corporate events held on board a megayacht such
as the O’Mega are a far cry from events held in traditional hotel ballrooms, and, says Lefakinis, “the ability of a yacht to move around brings an added delight
and uniqueness to hosting a corporate event.”
Coming Aboard
It’s true that first impressions mean a lot.
Guests boarding M/Y O’Mega are immediately
swept away by her beauty. Her exterior resembles
that of a yacht, not a cruise ship, which is unusual
in a vessel of her size. Her interior wows, with
flamed mahogany paneling, elegant furniture,
opulent paintings, and exquisite handmade fabrics. It’s certainly an ideal way to impress business
associates, clients and high-level executives. And
the charter host has less worry and more time to
spend with guests because the megayacht’s crew
takes care of every detail.
Captain Aristeidis Avgerinos welcomes each
guest boarding O’Mega as if he were greeting
guests to his own home. He makes sure O’Mega
is ready for anything, and goes out of his way to
comply with any requests made of him. His staff,
28 crew for 32 guests, provides an almost one-toone ratio. With this kind of attention, minute-to
M/Y O’Mega’s Captain Avgerinos suggests...15-Day Itinerary: Saronic-Peloponnese-Ionion
AEGINA
PYLOS
A favorite island of yachtsmen, Aegina, near
Athens, is busy all year round. The small town
around the harbor is a pleasant homey sort of
place. Aegina has the distinction of being the first
place in Hellas where the Hellenic flag was raised
at the end of the Hellenic war of independence.
Sights: The remains of the temple of Aphrodite.
Close-by small islands for swimming: Moni and
Agistri.
This historical and attractive town, known for the battle of Navarino, is
where the Turkish fleet was destroyed. Pylos is a pretty little town built up
a hill on the south coast of the bay of Navarino, that is covered by snowwhite two-story houses with courtyards drenched in flowers. The arcaded
streets make you think you have been transported to an island.
Sights: the Venetian castles.
POROS
A small island, inland, separated from the
Peloponnese by a narrow channel. Picturesque
and attractive, the town is built on rocky slopes
covered with pine trees. The approach by sea is
one of the most beautiful in Hellas.
Sights: Temple of Poseidon, lemon forest.
HYDRA
A mountainous island close to Athens attracts
visitors all year round. Popular worldwide for the
historical town, which is built like an amphitheater
around the picturesque port. It’s a favorite resort
of the rich and famous. The absence of vehicles
makes Hydra a peaceful place during the day, whereas the night brings the
crowds as the strong nightlife emerges.
SPETSES
Unforgettable scenes of natural beauty are created by the harmonic combination of crystal waters and aging pine trees. Countless picturesque coves
around the island of Spetses offer visitors moments of peace and tranquility.
Sight: The beautiful old harbor with neo-classic mansions.
ZAKYNTHOS
Described as the flower of the Orient, as per
the Venetians, with emerald green seas, pinestudded mountains, slopes with flowers of
every kind, and musical people famous for their
hospitality.
Sights: Venetian towers, churches of the 12th
and 14th century, springs, caves.
Delicacies: ‘’Mandolato’’ a nougat pastry.
KEFALONIA
The land of contrasts. Breathtaking gold or white
beaches and deep coves, rugged rocky shores,
green and fertile parts with cedar-like fir trees
that grow nowhere else in the world, olive and
fruit trees, caves with unusual stalagmites and
pale blue waters.
Sights: Katavothres (a rare geological phenomenon, where the sea enters though an opening
in the rock and “disappears’’) . Churches, ancient
Roman ruins and monasteries.
Delicacies: “Mandola’’ and other flavored almond sweets, local pastries.
ITHACA
A Byzantine palace in Hellas connected to
the Peloponnese through a strip of land is laid
with remains of a fortress wall and numerous
Byzantine churches that is a must-see for visitors
who love history.
Home of Odysseus, Homer’s hero, it is an earthly paradise with green mountains and captivating
coves, with caves for exploring, lovely beaches
for bathing and non-crowded hamlets.
Sights: Cave of the Nymphs, monasteries and
museums.
Delicacies: ‘’Ravani’’ a sweet made from semolina syrup.
ELAFONISOS
GALAXIDI
A small island close to Peloponnese, Elafonisos is well-known for white
sandy beaches, turquoise crystal waters and fresh fish.
DIRO CAVES
A beautiful town attracting visitors from Athens and other places all year
round.
Sights: Neoclasical building and stone mansions, nightlife and tavernas with
fresh fish. It is close to the famous archeological sight of Delphi.
The caves are spectacular – one of those sights that stays with you for a
long time and which few adjectives adequately describe.
CORINTH CANAL
MONEMVASIA
KORONI
Built on the steep slopes under and partly inside the Venetian fort, Koroni is
an attractive town with some fine old houses.
Sight: The Venetian castle that Venetians called the “eye of the republic.’’
METHONI
Methoni lies at the southernmost tip of the west coast of Peloponnese.
The town features some enormous Venetian wells whose marble rims are
furrowed by the pressure of huge ropes over the centuries. There is a wonderful beach in front of the city.
The connection between Aegean and Ionian seas. Completed in 1893, it is
5 kilometers long and only 25 meters wide. It offers an outstanding view
either from above or by passing through the channel.
PALEA EPIDHAVROS
A picturesque town, set at the base of steep wooded slopes. It is an attractive place year round. The small port of Palea Epidhavros is situated in a
beautiful natural bay with calm waters.
Sights: Very close to the famous ancient theater of Epidhavros. The theater
is the best preserved of all �ellenic theaters and one of the finest examples of classical architecture in existence.
75
MEGAYACHT PROFILE
Buffalo Mozzarella Mille Feuille
Fresh buffalo mozzarella mille feuille with
aubergine salad and sundried tomato nut- oil
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2 Fresh balls of buffalo mozzarella
3 Large eggplants
1 Medium red onion finely chopped
1⁄2 Clove garlic
Salt & pepper to taste
1 Small sprig fresh mint
1 Red bell pepper finely chopped
1 Yellow bell finely chopped
1 Green bell pepper finely chopped
3 Tablespoons fresh parsley
2 Teaspoons olive oil
Sundried tomato nut oil
3 & 1/3 Tablespoons olive oil
10 Pieces sun dried tomatoes
1 Cup pistachio
1⁄2 Cup hazelnuts
• Preheat the oven at 500 degrees fahrenheit
• Place whole eggplants ( that have been
stabbed with a fork) in the oven and roast
them for 30-40 minutes
• Once the skin has become burned
remove the eggplants from the oven
• With a spoon, carefully remove only the
inside of the eggplant, which should
almost be melting
• Chop the insides of the eggplant with a
large knife (not in blender!) And add the
finely chopped onion , garlic, mint, parsley, bell peppers and olive oil.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste
• Keep it aside
• Mix in a blender the sun dried tomatoes,
nuts and olive oil
• Cut the buffalo mozzarella in 1/4 inch
slices and place it on a plate in alternating
layers of mozzarella and eggplant mixture
• Drizzle the plate with the sun dried tomato nut oil and serve
76
minute requests can be handled, and guests are
assured of around-the-clock service—a service
that’s as discrete or present as they want it to be.
It is ultimately the captain and crew who
determine the success of a charter. The crew is
prepared to adapt to every new surrounding or
destination, and is always on call to arrange transportation and tours, and make suggestions for
guests. Since the O’Mega hosts clients from all over
the world, they are sensitive to different cultures
and strive to accommodate each and every one
with skill and diligence. For example, on a recent
charter through the Med, the O’Mega was hosting
a party of Asian guests. In advance of the charter,
the head chef spent many hours studying Asian
cuisine and customs, then adapted recipes so he
could provide meals that held a certain familiarity to the guests, while introducing them to the
flavors of the Mediterranean. It turned out to be a
culinary success.
line the aft and fore of the yacht. Or they can take
in the panoramic view while relaxing in the palatial outdoor Jacuzzi. Water activities abound and
the crew stands by to indulge guests with water
skiing, jet skiing, tubing, snorkeling and scuba
diving. Two large tenders can be readied quickly
for trips to shore for shopping or relaxing on
nearby beaches. Corporate guests may break up
the day with meetings in the yacht’s conference
center, with projection presentations on the 50in
plasma screen and state-of the-art communications equipment that enables them to attend to
business as usual.
