CRUISE CUISINE
report a 4.7out of 5 as the ship’s average client score.
He has spent only three years of his
working life ashore, the rest on ships, and the past 13 with Le Ponant. When I ask what attracted him to hotels in general and ships in particular, he replies: “I have no idea. My parents were both doctors.” L’Austral is a state-of-the-art vessel. She
L’AUSTRAL FACTFILE
Maiden Voyage: April, 2011 Tonnage: 10,600 Length: 440ft Beam: 59ft Draft: 15ft
Speed: 16 knots Passengers: 264 Crew: 140
Passenger decks: 6 Registry: France
ITINERARIES: spring, Far East; summer, 6, 7, 9 and 10-night cruises from Venice and Athens; autumn, Eastern Med; Winter, South America.
MORE INFO: call (in France) 0808 234 38 02 or
http://en.ponant.com. In US, call 1888 400 1082.
66 WORLD OF CRUISING I Spring 2012
can go anywhere and roll right through most conditions. The bridge is an assembly of startling electronics and navigational aids, although the human presence dominates. Impeccably-clad crew quietly exchange information with one another. Binoculars are trained on the horizon.
T
he ship has a dynamic position system and thus, where the water is too deep to deploy the anchor (like Santorini), she can maintain posi- tion indefinitely, accurate to within a few meters. In Antarctica, the vessel can detect submerged ice which has formed rollers – invisible from the bridge and to the eye – lying a few meters below the surface. As we dock at Livorno, commands are
exchanged between Captain Marchesseau and his crew, assisted by the Livorno pilot, who sips espresso from a paper cup, squints at the approaching port and calls out adjustments revising their approach to the mooring. The Captain, as cool and collected as you can wish, survived and negotiated the hijacking and release by
Somali pirates of another of Le Ponant’s vessels in 2008.
At the farewell dinner, the subject casually emerges, yet he himself does not raise it. A natural, modest and charming host, Marchesseau ably and patiently manages the many social gatherings, requests for photos and farewell dinners that he must undertake (the bridge must seem a soothing respite!). It’s 10.30pm on my last night aboard and I am back in the kitchen, looking for late-night pictures. A few days earlier, Tremel had to fire his pastry chef, hence the episode with the birthday cake. “It just wasn’t working out,” he tells me. “So now I am back here,” gesturing over his shoulder. Another pastry chef will be found and hired, perhaps at Marseille. But there is something inspiring about finding a seasoned, experienced executive chef taking up the baton, without complaint, and producing patisserie at the end of a long day’s work. Tremel describes himself as “homeless.”
True, he has no home in France or anywhere else. His home is L’Austral, or wherever he plants himself on his extended vacations, these taken when the mood strikes him. Yet living aboard a 440ft yacht with
your own apartment, a couple of bars, a pool, gym, state-of-the-art kitchen to work in, plus a different view each morning, it has its compensations.
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