Courgette Flower Frittas

There’s been nothing little about the rays of sunshine that have occasionally burst forth from behind the big ol’ black clouds of June rain sitting heavily in Antibes these last few days. When the sun comes out it is hot and humid and I’m not sure I’m ready yet for such heat. Will I ever be? I think I am an English rose at heart and despite my younger days spent searching for the sunshine, I can honestly say that now, I love a British summer more than anything. There’s nothing like the seasons and the British ones at that. Maybe I’m just a bit home-sick but that’s my 33 year old opinion…

Oh okay, I admit it, I’m no longer 33. Yep, I had a birthday and now I’m 34. However, I won’t be changing the name of my blog. I still feel 33 (no I don’t, I still feel 29). Anyhow, we’ll just ignore my little passing of age for convenience sake shall we? Cheers.

Cutting the cake. Thanks crew!

Moving on swiftly (I don’t think they noticed) I did say I’d cook those proper little rays of sunshine in my last blog, the courgette flowers. And here they are. I did nothing clever or different with them; I stuffed them with buffalo mozzarella and deep fried them in a tempura style batter. They were absolutely delicious as a starter with some cold rose wine. Tim cooked dinner that night giving me a little night off which was needed. I won’t tell you what we did with the left-over batter, still hot deep-frying oil and some mini Mars Bars later on after dinner for desert, you’d be disgusted with us. It was Tim's idea...

The courgette flower season isn’t long so if you can find courgette flowers, they’re really not hard to make and in no time at all you have a plate of pretty cool and tasty…um, well, ray’s of sunshine!

You will need;

10 baby courgettes with flowers attached

1 ball of buffalo mozzerella

5 tbsp plain flour

5 tbsp cornflour

200 ml fizzy water, cold

Salt

Sunflower oil for deep frying

Zest and juice of one lemon

Method;

• To make the batter, sieve the flours and some salt, a good pinch or 3 into a big bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the water slowly into the well whilst whisking all the time to make the batter. Set aside whilst you stuff the flowers.

• Very gently open the flowers just enough so that you can tease as much of the mozzarella in as you can. Then re-seal the flowers by twisting them gently back up again. There, that was easy wasn’t it?

• So now all you have to do is heat up the oil in a big deep-ish pan. The rules for deep frying are to turn your extract fan off and have a big flat baking tray handy for if the worst happens and you have a fire. Simply place the tray over the pan to cut off any oxygen. Easy. Now, just because I’ve talked about fires, doesn’t mean you can whimp away from this one. No whimps in my galley thankyou.

• When your oil is hot and you are ready to fry them, simply immerse the entire courgette and flower into the batter so it is perfectly covered in batter and then plop very gently into the oil taking care not to splash yourself with any hot oil.

•  To know when the oil is ready what you do is take a small chunk of bread and plop it into the oil. If it goes a nice golden colour pretty quickly then it’s ready. Place the battered courgette flowers in the oil, 2 at a time. When they are lightly coloured after a few minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate or tray covered with a good few layers of kitchen roll to absorb any excess oil. Continue to dunk and batter and then fry the courgette flowers as you go.

• To know when the oil is ready what you do is take a small chunk of bread and plop it into the oil. If it goes a nice golden colour pretty quickly then it’s ready. Place the courgette flowers in the oil, 2 at a time. When they are lightly coloured after a few minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate or tray covered with a good few layers of kitchen roll to absorb any excess oil.

• When they are all ready serve as soon as you can with lemon wedges or I reckon a good lemony, garlicky mayonnaise would be perfect to have a little dip into, hope nobody shoots me down for that one! You could garnish with lots of fresh, roughly chopped flat leaf parsley and lemon zest too. I was serving mine to 2 boys, Tim and George so to be honest I didn’t bother. Sorry guys but you wouldn’t have noticed anyway.

Racing starts on Thursday and today we had our first training session. There was so little wind, the sea did that glassy thing where you can't comprehend where exactly the sea and sky collide on the horizon. We put some sails up and bobbed around for a bit, then took the sails back down and came back in to port. Hey, it’s all good practice.

I’m really enjoying Antibes so far. There are plenty of nice little shops and some nice little restaurants too. I’ll be trying a few out for you soon hopefully. Don’t say I never do anything for you! It’ll be tough but…

So thanks for reading. Stay here for exciting, cutting edge, classic yacht racing news coming your way! And hopefully some wind…

Cheers!

