with DECEMBER 2023 £4.95
J-DREAM BELIEVER
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE Big guns line up for epic battle
WEST IS BEST A textbook transatlantic trip
GREEK ANCHORAGES Rod Heikell’s top 10
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J/Boats' new 45' flyer on test
SHOWDOWN IN PARADISE Caribbean racing season preview
Bling it on The stunning coast of Sardinia and its Maddalena archipelago provided a magnificent backdrop for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup held in August and marking one of the high points in the maxi racing calendar as the big boat classes ranging between 60’ and 131’ slug it out across azure waters bejewelled with pristine islets. Photo: Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup
Sail the heights The Lake District can be a heavenly spot to sail - particularly when the sun is shining. Most are familiar with Windermere but the southern end of Ullswater, pictured here, offers idyllic sailing with islands and coves to explore , plus the challenge of dealing with winds funnelling down from the towering fells Photo: Shutterstock
PHOTO: ALESSANDRO LAI/SHUTTERSTOCK
Transatlantic
Oceans Apart Blue water cruiser Kate Ashe-Leonard looks back at the preparation, trepidation and exhilaration of her first Atlantic crossing
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DECEMBER 2023 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting DECEMBER 2023
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North Sea
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DECEMBER 2023 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
Renée Mineart recounts a lively trip down the North Sea that also served as a pivot point in her life
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting DECEMBER 2023
PHOTO: ION MES/ SHUTTERSTOCK
The North Sea Broke Me
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Jess Lloyd-Mostyn Being a good guest in foreign lands while cruising often means braving up when it comes to local cuisine particularly when invited into someone’s home
E
ating is part of travel. Exploring the far-flung corners of the world involves satisfying your rumbling tummy once you get there. And indulging in new and exotic taste textures and flavours, learning the names and words for different dishes, and discovering ingredients and spices is all part of the exciting unknown of global sailing. We especially like to eat like locals, spurning the white-tablecloth tourist trap restaurants with their westernstyle food and eye-watering price tags in favour of the streets lined with makeshift carts where industrious aunties are ladling out steaming bowls of soto ayam or bent double, crimping little dim sum dumplings by the dozen, or the shabby little shacks where large laughing men barbeque the catch of the day on skewers and the air is filled with fragrant smoky aromas. We’ve sampled Moroccan djej mechoui spatchcock chicken, Guatemalan ceviche, St Lucian grilled christophene, French Polynesian poisson cru, and Indonesian rendang. And we’ve adopted a point-and-shoot attitude towards choosing what we eat, often not knowing the language of cuisine well enough but listening to our noses and our guts and judging by the lines of people eagerly queuing to get their hands on some particular popular delicacy. We’ve nibbled the weird and wonderful whenever possible. It’s also wrapped up in a culture of respect, of being a good guest in a foreign land, of willingly trusting and accepting what someone has been generous enough to serve you with. An impromptu invite to stay for dinner from another boat in the anchorage – sounds great. Why not stop and have lunch with us at the school festival in Vanuatu – no problem. Welcome to our island, we must have a feast – what an honour. This last one occurred repeatedly in the equally remote and tiny offshore atolls of Papua New Guinea that we cruised through for a few months. Strangers would excitedly row to our boat in their dugout outrigger canoes, full of smiles and warmth. We couldn’t not embrace their offers of generosity and were humbled by these communities suddenly taking time out to prepare a meal to share with us. Often these would include titbits and morsels that were a stretch, even for us. Roasted sea snails were offered. Tiny and colourful reef fish, that you’d chew on warily. Bland and unappealing taro cooked in myriad ways, always served with great enthusiasm.
And occasionally, when eating the stew, you would be told proudly that they had cooked a turtle especially. It’s a strange position to find yourself in, caught midmouthful between your personal ethics and preconceived notions of sustainability and conservation while being mindful of your principles of gratitude and tact. In parts of the South Pacific we were encouraged to take part in kava ceremonies as an act of introduction and reverence to the village chief. Kava is made from the crushed yaqona root, pounded to a pulp, sometimes chewed by the person preparing it and spat out, strained with water, and drunk by the bowl or half bowl in rituals that vary from Hawaii to Samoa to Fiji, and many island nations in between. The names of the bowls, cups and sayings that accompany the drinking may differ but the slight numbness around the mouth, lips and tongue, combined with a gentle relaxation is distinctive. And, as a friendly act of hospitality from village society, a polite refusal is not always the wisest strategy. And, I must be clear, though we’ve always been open to new tastes and sensations, it’s not an adventurousness that’s necessarily shared by our entire family: I come from a background of gluten-free vegetarians and vegans; James’ mum can’t take even the mildest chilli; and we have a son who has happily travelled the world sticking to eating copious amounts of pasta with green pesto. Yet, the kids are starting to become a bit more experimental these days, perhaps egged on by their over-zealous foodie parents. Our eldest now tentatively requests the extra piquancy of spices added to her food, tries the curry in the Malaysian roti canai, and thoroughly enjoys drenching fish with the zesty tang of fresh lime. They like their salmon skin crisped to perfection and beg that their onions be sweetly caramelised. So can you still be a fussy eater when global sailing? Yes, depending on your cruising grounds, and you can certainly over-provision your boat full of your favourite home flavours and goodies. But experimenting, being braver and diving into unusual local foods is a powerful connection to the culture you’re sailing in. Our memories are full of wildly rich and interesting flavours, which colour our travel experiences. Embracing the new can be daunting but it really does taste extraordinarily good.
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DECEMBER 2023 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
JESS LLOYDMOSTYN Jess and James left the UK in 2011 in their Crossbow 42 and have sailed halfway round the world, growing their crew en route. Follow their journey at water-log.com
ILLUSTRATION HOLLY ASTLE
‘A polite refusal is not always the wisest strategy’