When guests feel the effects of too many good
meals, they can head for the megayacht’s gym or
take a pilates or yoga class. They can even arrange
for a massage or have a full beauty treatment.
After all, this is the O’Mega—and when it comes to
guest services and client satisfaction, almost any
service can be arranged.
Feature Attractions
Cruising Areas
The O’Mega’s two chefs and an assistant provide guests with three sit-down meals daily—
either in the megayacht’s formal dining room or al
fresco, on the vast, versatile exterior upper deck.
This area is perhaps the most eye-catching and
enjoyable space onboard, as it provides an uninterrupted view and the scent of fresh sea air. In the
evening, it becomes spectacular when the lights
of the stars and the nearby towns sparkle in the
distance. Guests often begin their evenings with
cocktails at one of the smaller tables along the
edge of the deck or inside the upper salon by the
piano, then move to larger tables for a spectacular
five-course meal. Afterwards, they may choose to
dance the night away, either on board or in one of
the nightclubs or bars in the town of harbor.
During the day, vacationing guests tend to
congregate on the sun deck’s large sun beds that
Currently moored in Athens, M/Y O’Mega is
perfectly positioned to whisk guests away on a
cruise through Greek and Turkish waters. But
her vast deck space and lavish accommodations
also make demand for her high in the Dalmation
Islands, along the coast of Italy, on the French
Riviera and on the Red Sea. Wherever your destination, you can be sure that you and 31 guests will
be pampered to the gills. YVC
Information
M/Y O’Mega is available for charter
for 32 guests starting at a rate of
$329,000 per week ($47,000 a day).
Contact: Golden Yachts, +30 210 9673203 / 4,
contact@goldenyachts.gr, www.goldenyachts.gr
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77
PACIFIC
Quaint, Cosmopolitan Kaua’i
Hawai’i’s lush “Garden Island” is a study in contrasts
From tropical rain forests to arid desert
beaches, towering mountain peaks to deep
sea caverns, chic Asian-fusion restaurants
to local saimin noodle stands—Kaua’i’s
diverse nature provides visitors with a
wealth of activities.
PHOTOS: KAUAI VISITORS BUREAU (WWW.KAUAIDISCOVERY.COM)
About the Writer
Jamie Matusow is a freelance writer based in New York.
jbmatusow@optonline.net
78
W
ild pink orchids brushed against our
legs. Painted gum eucalyptus trees,
with their multicolored smooth trunks
towered above us. Along the trail we passed kukui
nut trees, milo, hau and ohi’a lehua. After stopping for a refreshing plunge in a cool mountain
stream, we wandered on and reached a still pond
filled with hundreds of violet-colored water lilies. Clusters of fragrant plumeria and hibiscus in
colors ranging from tangerine to cotton candy
pervaded the landscape, and magnificent rainbow
shower trees in shades of peachy-orange swayed
in the cooling trade winds. Wide, golden-sand
beaches meandered along turquoise seas, fringed
by shady groves of coconut palms, banyan trees
and climbing vines. Then there were the imposing
volcanic cliffs, emerald-green mountains, waterfalls too numerous to have names, abundant
marine life...
We had to keep reminding ourselves that we
were in the United States, for the island of Kaua’i
bears little resemblance to the mainland—either
in its dazzling topography or its laid-back lifestyle.
Sure, English is spoken, there are a lot of Pontiacs
and Fords, and a few chain stores have sneaked in
here and there. But the environs are what dreams
are made of; the languages, cultures, customs and
foods of the many ethnic groups who live here
add a sense of foreign intrigue, and the streets
and towns all have exotic-sounding names. There
are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet—our
5 vowels and 7 consonants—h, k, l, m, n, p and
w—along with a much-used apostrophe that acts
as a breath. It’s amazing how many beautiful
places have names made from these few letters.
We were caught off -guard at first by the many
Hawaiian words we heard intermingled with
English, but by the end of our trip, they seemed
natural additions to our vocabulary. Besides the
familiar, aloha (“hello” or “goodbye”), we repeatedly heard: mahalo (“thank you”); hale (“house”);
keiki (“child); lanai (“porch”); ono (“delicious”);
lani (“beautiful); hauoli (“happiness”); laki
(“lucky”); laulea (“peaceful and happy”)—just to
name a few. It occurs to me now that they’re all
happy words, which makes sense, because on
Kaua’i almost everyone sports a smile and seems
friendly and relaxed.
The Right Choice for Active Travelers
My family and I (husband and two daughters,
18 and 22) settled on Kaua’i’s south side, determined to take advantage of all the outdoor activities the island offers, including hiking, kayaking,
surfing, snorkeling, diving, golfing, horseback riding and of course, relaxing on the beach. We were
pleasantly surprised to find that the island was not
overly developed, for the most part, unspoiled.
Much of the varied landscape comprises mountains, flora and beaches—pure natural beauty
with a few revitalized old plantation towns here
and there. Although there are quite a few luxury
resorts on Kaua’i, island law prohibits any building higher than a coconut palm (four stories),
preserving the open feel.
With more than 50 miles of some of the most
beautiful beaches in the world, we faced the
number-one challenge of all visitors to Kaua’i:
choosing our favorite beach. We began our search
at Poipu Beach, a long stretch of golden sand on
Kaua’i’s southern shore. This area boasts the most
favorable weather, with plenty of sun and several
beaches conducive to swimming. Great snorkeling awaits just offshore. From Poipu, it’s about
an hour’s drive to the northern part of the island
where the weather is less predictable.
Here, our efforts to choose the best beach
really got tough. The north shore of Kaua’i is even
less populated than the south. The one “main”
road crosses a series of one-lane bridges leading
to beach after extraordinary beach. Crystal clear
multi-hued blue water laps on wide, talcumy
beaches rimmed with palm trees and rainforests
and framed by imposing mountains and cliffs.
Parking may be along a dirt road in the midst of
banyan trees. Or you may have to park on the
side of the road, walk through a rainforest, cross a
stream and follow a half-mile trail. Queen’s Bath,
a swimming hole of sorts, was our reward after a
mile or so hike past a waterfall and across tumbled
lava boulders. Moloa’a Beach with its plentiful
coral reefs just offshore provided hours of exploration into underwater life before the tide came in.
Ke’e Beach, at the end of the road, with parking
in a rainforest, was all it was touted to be, with its
view of the dramatic Na Pali Coast (see sidebar)
from the northern side, a grove of towering coconut palms, beautiful calm waters and incomparable snorkeling. As my daughters explored one
of the expansive reefs they had snorkeled to from
shore, they were suddenly greeted by a group of
enormous sea turtles!
Although the north shore beaches were truly
picture postcard perfect, we couldn’t get Kaua’i’s
longest beach out of our minds. On the western
side, Polihale Beach is the very opposite of the
beaches in the north. It’s more like a vast desert,
with more cacti than palms. A long, bumpy car ride
brings you literally to the end of the road—as far
as you can drive before you hit Na Pali. We parked
beside a sand dune and walked onto the widest
beach we’d ever seen. The Pacific Ocean lay in full
glory before us, absolutely dazzling in the sunlight.
To our right rose the Na Pali ridges. A few hundred
yards away, was an area of the ocean known as
Queen’s Pond, which is protected by outer reefs,
thus providing a safe area for swimming in an
otherwise turbulent ocean. Here on the deserted
beach, we even had a perfect view of Hawai’i’s forbidden island of Ni’ihau (see sidebar).
More than Gorgeous Beaches
Although you could spend your entire visit
to Kaua’i just lazing around on various beaches
enjoying the gorgeous scenery, you’d be missing
out on much of what the island offers. Just inland
and up-island from Polihale Beach lies spectacular
Waimea Canyon, often called the Grand Canyon
of the Pacific. Kaua’i’s rich red dirt dominates the
landscape of this more than 3,000ft.- deep ancient
desert canyon carved out by a river. Miles of hiking trails of various difficulties meander through
jungles, past waterfalls, and around the canyon
rim, providing views you’ll never forget.