A Lemony, Courgette, Feta and Pinenut Pasta

Rain? Who ordered this? And why oh why does a rainy day insist on following a sleepless night? I promise I’m not the sort to grumble or inflict others with my 5-hour-sleep blues. And I think I was quite perky today considering. But just so you understand; It was an inexplicable case last night of sleepy eyes closing, turn off light, lie there thinking about why I didn’t say what I should have done that time 2 years ago. Turn the light on, read until eyes are closing, turn off the light, lie there thinking about how if I had said what I should have said, what would she have said back?  STOP IT! Turn light on, read till nodding-dog begins, turn light off. Continue in this manner until 2 30 am. I'm sure you know the score.

So I’ll admit that for the first time in a long time I was severely lacking in crew-lunch inspiration. Not to mention the rain and nothing in the fridge. Is this an Antibes thing? I’ve not spent much time here before.

I love how French markets make it look like I read the entire instruction manual for my digital SLR Camera.

Anyway, whenever I’m having a cooking blank, my trick is to boil it all down to one ingredient and build very simply from there.  One vegetable, one herb, one protein, one carbohydrate; that sort of thing, it usually works. So off I tottered in the pouring rain to the, thankfully covered, Antibes Market to look for that one ingredient. It wasn’t difficult. We’re in Courgette season and they were all over it. Flowered, baby, light green, dark green; my main ingredient in abundance.  Get all French about the crowds and you can get yourself some very nice little purchases in no time at all.

Having said that, by the time I had enjoyed all that a good French market can offer I had just less than an hour to cook lunch for 12. Lack of time, it can really help make a vital decision.

Courgettes led to feta cheese, led to lightly toasted pinenuts led to penne pasta with lemon zest and juice, wet garlic flavoured olive oil, lots of parsley and some chilli flakes. Salad, charcuterie and a selection of cheeses. Lots of lovely French bread and who’s complaining? 

I dare them. Just kidding guys, feedback always warmly accepted with gratitude (when I've had 7 hours of sleep not 5).

 

This is no biggy and very simple but sometimes it’s the simplicity that you need to be reminded of to create something tasty, and despite the heavy rain, full of the joys of spring. It’s so easy to get caught in a huge panic of complicated ingredients when the best meals (think Italian) are the most honest and fresh ones. Easy peasy and be sensitive with the tired one in the corner please.

  To feed 6-8 you will need;

Penne pasta

6 smallish courgettes, sliced

4-5 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed with the blade of a knife to open but kept whole

8 peppercorns

100ml olive oil

1 pack feta cheese

100 g pinenuts

Zest of 2 lemons, juice of one

Sprinkle of chilli flakes

1 cup grated pecorino cheese and more to serve

There must have been more…nope that really was it.

Method;

• Put your pan of water on to boil for the pasta. A nice big pan, the biggest you have got filled to within 2 inches of the rim. Each piece of pasta needs ‘room to dance’ as the Italians say. Fair enough, nobody can do their best on a crowded dance floor. Once the water is boiling, add salt. For a large pan of water, 6-7 litres, I add probably 2 tbsp salt.

 

• Next thing is to put a good inch depth of olive oil into a small saucepan. Don’t be shy now, glug it in there. Then plop in your 5-6 cloves of garlic and the peppercorns. Turn on the heat and when the oil begins to have a little sizzle, turn off the heat and leave the oil aside to marinade.

• Heat up a griddle pan. I was putting the courgettes down, once the pan was really hot, as they were with no oil on at all. Then brushing the side facing up with some of the garlic oil straight from the pan and sprinkling on some salt and pepper. Turn the courgettes over once they have good grill lines as shown and then grill the oil and seasoned side to the same effect. When you have done one load, put on a warmed plate and set aside. Continue grilling the courgettes till they are all done.

• Put a smallish frying pan on to heat with no oil in it at all, a dry frying pan. Lightly toast the pinenuts. Keep an eye on them and keep turning them over either with a little cool flip of your pan or by stirring with a wooden spoon. Set aside when they are lightly toasted.

Squeezing the pans on. 

• When the pasta is cooked to your liking, drain making sure you keep a good ladleful of the pasta water or ‘stock’. This helps to become your sauce and if you’ve ever had stodgy pasta before, this is how you remedy it. Never throw away all of the pasta cooking stock ever.

