for itself; hence the opportunity to sail in one of the very spacious cabins on board their 1982-built fl agship, Patricia. The capacity for 12 passengers on each voyage contributes much-needed funds to the organisation’s coffers. Patricia is no luxury liner. She is, fi rst and foremost a working ship, and her schedules can be altered abruptly to deal with whatever emergencies and situations occur while at sea. The ship is workmanlike and built to handle rough weather. At a little over 2,000 tons, she has an extraordinarily deep draft of 14 feet, and a clip- per bow that gives her superb sea-keeping quali- ties. Twin rudders and propellers make her both fast and manoeuvrable in any weather conditions. This is perhaps as well, because her remit cov- ers an area from the Channel Islands to as far north as Berwick, on the east coast. The smart dark blue hull has a very high forecastle for the crane used to stow and replace the large marker buoys that are lashed to her deck in front of the bridge. The bridge itself is topped by a single, graceful buff funnel, while a helicopter deck takes up the rest of the stern. Patricia displays her sinews and purpose at every turn. And yet come inside, and you enter a very different world.
I
f the exterior displays the no-nonsense workhorse nature of the ship, then the interior feels like nothing so much as some genteel country house, bobbing gently up and down on the swell. Brass, mahogany and old, framed paintings of long dead admirals and ships adorn the walls. Even the carpet has the Trinity House logo woven into it. There are only two real public rooms for the maximum of 12 passengers embarked on each trip, but both are sumptuous in their own way. On the upper deck, a main lounge in several shades of cream has fl oor-to-ceiling windows on three sides and comfortable sofas and chairs ar- ranged in a formal setting. There is a non-working fi replace, a table with magazines and board games, and an honesty bar in one corner in the form of a drinks cabinet. Truth was, nothing more was needed. We would meet here for pre-dinner cocktails, morning and afternoon coffee, and post-dinner drinks. The ambi- ence really was pure country house. Doors at the rear opened on to the helicopter deck. It was a million miles removed from the working areas outside. In fact, it might as well have been a totally different ship. The dining room was on the same level as the
cabins lower down, off the small promenade deck. Here came one of the biggest surprises of all. The passengers would all dine together at one long, mahogany table, beautifully laid, sterling silver- napkin rings included. There were individual place settings for the main evening meal and – highly ci- vilised indeed – a silver sugar bowl that contained real sugar instead of sachets. As with the lounge above, it had a wrap-around view through fl oor-to-ceiling windows out over the stern. Meals on board proved to be one of the
Summer 2010 I WORLD OF CRUISING 61
absolute stand-out experiences aboard this small, beautifully realised ship. Yet above and beyond the thrill of being on a
real working ship in elegant surroundings, nothing so typifi ed the Patricia experience as the way in which our group of seven passengers were em- barked, fussed over and cared for by a trio of highly competent, yet never intrusive service staff. We were fed and cosseted to a quite extraor- dinary degree that I have never seen on any other vessel anywhere. This level of care and attention alone makes a voyage on Patricia a worthwhile – nay, unforgettable – experience. Individual orders were taken for breakfast at dinner on the previous evening, and duly delivered up in the morning. There were self-serve items such as cereals and fruit, but everything else came out as requested by each individual passenger the night before. Lunch was a daily soup, with a self-service buffet consisting of three hot items, plus a salad bar. All of the above was prepared with an amazing eye to detail, texture and taste. Yet even this paled in com- parison to dinner each night. There was no menu to choose from, but rather the
evening’s set courses would be read out at lunchtime. Each passenger’s order would be taken, and the
CABIN COMFORT
The ship’s country house theme continues in the cabins, which contain some of the largest bathrooms I have ever seen o a ship. With a full bath, shower and Molton Brown toiletries, you are hardly slumming it. The bed is huge and comfortable, with an array of comfortable seating scattered around the substantial lounge. There are also a TV/DVD combination, mini-bar and tea and coffee-making facilities.
The rooms are cleaned daily and really
are fi t for royalty. This is perhaps fortunate, as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip have separate staterooms they occupy on board during events such as Cowes Week, when Patricia often leads the parade.
A RIGHT ROYAL
INCEPTION
Trinity House came into being in 1514, after Henry VIII issued a royal warrant. In between bedding and beheading wives, the old monster was actually a very sea minded monarch, and the founding of Trinity to monitor the waterways of the United Kingdom was one of the more enlightened decisions of his con- troversial rule. His younger daughter, Elizabeth, empowered the or- ganisation to set up ‘so many beacons and markers in the sea’ in 1566.
Many of these were to cause con- siderable discom- fort to the Spanish Armada. Yet, by 1993,
Trinity had grown into a national institution that had all its marker buoys powered by solar energy, way in advance of the ‘green tide’ of envi- ronmental safety. To call its work vital is a massive understatement.
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