If you’re not a hiker, Highway 550, the road
to Waimea Canyon, and then on to Koke’e State
Park, provides scenic overlooks along the way so
you’ll get plenty of memorable views of your own.
If hiking, Koke’e provides more than 45 miles of
well-maintained trails offering breathtaking views
of the Canyon and the Na Pali coast. We chose
the trail to Waipo’o Falls, an 800ft. waterfall that
cascades down canyon walls to fill a refreshing
natural pool. The three-hour hike started on a
red-dirt road, then wound through jungles filled
with passion flowers, orchids, flowering trees, and
wild ginger. Gradually, the trail became steeper
and more arid before depositing us on a ridge with
spectacular views out over Waimea Canyon. The
silence and majesty of the landscape were inspiring—and unforgettable.
Hot and tired, and filled with elation on the
drive back to Poipu, we couldn’t resist a stop at JoJo’s Shave Ice in Waimea. Shave ice is similar to a
sno-cone, but the ice is shaved with a sharp blade
so it’s incredibly fine. At Jo-Jo’s, which aficionados
rate the best shave ice on Kaua’i, you can choose a
topping (or 3) from more than 50 flavors including
passion fruit, lychee, tamarind and papaya. In true
island style, be sure to have your shave ice served
with ice cream on the bottom. My favorite was
Kona coffee syrup over macadamia nut ice cream.
My daughter tried the traditional: halo-halo, a
concoction said to descend from a traditional
Filipino treat. Her shave ice parfait had a large
scoop of macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom,
coconut and other tropical fruit syrups drenching
the ice, and a topping of pineapple and coconut
jellies, adzuki beans (yes, beans), and a snow cap
(sweetened condensed milk)! Fortunately there
are shave ice stands scattered throughout Kaua’i,
and visitors to the island can indulge in an ongoing evaluation of which flavors they like best.
Locals are passionate about their favorite stands
and will be happy to advise you as to which ones
they think are best.
Packing on too many calories? Alternate with
a stop at one of Kaua’i’s roadside stands offering delicious, fresh-picked fruit such as lychees,
papayas, mangoes (as large as pineapples) or
“ice-cold coconuts.” We opted for the latter one
afternoon and pulled to the side of the road in
front of a small house, with a stand set up out
front. We asked the petite Hawaiian-shirt-clad
Filipino woman behind the “counter” if we could
have an ice-cold coconut. She smiled, nodded,
then walked back to her garage, which housed a
refrigerator. She returned with a large coconut still
Day Lilies
Kaua’i is a hiker’s paradise with an abundance of trails
ranging from manicured loops with beautifully planted
flower beds to remote red-dirt paths lined with wild
orchids and passion flowers.
79
PACIFIC
Cruising the Na Pali Coast
We’d boarded the 49ft. catamaran Na Pali Kai for a round-trip sightseeing and snorkeling excursion up the western coast of Kaua’i. There are no roads on this part of the island so one of the few
ways to view the dramatic scenery is by boat. Experienced hikers may, instead, choose the challenging, somewhat treacherous 11-mile (one-way) Kalalau Trail, while other visitors to the island charter a helicopter for a memorable bird’s eye view. As there are no good anchorages for larger boats,
and surf conditions here can be rather rough, catamarans are ideal for an up-close exploration of the
coast as well as of the rich marine life that abounds offshore.
Liko Ho’okano, a native Hawaiian, built the Na Pali Kai with guests’ comforts and enjoyment
in mind, including maximum visibility and the capability to maneuver close to the coast. During
the thrilling, four-hour cruise, he and his crew delight in telling guests the history and legends of
the Na Pali (“the cliffs” in Hawaiian) that have been passed down to him through generations of
story-telling.
PHOTO: ROB MARMION
Views of a Lifetime
As we departed Kikiaola Small Boat
Harbor in Waimea on what seemed like a
roller-coaster ride across the waves, sugar
cane-covered mountains gradually gave
way to steep, dark, jagged cliffs, dramatic
fluted ridges, lava tubes and lush emerald
valleys. Thick fog settled over deep crevices.
The combinations of colors and textures
were extraordinary. As the light changed,
the mountainous surfaces held tones of red
and gold. The blackness of the lava against
the emerald velvet of the deep valleys and
the cobalt and sapphire tones of the ocean
combined for a palette only Mother Nature
could have created. Numerous waterfalls
cascaded from the summits. Caves dotted
the shoreline some with waterfalls pouring
over their arched, sea-worn entrances, and
spraying the bow of our boat as we came
in for an up-close look. We passed remains
of old fishing camps established by the first
Polynesians who stumbled across Kaua’i
while exploring the Pacific in their large double-hulled canoes. In one spot we saw wild
goats scampering across sheer cliffs.
From the Na Pali Kai, we also had a great
view of Ni’ihau “the forbidden island,” that
lies to Kaua’i’s west. No one but its several
hundred natives is allowed on this small,
Na Pali Coast in Kaua’i
dry (in more ways than one) island owned
by one family for more than 150 years.
Islanders there are known for highly prized
necklaces, known as Ni’ihau leis, that they meticulously and artfully craft from tiny rare shells that
wash up on its shores at certain times of the year.
As we stood at the rail, mesmerized by the views unfolding before us, hundreds of spinner
dolphins surrounded the boat in the crystal-clear brilliant turquoise water. The captain cut the engine
and for the next 30 minutes or so, we watched, delighted, as the dolphins frolicked with their
babies beneath the surface, then jumped high into the air. I commented to my daughter that this
was just what I had dreamed of when I envisioned Hawaii. The trip up Na Pali was an expedition
not to be missed during a visit to Kaua’i.
Contact: Liko Kauai Cruises, 1-888-SEA LIKO, www.liko-kauai.com
80
encased in its smooth outer shell. She then picked
up a machete lying beside the table and with one
felt swoop, whacked it open, removed the coarse,
hairy coconut, and gouged a hole in the top. She
stuck a straw in and handed it to us, motioning for
us to drink the cool refreshing clear milk. When we
finished, she took the coconut out of our hands,
hacked it in half, and handed it back to us along
with two plastic spoons. The coconut meat was
cool—and fleshy enough for us to scoop it out of
its shell with the spoons.
Winding Down the River
We’d explored the coast, the canyon, and the
forests, but we hadn’t yet experienced one of
Kaua’i’s rivers. So we made plans for a threemile round-trip kayak adventure on the Wailua
River. Our young twenty-something guide, Nate,
was born and raised on Kaua’i, and knew the
island intimately. As we settled into our bright
orange kayaks for a leisurely morning paddle, we
exclaimed over the dense walls of brilliant yellow
sea hibiscus that lined both sides of the river as far
as we could see. Nate told us that sea hibiscus are
unique; they follow a 24-hour cycle, starting out
yellow, turning to orange in the late afternoon,
then red, late in the day—only to have their new
yellow buds open the following morning, and
repeat the same process. What’s more: as the wind
blows, the bushes drop their opened petals into
the river and the blooms get carried along in the
current, floating along beside you as you paddle.
After about a mile and a half, we pulled our
kayaks onto the pebbly shore and prepared for
a hike to Secret Waterfalls where we would have
the opportunity to swim in the pool below. Nate,
barefoot, led us along the smooth tamped earth
of a rainforest trail and through a cool mango forest. Fortunately, the mangoes in this grove were
not quite ripe, or it could have been dangerous
avoiding their strikes! Soon we heard the forceful
plunge, and stood beside the shimmering cool
pool beneath Ho’olalaea, “Secret Waterfalls.”
Time to Say Aloha
The next day, it was time for our trip back to
the mainland. As we drove to the airport, strains
of “hooki, hooki, hooki hookilau” (“What a wonderful day for fishing in the old Hawaiian way”)
played on the car radio. The sounds of accompanying slack key guitar and ukulele helped evoke
images of hula girls in their swishing grass skirts.
We lamented that we hadn’t heard the snort of a
Humuhumunukunukuapua’a , a small fish whose
name is the longest word in the Hawaiian language, and which means “fish with a pig nose.”