• Pour the pasta and a little of its water back into the pan and then add the sieved garlic oil and pecorino cheese and stir to combine. You can either squeeze the cooked garlic into the pasta or save for later. 

• Basically pour the pasta into a pretty serving dish. Scatter over the griddled courgettes; crumble over the feta cheese and pinenuts. Then a dish like this deserves a good grating of lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice, lots of black pepper and a big handful of roughly chopped fresh parsley and mint. 

  

• Serve with French bread, platters of cheese and charcuterie and some lovely crunchy salad with a simple French vinaigrette.

I managed to make this in an hour and my head wasn’t all there. You might be quicker. The crew enjoyed it and didn't seem to notice my glazed expression. This would be a good cold pasta salad too if you run the cooked pasta under lots of cold water to stop it from cooking immediately and make sure that the olive oil has fully cooled down before you add it to the pasta.

Antibes market is great. I love these moments in my life and career. I could spend a fortune but the budget saves the day. Just to wander around enjoying the general hustle and bustle is a serious joy. Even in the pouring June rain.

It’s stopped raining now. It’s the evening and I’m drinking red wine down below feeling pretty cosy. One more glass of red and I reckon I’ll be sleeping fine tonight. No more saving the world or sorting out the mysteries of the universe for me.

 

Just a little advanced warning, I’ll be cooking the courgette flowers I bought at the market tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes. They are very special so I wanted to be fully ‘with it’ to enjoy the experience.

I best get to bed then.

Goodnight! Sleep tight.

See you soon. Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

One Regatta Down, Seven To Go!

Beautiful Corsica

I’m writing this blog sitting in the staysail that’s tied down to the deck on the bow as we motor away from Ajaccio, Corsica and head for Antibes. The sea is flat calm and the sun is being kind to us behind a thin, lacy vale of cloud. It’s a good spot to ponder our first regatta and to start telling you all about it. I’m a bit uncertain as to how I should summarise a whole regatta without boring you to tears with too much detail. I’m struggling to even know where to start to be completely honest.

Moored up in Ajaccio in the morning sun.

One certainty is that quite a lot of emotion goes into racing in a regatta. Times that by the number of crew onboard, mix it up with some VIP’s staying, 3 course meals, late nights, heavy fog and a Man-Over-Board and the material is endless. I’ll keep it to the point and keep the deviations to a minimum if I can.

So here goes, deep breath and…

Nine folk arrived to help us sail the boat for the regatta in Ajaccio, including my Dad who came to do the navigation. That was great, having my Dad with us. I was very proud. Not that I saw much of him. My position on the boat means that I’m pulling on ropes forward and he was down in the lazerette with the charts on the aft deck. We occasionally waved to each other when time allowed. 

All hands to the peak halyard.

Perfect spooning on the rail guys.

The racing had its ups and its downs. The first race was a short one and although we were first boat to the second mark, we struggled with the downwind leg and I think we might have come last in our class. The second day was weird. We had just started to hoist the sails for the day when the fog set in. According to a local guy I spoke to, this fog comes but once a year, and it chose a race day, of all days. 15 classic yachts floated around the bay of Ajaccio for a few hours without being able to see much past their bow sprits. We had Natty on the bow with the fog horn and Joe the engineer up the mast, standing on the spreaders. It was all a bit spooky and incredibly disorientating. I was glad my Dad was on the navigation knowing where we were and where the big ships were. He’s a bit clever my Dad.

Beating up to the mark

The final race was our best of all. We were leading the fleet which is always exciting with some great beating up to the first mark. In fact the other boats, smaller and lighter than us were really falling behind. And then just as we were getting ready for a tack, we heard those awful words;

‘Man Over Board’!

With a new safety procedure and focus, last year we didn’t have one man-over-board. However in 2008 there were 4 in total. There is no guard rail in place when we race and the risk of being washed down the leward deck by the sea is pretty high. We do wear safety harnesses and clip on when the wind is strong and the leward deck is getting wet which stopped me from going over last year in a big gush of wave in Falmouth. This time however, Nikki lost her footing and because she stands very close to the back of the boat, she went in head first, a line around her ankle. Thank God it slipped off quickly or she would have been dragged along behind the boat at 7 knots.

