COVER STORY
The charm of the vessels is they call to mind an earlier time where marine architecture incorporated real wood and quality materials into cabins and public areas. SeaDream I and II feel and look as a luxury motor yacht should. With a maximum 112 guests and 95
crew, they provide almost one-to-one personal service, extreme dedication to comfort and an avid pursuit of on and off board itineraries. Land-side expeditions open up small ports and towns accessible only to vessels of their small size while watersports – zodiacs, a swimming pontoon, water skis and kayaks – operate from a marine platform at the rear of the vessels.
O
ther innovative concepts enhance these core ideas. One can sleep under the stars on an open deck, in a luxury bed complete with custom embroidered pyjamas. The full comple- ment of passengers can be seated on the topside restaurant deck for meals, thus enabling everyone to enjoy al fresco dining. The same al fresco restaurant serves breakfast and lunch daily. The captain will often lead walks or bike trips, which impart a sense of personal engagement with passengers. Beach barbecues, with caviar and champagne served while standing up to one’s knees in some cobalt Caribbean cove also enhance the memory of a SeaDream experience. Accommodations are arranged across three of the ship’s five decks and, as with all creative ship design, optimum use is made of minimum space. The vessels are small and cabin size is incrementally reduced, yet a standard cabin still offers 195sq ft, arranged as a lounge area/bedroom with oceanview window and a spacious bathroom. Robes, made of 100 per cent Turkish cotton, and slippers are provided to roam around in. My Deck Two suite aboard SeaDream II had a porthole rather than a window, but it’s pleasing to have a circular frame placed around the first glimpse of morning. Moored off St Tropez, small family
yachts, some as old as SeaDream, are idling the Mediterranean in lazy circles, occupied by children with their grandparents, who watch the scene from beneath parasols. The world slows down in such moments. Onshore, executive chef Tomasz
Kozlowski is leading a small group of Sea Dreamers through the old quarter of St Tropez (once a village, now a melee), through small squares and arched passageways, amongst fish sellers and
22 WORLD OF CRUISING I Autumn 2013
florists, along a narrow alley leading into a small, triangular market faced by shuttered windows and hanging plants. Here, a wine seller has set up an array
of chilled local white and rosé wines, oysters, olives, canapés, a variety of cheeses and a type of local onion bread. Although not a spontaneous event, it has all the hallmarks of one; both chef and host greet one another effusively and launch into a commentary about wine and cheese, oysters, ships, cooking and life, refilling the Sea Dreamers glasses every few minutes.
It is a simple excursion but resonant and intimate. Chef Tomasz may have missed his vocation as an actor as he clearly likes to address a crowd. However, after talking himself almost hoarse he finally submits: “Okay, now I’ll shut up.” We head back to the ship, skirting the convertible Bentleys that today are two a penny on the St Tropez waterfront. We are accompanied by Sudesh Kishore, overall Corporate Chef for
With a MAXIMUM OF 112 GUESTS and 95 crew, they provide almost one-to-one PERSONAL SERVICE, AN EXTREME DEDICATION to comfort and an AVID PURSUIT of both on and off board itineraries.
SeaDream since 2010, and, back on board, I ask his advice for a photogenic dish to appear in the magazine, emblematic of today’s location. “Well, the bouillabaisse, of course!” is his immediate response. Chef Tomasz has made a bouillabaisse in honor of SeaDream’s presence at one of the most celebrated Provençale ports. The bouillabaisse is duly presented and arranged on the table, the Mediterranean providing a natural backdrop.
P
erhaps because Kishore, who shuttles between Oslo, India and the ships, is thinking about the menu for
the company’s Far East itinerary this autumn, the menu has adopted a slightly Oriental tone.
Among the menu items one day are
Vegetable egg roll and seared yellow fin tuna; Yum Woon Sen, or glass noodle salad with shitake mushrooms and king prawns;
Marinated eggplant roll stuffed with cheese and spinach; and grilled pepper accompanied by a sauce pomodoro. Yet elsewhere on the menu were an
iced raspberry soup, a veloute of wild mushrooms and Beef Wellington, thus all palates and tastes were well catered for. There was also an opportunity to indulge pastry chef Garfield Anderson with a Tarte Tropezienne, although I omitted to ask exactly what this was. SeaDream also incorporates raw foods into the menu and features a Blood Apple Blaster breakfast juice – apple, ginger, red beetroot and lime, which provides a potent opening for the morning or, indeed, at any time of the day.
Service and menu changes are constantly rehearsed and revised. Daily on-deck briefings are attended by all floor staff under the eye of Jamie McGregor and Nikola Ivanovic, respectively Hotel Manager and Maître D’.
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