And worst of all, we hadn’t been able to come to
a consensus about which was our favorite beach.
We’ll just have to return again to further research
the possibilities. Mahalo, Kaua’i! YVC
81
YACHT PROFILES
Yacht Toys
Sacks Group’s yachts boast
the newest, most exclusive
– and most fun! – toys
and gadgets in
today’s charter
market
M/Y JANIE
When most people hear the word “toys,”
they probably think of dolls, balls and board
games. But for those who enjoy chartering
a yacht, images of speedboats, water trampolines, underwater scooters, and state-of
the art electronics devices may come to
mind.
F
or yacht charter guests, an on-deck Jacuzzi,
towed tenders, and water toys are priorities, and, according to Jennifer M. Saia,
president/charter specialist of The Sacks Group
Yachting Professionals, they are the most-popular
requests, following a professional, charter-savvy
crew! Just as the yachts themselves have grown
larger and more sophisticated over the years, so
has the list of toys, which range from a multitude
of water toys, like water skis and fishing boats
to state-of-the-art theaters and communications
systems.
Spotlighted here are four of the 35 yachts in
the Sacks fleet that feature exciting and innovative
yacht toys selected to delight kids of all ages.
82
This magnificent 157ft Trinity, designed by Scott Carpenter, accommodates 10 guests in five
sumptuous en-suite staterooms. Available for charter in the Caribbean in the winter and the
Mediterranean in the summer, rates start at $157,000 per week, plus expenses.
Unique Toys/Gadgets:
• “Kaleidescape” DVD/CD server that allows access to hundreds of movie and music titles at your
fingertips, with instant access in all staterooms and salons.
• Full entertainment system throughout the yacht, including all staterooms. One of the most
advanced systems available, it delivers the highest performance, yet it’s easy-to-use.
• The main salon, sky lounge and exterior decks feature state-of-the-art theater systems with large
plasma TVs.
• Two karaoke machines.
• Laptops in every stateroom with Wi-Fi Internet access.
Additional toys include: 34ft Custom Intrepid w/full electronics, rigged for fishing and diving; 18ft
twin hull Nautica RIB with beach ramp for easy access; sky-deck Jacuzzi with daylight flatscreen TV;
2 Waverunners; 2 ocean kayaks with seats; 8 complete sets of SCUBA gear and dive compressor,
waterskis, wakeboard, and assorted tow toys.
M/Y BLIND FAITH
M/Y PERFECT VISION
A 115ft power yacht, M/Y Blind Faith underwent a refit in 2006. She accommodates 8
guests in 4 cabins, and has a dynamic crew
of 5. She is available for charter in New
England (summer 2006) and in the Caribbean
(winter 2006/2007) for $43,000/week, plus
expenses.
• Windglider: This revolutionary design is so
stable, anyone can sail it on day one.
• Sky Ski: It looks like a short fat water ski
with a seat (and seat belt) mounted on top
of it. Below is a hydrofoil that runs beneath
the water’s surface, allowing the rider to
move effortlessly through the water.
• Velocity Blaster Tube: Feed your need for
speed with this huge 72” x 75” tube that
easily fits two riders, and features padded
backrests, floor pads, and handles for extra
comfort.
• Underwater camera (guests can view
channel on TV and see the fish behind and
under the boat)!
• “Tiki Hut” which the crew erects for charters in the Bahamas.
Additional toys include: Wakeboard; waterskis; dinghy: 32ft Intrepid; 3 waverunners;
diving lights; and snorkeling gear.
The sleek, new, 94ft Sunseeker Perfect Vision offers all the amenities of a larger yacht, and is
the perfect choice for the Bahamas with its abundance of water toys. The power yacht sleeps 7
in 3 cabins with 4 crew, and is available in the Mediterranean (summer 2006), Bahamas (winter
2006/2007), and New England (summer 2007), from $32,500-$45,000 per week, plus expenses.
10ft Bongo trampoline: A 10-ft inflatable water trampoline provides bouncing fun on the water with
a 6.5-ft octagonal jumping surface. It can also be used for just lounging on the water.
Towed spring bullet: This is a snorkeling device that is towed, and can be used to “bullet” you
quickly in different directions.
Climbing sphere: On the aqua sphere, you can slip and slide inside a ball filled with about five gallons of water.
Additional toys include: Two Jacuzzis (one on the flybridge and one in the master stateroom;
water skis; 14ft, 70HP Avon dinghy; jetski, and snorkel gear.
M/YTOUCH
The 120ft 2004 custom M/Y Touch sleeps guests
in 4 staterooms, each with a king-size bed. The
luxurious master suite is housed on the private
bridge deck, and features its own aft deck. With a
crew of 7, Touch boasts the highest crew-to-guest
ratio of any yacht in her class. M/Y Touch is available for charter in the Mediterranean (summer
2006), Caribbean (winter 2006/2007), and Croatia
(summer 2007), starting at a weekly rate of
$65,000, plus expenses.
• Concealed treadmills.
Additional toys include: 6-person Jacuzzi on
main aft deck; 38ft custom speed launch; water
skis, wakeboard; snorkeling gear.
83
TECHNOLOGY
The Long Arm
of the Mobile
Phone Reaches
Out To Sea
In Touch While on Charter
You can use a mobile phone just about everywhere these days, with almost all of the
US covered and the rest of the world following suit, the only place you won’t see people
chattering away on their phones is in aeroplanes and at sea. On airlines the problem has
WRITTEN BY BILL RAY
always been the potential for interference, while at sea there is the simple matter of not
being within range of a base station, but surprisingly both these problems are now being
addressed and before long you really will never be able to get away from the mobile.
M
The Serenity
At just under $100 (with only one tag) that piece of
mind doesn’t come cheap, but is small compared to
the cost of a forgotten wife.
84
odern mobile phones can adjust the
power of their radio depending on how
far away the nearest base station is; the
weaker the signal the more power, and thus battery, the phone uses until it can find another base
station with a stronger signal. But as well as saving battery life this ability can also make phones
safe to use on aircraft: currently a phone which
has been left switched on in flight will find itself
a long way from a base station, and so ratchet up
its transmission power to maximum in the hope
of finding someone to talk to, but by providing a
tiny base station on the plane itself the phone gets
a nice clear signal and therefore powers down its
radio to preserve the battery, reducing the chance
of interference with flight instruments. This tiny
base station can simply refuse to route calls, just
to ensure phones are safely powered down during
the flight, but it can also route calls though the
aircraft’s satellite connection which are then billed
to the user.
The same technique can be used to enable
mobile phones on yachts: a tiny base station is
placed on the yacht and mobile phones on board
automatically switch to it (as the strongest signal
around) with calls being routed over the existing
satellite-phone. In theory it is that simple, but the
reality is a little more complicated: phone handsets
are constantly talking to the network to register
their status and ensure that any incoming messages
know where to go, but doing all that over a satellite
connection is going to run up considerable costs. It
is also important to ensure that the base station isn’t switched on when in port;
you don’t want passers by having their phone calls routed over your satellite connection! A solution such as that provided by Altobridge includes an intelligent
base station which can keep network-status traffic to a minimum, and enough
intelligence to switch itself off when approaching shore.
As soon as you start providing your own base station then your passengers can use their normal handsets, though currently both the aircraft systems and the Altobridge technology are limited to supporting GSM phones.
These micro-base stations are considered to be “roaming” locations to the
mobile phone network, but are genuine network nodes so the cost of calls
and messaging is automatically added to the passenger’s normal phone
bill exactly as though they were using their phone abroad. The passenger’s
network operator will then pass the call charges back to the operator of the
base station, assuming that appropriate agreements have been reached.
For airline companies that’s fine, but for the owner of a charter yacht, or
jet, making such agreements might be too complex and an easier solution
is to issue passengers with replacement SIM cards to use while on board.
These tiny cards can be slotted into the passenger’s phone, replacing the
one issued by their network operator, and have their own number and billing account; which can be pre-paid credit or accumulated to be paid off at
the end of the charter. Passengers will need to be responsible for arranging
to have their calls forwarded to the new number, but can still use their own
phone and have access to all its features including data services and text
messaging.
Of course, to many people chartering a yacht the thought of still being
able to receive calls on their mobile phone is an anathema, and not many
people are looking forward to spending a long-haul flight sitting beside an
inveterate phone-caller, but for those who need to stay in touch the ability to use their mobile might mean making the deal that pays for the next
charter.
Serenely Looking After Your Stuff
While we’re on the subject of cutting-edge wireless technologies another
product worth looking at is the Serenity from Bluetrek which might stop you
forgetting your keys next time you venture ashore.
The Serenity consists of a base unit, about the size of a box of matches,
and a few (up to 3) small tags about the size of a book of matches. As long
as the tags are within 5 meters of the base unit then all is well, but if they
become separated then red lights flash and the base unit beeps out a warning. The idea is that you carry the base unit around with you and never forget
your keys, mobile phone, wife, or whatever else you have attached one of the
tags to. In reality that only works if you remember to take the base unit with
you and its beeping isn’t really loud enough to alert you when you leave a
crowded club without your wife.
But when you leave a ship to head for a few hours shore-leave there are
important things you don’t want to forget, and here the Serenity Search Mode
could prove very useful. The base unit is easily small enough to be easily
stuck to the side of your launch (or Jet Ski, if you’re being flash, though some
waterproofing might be necessary) and when you board you just press the
“search” button; three green lights will indicate if your treasured possessions
are on board with you. A red flashing light means you’ve left something
behind, and you can recover your wallet without having to explain to the
maître d’ at the end of your meal. YVC
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Blue Water Yacht Charters,Inc.
EST. 1983
M/V NORSEMAN - 108ft 10/12 guest
starting at $45,000/week inclusive
About the Writer
Bill Ray, former editor-in-chief (and continuing distinguished contributor to) Wireless
Business & Technology magazine, has been developing wireless applications for over
20 years on just about every platform available. He was a founder of JCP Computer
Services, a company later sold to Sun Microsystems and Swisscom he was responsible
for the first Java-capable DTV set-top box. Bill currently works as a freelance writer
based in the Highlands of Scotland.
bill@sys-con.com
We Charter the World...
From Palm Trees to Glaciers
www.bluewateryachtcharters.com
(800) 732 7245
85
LUXURY GOODS
Big Boys’ Toys
of Summer
Some of the
coolest toys
to enjoy in,
on and around
the water
WRITTEN BY DAN ARMITAGE
It’s like borrowing your buddy’s brand new
crotch rocket for a quick spin around the
block: the ride will ruin your relationship
with your beloved Harley. That’s why I
never accept an offer to ride another guy’s
newer ‘cycle. Or dance with college coeds
– I don’t want to know how good it can be
unless I can have it.
About the Writer
Dan Armitage is a full-time freelance boating and travel
writer based in Columbus, Ohio. A licensed captain, he
hosts a weekly radio show syndicated in 17 midwest
markets, contributes columns for several national boating
Seascooter Explorer
I
wish I had adopted that philosophy before trying out Sea Doo’s latest summer toy, because believe me:
mere snorkeling will never be the same.
Remember the underwater scenes in Thunderball when James Bond was being chased by bad guys zipping around behind personal-sized propeller-driven rockets that shot exploding spears?
We’ll, eliminate the armament and about half the bulk of the mini-subs and you have the Seascooter
Explorer, a personal underwater propulsion device that takes all the effort out of snorkeling as it tows you
along on the surface and below at speeds topping 3 mph.
I felt like 007 the first time I donned mask fins and snorkel, nudged the rocket-shaped Seascooter off
the swim platform with a splash and took it in hand. Weighing 32 pounds above the surface, the bright
orange Explorer was neutrally buoyant as it bobbed in the brine over Florida’s Looe Key Reef. Taking the
form-fitting handles in both fists, I depressed the built-in trigger and the propeller churned into action,
crating a low hum as it pulled me along the surface over the coral heads. When I spied a sizeable Nassau
grouper being coy 20 feet below, I sucked a breath of air, pointed the nose of the scooter at the brain coral
the fish was hiding behind and gave the trigger a double click for high speed. Before I knew it I was eye
to eye with the leviathan that seemed as surprised to see me as I was to be down there!
The best part about the scooter was that because I didn’t have to kick to propel myself, and got down
so quickly, I had plenty of air left in my lungs for some quality bottom time for sightseeing before pointing
the Explorer upward and being pulled gently to the surface.
I spent the next hour playing Flipper, inventing twisting moves and underwater acrobatics that are
only possible when being pulled like a water toy behind the Explorer. Never once was I temped to don
scuba gear and give the Seascooter a go; although it’s rated for use to depths of 160 feet, I never felt the
need for underwater breathing apparatus when I had the means to get down to 30 feet and stay there for
a minute or more under the cruise control of the Sea Doo’s new tow machine.
Before my second hour of play was up, the power of the Explorer was exhausted, signaling the need
for a recharge. Using shore power back at the dock, I brought the Explorer back to full power in four
hours. But not before planning another day of cavorting among the coral with a friend. And yes, the
Explorer can tow two...
and outdoor publications, and is a popular speaker at
boat shows nationwide.
armitage@wowway.com
86
For more information on Sea Doo’s new Seascooter Explorer, which retails for about $800,
call 800-361-2781, visit www.seascooter.net or the “cool stuff ” section on www.seadoo.com
Sea Doo Explorer
Cruising above the coral with Sea Doo’s new Explorer
Seascooter allows scuba divers and snorkelers alike
the option of power-gliding to depths of 160 feet at
speeds surpassing 3 mph behind the personal propulsion device.
ProwlerCat
Piloting the remote-controlled ProwlerCat, you can angle up to 100 feet from an anchored boat, dock or beach
using the turbo-drive Unmanned Fishing Vessel that features wireless controls and remote line release.
Vilco ProwlerCat
Come to think of it, angling will never be quite the same either after giving the remote controlled
ProwlerCat UVF (Unmanned Fishing Vehicle) a swim. The portable, jet-propelled personal fishing craft
carries your line right to where the lunkers lurk – while you sit back and relax on deck or dock controlling
its speed and direction with keypads on a wireless remote-control hand-unit!
The battery-powered ProwlerCat has a remote line release feature that allows you to free the
craft from your fishing line when a fish strikes or when the boat and the bait it is towing arrive at
the designated fishing spot. Or, you can keep the line attached to the ProwlerCat and troll from your
anchored boat, the dock, the shore or your waterfront balcony, fishing in comfort from as far away
as 1000 feet.
The ProwlerCat UFV operates for up to three hours per charge, measures 25 inches long, weighs under 6
pounds and retails for $535 with a custom backpack carrying case from Vilco, at www.vilcofishng.com
Aqua-Vu
For a fish-eye view of what’s going on below without having to get wet, the Aqua-Vu Underwater
Viewing System is a great gadget. I’ve used an Aqua-Vu underwater camera for everything from scouting
for lobsters from the deck of a drifting boat to checking my anchor for fouling without donning a mask.
The portable, battery powered Aqua-Vu cameras come in several models that can be plugged into your
boat’s 12 volt receptacle or run off internal, rechargeable batteries and offer color or black and white
viewing on a variety of screen sizes. I tested a 2006 Scout XL model with a 7-inch monitor and 100 feet
of cable for the submersible camera, which is imbedded in a module that mimics a fish (so it won’t scare
off the real thing!) and offers a dozen infrared lights for low-viz or night viewing. A new hand-held DVR
option allows you to record and replay what your Aqua-Vu sees down below – a super way to save and
share that late-night footage from the hot tub...
Aqua-Vu
No need to get wet while scoping out everything
underwater -- from lobster, fish and ship wrecks to
swimming ship-mates -- with the Aqua-Vu portable
underwater viewing system.
The Aqua-Vu Scout XL retails for about $280 from Nature Vision, 218-825-0733; www.aquavu.com
87
LUXURY GOODS
AquaSkipper Hydrofoil
Get a workout while getting away aboard the portable
AquaSkipper personal hydrofoil.
Robotic Shark
Have fun startling friends and local fish
populations with the remote-controlled
Robotic Shark. The waterproof remote
control allows you to swim along with
your robo-jaws to catch the reactions
when your realistic-looking shark
cruises through!
AquaSkipper Water Scooter
Speaking of which, if you find you need to make a quick water exit but the tender is taken, or you simply need to get to the dock and back, hop aboard the AquaSkipper hydrofoil water scooter. The one-man,
manual-powered hydrofoil allows you to skim across the water at speeds up to 17 mph by simply hopping up
and down – while maintaining your momentum and some semblance of balance. The portable ‘foil is built
of aircraft aluminum and fiberglass, weighs 26 pounds, measures 6 feet long with an 8 foot “wing” span when
deployed, yet folds quickly into its own duffle bag for transport and storage. The handy personal hydrofoil
provides you with a brisk cardio-workout while whisking you away -- from sticky situations or simply back
and forth between boats. A swim platform or dock start is required to get going on the AquaSkipper – which
floats -- but once you start humping the AquaSkipper starts scooting, and at speeds that are startling.
The AquaSkipper retails for about $500 from Inventist, Inc; 800-767-0119; www.aquaskipper.com
Robotic Shark
A sure way to liven up any swim party, introduce the remote-controlled Robotic Shark, sit back, and
watch the reactions. Direct the two-foot-long, realistic-looking Great White to swim toward anyone
who happens to be relaxing in waters that could actually be shared with the real thing and make
sure you have your video camera -- or Aqua-Vu – ready to capture the action!
Even the hand-held remote that controls the shark is submersible, so you
can swim along behind as you direct your finned companion to startle friends
and family members or put the entire local fish population on full alert as they
mistake your robo-jaws for the real thing.
Using a joystick on the control pad you can control the shark, which can dive to
depths of nine feet, from as far away as 40 feet. The battery-powered fish will swim for
about 15 minutes on a full charge, which takes about an hour with shore power, so I
recommend buying an extra battery for more consistent action around the water.
The Robotic Shark retails for about $100, with an extra battery running another $25, from
Hammacher-Schlemmer; 800-543-3366; www. Hammacher.com
TailGator
My favorite boating partner will do practically anything for an icy blender drink during a hot day around
the water, and I often found myself scrambling to find the required appliance and electrical power source
needed to mix something up. I usually found myself with a 12 volt blender but 110 volt power – or vice versa
– and even with the right match it always required running indoors and away from the action to mix up a
proper margarita, daiquiri or ‘colada. That all ended the day FedEx delivered my TailGator right to my dock.
A 24cc gas-operated blender that will turn the largest chunks of ice into a smoothie, I can mix up a batch of
frozen drinks on the boat, beach or sandbar – wherever my first mate finds herself getting thirsty! Warning:
firing-up the TailGator in the vicinity of others is sure to draw a crowd. Not from the sound of the two-cycle
engine that powers that ‘gator – which is reasonable – but for its results!
You can order the TailGator, complete with custom storage and transport backpack,
for $370 from www.totallygross.com or by calling 888-874-7677
TailGator
Mix-up your favorite smoothie anywhere – on the
beach, boat, deck or dock – using the totally portable,
gas-operated TailGator 2-stroke blender.
88
There you have it... Play safe – and have fun!
Next Issue: Blow-Up Fun for Everyone Aboard: Fantastic Inflatables!
LUXURY GOODS
Cartier dazzles the
world with striking
baubles in delicate
floral forms
Known as the standard bearer in jewelry design for
more than a century, Cartier could choose to rest on
the laurels of its legendary signature designs. Instead,
the house continues to tempt and astonish its admirers with new creations that utilize the craftsmanship
certainly merged to create Cartier’s most dazzling new
collection in years, Caresse d’orchidees.
90
PHOTO: FRANCK DIELEMAN
and precious stones it is known for. Creativity and skill
orchid necklaces crafted on more delicate strands
of platinum and diamonds. These necklaces,
though more delicate and perhaps more easily worn for day into evening, though, are hardly
unimpressive. One simpler platinum necklace, for
instance, is composed of 952 diamonds comprising of 15.11 total carats. Attached to this necklace
is a transformable drop accent and brooch with
two hanging rubellite drops of a total of 28.11 carats and one cushion-cut facetted rubellite of 12.51
carats on its own. It is easy to imagine such a lovely
platinum and diamond necklace with a simple
diamond orchid and rubellite drop as the perfect
accent to a wedding dress. This necklace would be
perfectly paired with another of the more delicate
pieces in the collection, a pair of earrings comprised of 362 diamonds set in platinum with two
lovely rubellite drops.
The Caresse d’orchidees collection was
unveiled in New York at a suitably glamorous
event staged for the city’s celebrities and socialites, unsurprisingly Cartier’s longstanding clientele. Held during New York Fashion Week, the festivities brought together young film stars such as
Kirsten Dunst, Rosario Dawson and Rachel Weisz
alongside the firmament of New York’s social set,
such as fashion designer Carolina Herrera, beauty
heiress Olivia Chantecaille, Lauren Davis, Dayssi
Olarte de Canavos, Minnie Mortimer, and Lauren
DuPont. Admirers were invited to tour a dramatically decorated and lit grand hall which contained all the pieces of the collection encased in
glass. As the serious aficionados oohed and aahed
their way around the room, the glitterati mingled,
sipped champagne and nibbled on caviar and
other delectables provided by Tentation, Potel et
Chabot, Paris and New York’s most fashionable
caterer. A fashion show highlighted the pieces as
worn by models, while every woman in the room
envisioned how the baubles would fit into their
own wardrobes.
Such an awe-inspiring collection and glittering
unveiling is nothing new in the world of Cartier,
which refers to itself without a trace of hyperbole
as a “creator of the exceptional.” The designers of
Cartier have had a long-standing fascination with
floral motifs, suggesting that what can be said of
flowers – that they are fragile, fleeting, beautiful
by essence, sensuous and sometimes even deadly
– can also be said of women with equal accuracy.
The orchid is a particularly mysterious and multifaceted expression of beauty, but by no means
Cartier’s first floral inspiration.
Though the Cartier panther became one of its
most memorable natural inspirations transposed
into precious stones and metals, it was first the
flower that drew the designers of Cartier’s Paris
workshop. Cartier created floral brooches which
reflected parma violets, poppies, wild roses, narcissus, morning glory and daisies in the early 20th
Rings
A pair of delicately balanced orchids of platinum and
diamonds with the sparkle of cushion-cut rubies and
brilliants
PHOTOS: KATEL RIOU
A
s the name suggests, the line of jewelry
was inspired by orchids, the sensual flower
of choice for many sophisticates (and the
men who woo them.) Painstakingly crafted in
Cartier’s Paris workshops, the collection has at its
core sixty creations of white orchids accented with
dramatic splashes of color in the form of ruby,
pink and jonquil diamonds, emeralds, star sapphires, spinels and facetted rubellites. The glimmering white diamond and white gold orchids are
either paired with the yellows, reds, greens, pinks
and mauves of surrounding stones, or reflect
multi-colored orchids with dashes of color in the
flowers themselves.
Several dramatic pieces highlight the masterful craftsmanship of the collection, such as a
tropical orchid brooch colored with mandarin and
green demantoid garnets offset by an eye-catching
purple facetted spinel. It is a piece to be worn by
a woman who does not mind attention. Another
conversation piece is the orchid necklace that
reflects a hanging garden of emerald beads, inlaid
with rubies and rubellite drops. The diamond
and ruby orchid’s calyx opens to review a facetted
rubellite. Even long-time Cartier collectors will be
stunned by the emotion conveyed in the subtle
curvature of the orchid. The Cartier workshop, it
is said, imagined nature in Paradise and used this
image of lush greens, reds and perfect form to create the hanging garden necklace.
Each piece in the orchid collection invites
marvel at how the supple form was created
from white gold or platinum and a sense of
playfulness at the glittering floral forms created with the some of the world’s most precious
stones. Many of the pieces contain detachable
elements, such as brooches which double as
necklace accents. One necklace composed of a
shower of rubies contains a flower knot with its
own strands of rubies and a briolette diamond
– the piece is cleverly composed of the necklace
the knot, which transforms into a separately
wearable brooch. The rings of the collection
take on several unexpected forms, such as a pair
of delicately balanced orchids of platinum and
diamonds with the sparkle of cushion-cut rubies
and brilliants. Also unanticipated are the orchid
bud rings – one, set in white gold offers a charming center stone of cabochon lilac star sapphire,
and the other, a classic stunner in platinum with
222 diamonds showcases a breathtaking rose-cut
diamond of 10.69 carats and an oval pinkishorange Padparadscha sapphire.
As is the case with all of Cartier’s collections
over the years, the array offers a range of pieces,
some heavier, some more delicate, to suit the
wearer’s sensibilities (and affordability!) In addition to the show-stoppers of the collection such
as the hanging garden necklace and the diamond
orchid blossom ring, the Cartier workshop crated
Brooch
A tropical orchid brooch colored with mandarin and
green demantoid garnets offset by an eye-catching
purple facetted spinel
Earrings
Comprised of 362 diamonds set in platinum with lovely
rubellite drops
91
LUXURY GOODS
“Cartier’s Caresse
d’orchidees
collection offers
a range of
pieces, some
heavier, some
more delicate,
to suit the
wearer’s
sensibilities
and
affordability!”
92
PHOTOS: KPHILLIPPE GONTIER
Cartier had begun
to explore using the
soft and luminous metal
of platinum, which allowed
the artisans to craft realistic
expressions of flowers in three
dimensions.
century, which it followed with the Neoclassically
inspired garland style. In the early 20th century,
Cartier had begun to explore using the soft and
luminous metal of platinum, which allowed the
artisans to craft realistic expressions of flowers in
three dimensions. The jewelers were enamored
of their capacities with platinum, and the Cartier
collections from this period were dominated by
lilies and bramble flowers on beds of ferns with
pinecones.
At the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, Louis
Cartier discovered the hardstone sculptures of
Faberge which led him to Russia and eventually
to create flowers of jade, agate and aventurine.
This inspired period prefigured Art Deco and drew
from Russian art and ikebana, the Japanese are of
flower-arranging.
Cartier’s first noteworthy orchids were created in 1925 as decorative objects on hair combs,
the perfect accessory for the 20s flapper with
her cropped hair. Cartier quickly followed these
combs up with a novelty in jewels for the time,
transformable, detachable jewelry forms. For his
growing London clientele, Cartier created innumerable flowers in diamonds and platinum, which
could be affixed to bracelets, chokers or worn as
brooches based on a whim, much to the delight of
women on the Continent as well. French society
women were already familiar with Cartier’s inventiveness, and their London-based counterparts
were quickly becoming enamored of jewelry a la
francaise. Such floral pieces as an Egypt-inspired
diamond lotus blossom tiara, purchased by the
Aga Khan III in 1934 followed, as did a memorable
floral brooch in sapphires and diamonds for the
Duchess of Windsor in 1949. One of the most
noteworthy historical Cartier floral pieces was
the brooch Elizabeth II wore in 1953, the year of
her coronation. Cartier mounted the 23.60 pink
diamond the Queen had received as a gift at the
center of a flower brooch which resembled an
edelweiss.
Throughout the mid-century period, Cartier
artisans, having mastered the art of shaping
platinum, experimented with “invisible mounts.”
These unseen mounts allowed the floral creations
take on a surreal resemblance to nature. Cartier’s
goal to show flowers in their natural form, rather
than as objects posed in perfection was increasingly enabled by deeper craftsmanship with metals, stones and mounts. The curvature of petals
could be truly sensual, not only mimicking the
floral inspiration, but also offsetting the curvature
of a woman’s neck and collarbone as she wore
the pieces. Flower petals opened demurely to
reveal stunning gems, cut with a myriad of facets
or smooth and serene cabochons, also reflecting
the common essence of flowers and women. In
the 1960s, a daring time in the house of Cartier
as in the rest of the world, Cartier introduced
new stone combinations such as diamonds with
coral and turquoise and turquoise with cabochon
amethysts and gold. Yet again through Caresse
d’orchidees, Cartier has offered the world objects
of profound beauty, reflecting the most captivating aspects of nature. YVC
About the Writer
Agha Khan lives in Manhattan and writes for luxury
lifestyle publications.
Zulfi1@hotmail.com
DESTINATIONS...
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ADVERTISER INDEX
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Advertiser
Website
Telephone
Page
ACYM
www.antiguayachtshow.com
268-460-1059
69
Afroudakis Yachting
www.afroudakisyachting.com
(+30) 2109883595
23
Angela Connery Yacht Charters
www.acyachtcharters.com
877-741-4448
93
Beka-Cornish International
www.beka-cornish.com
00 34971213073
41
Ben’s Yacht Services
www.WestCoastJeep.com
758-459-5457
77
Blue Water Yachts Charters
www.bluewateryachtcharters.com
800-732-7245
85
Dream Sailing
www.dreamsailing.com
(+33)664037020
53
If you’re looking for that special
First New England Financial Group www.northforkbank.com
800-262-8562
21
luxury vacation experience that
Gervil Watch Company
www.mayors.com
800-4MAYORS
100
will leave you with unforgettable
Golden Yachts
www.goldenyachts.gr
302109673203/4
11
memories – let Angela Connery
Luxurious Lifestyles at Sea
www.llatsea.com
866-577-7701
31
Yacht Charters help you with
Navis Yacht Charter
www.navis-yacht-charter.com
www.njyachts.com
954-522-3344
Ocean Independence
www.ocean-independence.com
1-954-524-9366
45
Paradise Yacht Charters
www.paradiseyachtcharters.com
954-462-0091
47
Peter Insull
www.insull.com
(+33) 493342242
2-3
Peter Sommer Travels
www.petersommer.com
(+44) 1600 861 929
63
Platinum Television
www.classicoboats.com
800-597-1186
33
SCYE
www.scye.com
Shannon Webster Charters, Inc.
www.shannonwebster.com
386-439-0188
81
The Club at Emerald Bay
www.theclubatemeraldbay.com
954-563-1022
37
The Sacks Group
www.sacksyachts.com
954-764-7742
5, 89
Trimarine Boat
www.bvisailing.com
800-648-3393
93
TSH Aero One, Inc.
www.smartaircharter.com
242-677-8702
77
Valef Yachts Ltd.
www.valefyachts.com
215-641-1624
27
Voyage Charters
www.voyagecharters.com
1-888-869-2436
17
Yacht Charter Group, Inc.
www.yachtchartergroup.com
954-728-9129
49
Yatchfest
www.yachtfest.com
858-836-0133
57
Yatching Greece
www.yachtingreece.gr
(+33) 210 323 3057
98-99
Yachting Partners International
www.ypi.co.uk
1-800-626-0019
14-15
YCO
www.ycpyacht.com
37793501212
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77
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CRUISING CIGAR MAN
Hot Hondurans!
Tobacco in Latin America
Picturesque tobacco field with the drying shed.
Aspira Corojo and
Alec Bradley Medalist
WRITTEN BY
GARY KORB
Since the end of the cigar boom 90’s, Honduras and Nicaragua have emerged as leading
producers of some excellent tobacco in a big way. The rich soil varies from region to region
allowing manufacturers to grow a variety of high-quality filler and wrapper tobaccos, as
well as the ability to create new seed strains.
About the Writer
Gary Korb is the resident cigar guru at Famous Smoke Shop
(www.FamousSmoke.com) in Easton, PA. He has been
enjoying the wonderful world of cigars for over 25 years.
gkorb@famous-smoke.com
94
H
onduran and Nicaraguan cigars such as Don Tomás, Hoyo de Monterrey, and Padron have
been legend for decades. Today, cigars by CAO, Drew Estate, Oliva, Rocky Patel, Perdomo, and
Plasencia, among others, have emerged as cigar makers on the cutting edge of the HonduranNicaraguan revolution, outscoring Cuban cigars on a regular basis. So, for this issue I’d like to focus on
two new Honduran-made cigars that use Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos as their primary components.
Aspira Corojo (Honduras)
Strength: Full
Filler/Binder: Honduran, Nicaraguan
Wrapper: Corojo
Aspira Corojo
Aspira Corojo is a private label produced by
Nestor Plasencia. The Plasencia family supplies
tobacco to some of the most highly-rated premium cigar manufacturers in the industry including Carlos Toraño and CAO. The Aspira brand was
introduced in 2000 as a full-bodied premium cigar
with a rubicund Habana 2000 wrapper – a hybrid
leaf with a very spicy flavor.
Aspira Corojo is a new cigar featuring an even
more refined blend of full-bodied Nicaraguan and
Honduran filler & binder enriched by a genuine
Corojo leaf. Corojo wrapper, the primary wrapper
leaf used on Cuban cigars, originated in Cuba during the 1940’s and is one of the hardest tobaccos to
grow. When Corojo leaf is cured and aged properly,
the result is a wrapper that is smooth in texture,
oily, and naturally spicy in flavor.
For this article I smoked the Aspira Corojo
“Robusto,” a 43⁄4” x 50 vitola in a slightly boxpressed shape. The wrapper is smooth, silky to
the touch, and virtually flawless with an attractive
milk-chocolate hue; nary a vein was found on
my sample. The cigar was also well-packed and
seamlessly rolled with an attractive cap. The cigar
toasted-up evenly and drew well. My first impression was the natural sweetness of the tobacco and
the aroma. During the early stages, the smoke was
smooth with peppery notes on the finish. (Sort
of a wake-up call to the palate, if you will.) About
one-third into the cigar, the flavor turned earthier,
the spiciness had tapered off, and eventually the
cigar rounded out into a much creamier smoke. I
was impressed by its complexity and how well the
flavors balanced. This is a solid, full-flavored cigar
that holds its own among the best Honduran and
Nicaraguan cigars.
I suggest smoking the Aspira Corojo over cocktails or after dinner.
Alec Bradley
Alec Bradley made headlines in 2002 when
they introduced one of the most unique looking
cigars ever produced - a three-sided, triangular-shaped cigar appropriately called Trilogy. The
cigar received high scores and was later reintroduced in a traditional, round parejo shape.
Alec Bradley Medalist (Honduras)
Strength: Full
Filler: Nicaraguan Jalapa, Honduran Jamastran and Nicaraguan Esteli
Binder: U.S. Connecticut broadleaf
Wrapper: Costa Rican
Named for Alec and Bradley, the sons of founder and CEO, Alan Rubin, the company has grown
slowly and steadily, marketing a variety of blends,
several of which have been created with the
assistance of renowned master blender, Hendrik
Kelner.
The Alec Bradley Medalist selection was introduced last year as an up-market limited edition
cigar in four sizes. Presented in boxes of 10 cigars,
all four vitolas are deftly rolled, well-packed, and
beefy. Produced in Honduras, Medalist is distinguished by an attractive, oily, and naturally dark
Costa Rican Habano wrapper. The filler is a wellbalanced blend of Nicaraguan Jalapa, Honduran
Jamastran, and Nicaraguan Esteli with an aromatic U.S. Connecticut broadleaf binder.
For this article I smoked the Medalist “Cuban
Belicoso,” a 51⁄2” x 52 figurado. The cigar drew
easily producing thick, creamy smoke and a burly
aroma. Due to its wide ring gauge, there’s a lot
of tobacco to smoke through, so this cigar can
be quite heady. The smoke has a sweet, dark
tobacco flavor, and you may encounter nuances
of hazelnut, cedar, dark chocolate, coffee bean,
and caramel along the journey. Take your time by
letting it “breathe” between puffs, and you’ll enjoy
the complexities of this cigar even more.
Alec Bradley Medalist is a luxurious, multidimensional cigar blended for discriminating palates, yet tyros ready to move up to a full-flavored
cigar will appreciate its smoother taste and subtle
spiciness.
I suggest smoking the Medalist after dinner
with espresso or a fine vintage Port. YVC
95
Luxury
Electronics
Pioneer Inno XM2go Satellite radio
The Pioneer Inno is a sports fanatic dream comes true.
Philips AmbilightTM Full Surround FlatTV
Listen to live play-by-play commentary and score updates
on your favorite team. XM is the official satellite radio
The new Philips Ambilight Full Surround LCD TV offers complete four-sided color immersion for sports fanatics. The
network of Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the PGA
design surrounds the entire display with an integrated canvas which combined with four sides of intense ambient
TOUR, IndyCar Series, World Cup Soccer, and the college
backlighting, produces a dramatic effect of saturated color for the ultimate viewing experience. The combination of
sports conferences ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-10. The Inno
ClearLCDTM and Pixel PlusTM 3 HD reinvents LCD technology with deep blacks, a superior 170-degree viewing angle
offers a combination of MP3 and live XM Satellite Radio
and blur-free motion perfect for action movies or sports. Expect to be dazzled thanks to the thunderous 1⁄4 Lambda
reception in a sleek, handheld device. It has flash memo-
sound system built into the display. In addition, the Ambilight Full Surround FlatTV is rich with connectivity for today’s
ry storage for MP3/WMA files and XM content, recording
digital lifestyle. Included are two HDMI ports for the best High Definition digital signal transmissions, USB ports, a
up to 50 hours of XM programming. Build personal playl-
seven-in-one memory card reader and a cable card. Finally, a TV that appeals to the aesthetics of everyone in terms of
ists using a mix of XM content and tracks from your own
design and functionality.
digital music collection.
Priced at $3999.00 and available at www.philips.com
Priced at $399.99 and is available at www.xmradio.com
96
Dell XPS M2010
Dell’s XPS M2010 is the most remarkable multi-media
powerhouse laptop on the market. The marbled charcoal
grey exterior finish with an anodized aluminum carrying
handle is sure to turn heads. Opening the laptop reveals
Alienware Aurora mALX
a 20.1-inch high-definition display and a detachable
Gamers all over the world collectively rejoiced at the debut of Alienware’s new Aurora mALX 19 inch SLI power-
Bluetooth wireless keyboard. Powered by high-perfor-
house. Stand out in the crowd with the Aurora mALX exotically stylish, airbrushed custom paint artwork exterior
mance mobile technology, the M2010 features Intel®
finish. With dual 256MB GeForce Go 7900 GTX, experience precise animation and rendering allowing you quickly
CoreTM Duo processors, optional dual hard drives, ATI
access your next lethal move in the game. Aurora’s 19” widescreen display is perfect for marathon gaming ses-
MobilityTM Radeon® X1800 graphics and a slot-load
sions as well movie night on weekends. Aurora mALX systems come standard with high-end gaming hardware
DVD +/- RW drive. The XPS M2010 also includes an inte-
including the Razer Diamondback mouse and the award-winning Ozma 7 headphones. For the banker by day and
grated 1.3-megapixel webcam and Skype software for
hardcore gamer by night!
video chat capability, and a gyroscopic-enabled remote
Prices start at $4499.00 and available at www.alienware.com
to control the entertainment applications. The 12-cell battery enables entertainment on the go for hours. The XPS
M2010 transforms into a mobile entertainment center at
home or on the road.
Prices start at $3500.00 and available at www.dell.com
Philips Home Theater System
The stylish HTS9800W 6.1 home theater system serves as a perfect compliment to the Philips LCD TV while delivering
stunning performance through the DVD player and rear wireless, wall-mountable speakers. The system flaunts HDMI
connectivity and video upscaling to 720p/1080i lines which provides an unmatched viewing and listening experience
right in your living room. Wireless rear speakers provide scalability and flexibility in positioning the speakers around the
room for a true surround sound movie marathon night with the family.
Priced at $899.00 and available at www.philips.com
97
Luxury Yacht Charters in Greece and East Mediterranean Sea
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Be our guests!
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Yachting Greece Ltd.
12 Lekka Street, Athens 10562 Greece
Tel (+30) 210 3233057 Fax (+30) 210 3257553
24 Hour Phone (+30) 697 692 6649
info@yachtingreece.gr
www.yachtingreece.gr
100

Charisma - SYS

Transcription

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