It is a horrible moment when you hear those words. Everyone on the boat is a great friend as well as a colleague and keeping your cool when you know someone has gone overboard is tough. Jim, our captain, called quickly for a gybe, a life ring was thrown and George called for focus and everybody to their positions. We gibed around, had someone watching Nikki and pointing the whole time, a line was prepared and she was picked up in 4 minutes and 36 seconds. She has a few bruises but really the only injury was that her brand new camera was still in her pocket.

And off we set again to finish our race. Smooth.

It took just a little bit of coaxing and great boat handling to get Mariquita going again but the sailing yacht Mariska, managed to pass us. However, we had such a great lead on the other boats that we were next over the finishing line. It was a fantastic race and we are very proud of our Man/Girl/Person-Over-Board recovery and staunch race focus with Nikki back on board. Well done us.

Now if you think that once a year, thick Fog and Person-over-boards were a bit scary, let me tell you all about the sandwiches.

How hard is it to make a sandwich? you may ask. I’m giggling now as I remember, but have to admit that it wasn’t very funny at the time. It was decided that because we had 3 VIP’s staying on board, that I would be too busy to make all the race sandwiches, which is very true. So to relieve the pressure a bit, we ordered and had sandwiches delivered everyday. Great!

Actually not great. Let me give you a little list of some of the fillings provided;

• Grated carrot and anchovy (yum!)
• Sliced egg and crab stick (delicious)
• Some sort of spam and oceans of hot mustard (Can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that one before)

And my favourite,

• Lettuce and tomato (Genius)

So, most mornings were spent repairing the sandwiches with Sian, which wasn’t really the point at all. Oh, how we laughed…

I cooked a few VIP meals and did a couple of canapé evenings with Sian, my hard-working stewardess. One meal was asparagus and parmesan stuffed, boned chicken supreme’s, griddled baby courgettes and mint, followed by mini summer puddings served with crème fraiche, a selection of Corsican cheeses and Corsican rose wine. Unfortunately my camera’s battery-life expired that night, so you’ll just have to believe me.

I hear the entertainment for the boats and crews was great on the dock in the evenings. But if you are chef or stewardess on any boat with guests and owners then you don’t often get to partake in much of that. We are the first ones up and the last to bed. Add a little yacht race into the day and bed is the most wonderful place on earth for the short time we’re in it.

I would like to take this opportunity though to urge you whole heartedly to visit Corsica. It is the most beautiful country with a very interesting history and great character. It is famous for its superb hikes and walks, waterfalls and mountains. Jim, Tim, George and I went for a hike one day before the regatta. We caught the bus to Vizzavona and from there we followed the Cascades des Anglais which took us through beautiful woods, past waterfalls and deep icy pools which you can swim in if you’re brave, or silly enough to. We ended up being very silly and jumping in a deep pool of melted-snow water. It takes your breath away but after you have scrabbled out in what is usually a fairly undignified manner, the feeling of elation is palpable. You feel incredibly healthy and alive. You just have to go for it, don’t think about it, just jump right in. The sun soon warms you up and then if you have been really clever, like us, you then truly deserve your rose picnic. Especially if you have been chilling the rose in the icy cold water whilst you were busy frolicking about in it.I guess it is times like these when life at 33 Degrees is a wonderful thing. I am incredibly lucky.

So do accept my apologies for not writing sooner. It’s been quite a week. I hope I’ve done it justice without boring you to tears. There is so much more to write but considering this was our first regatta of the season, I’m pretty sure there’ll be more stories to tell very soon in Antibes. We don’t want to over-do it so early on now do we?

Thanks for sticking with me and making it to the end. When I write again soon, I’m hoping it will be all about the fish we’re about to catch as we head across the sea to Antibes in France. Fingers and chop sticks crossed. Ginger and wasabi on the ready.

Oh and camera battery charged this time.

One regatta down and seven to go. I'm sure once I've caught up on my sleep I'll be raring to go for 'Les Voiles d'Antibes on the 8th. For the moment, I'm enjoying lying in the staysail on the bow in the setting sun with some great memories already. And we've only just started. It's going to be a great year. Hope you can join me.
Cheers! See you soon.

First Season's Garlic. First Season's Racing.

I’ve got a mate, Paul, who’s allergic to garlic. Can you imagine?  When he comes over for dinner when I’m at home, I have to remove all garlic and garlic products from the house because a large proportion of food I cook and eat has garlic involved. I have to really concentrate very hard not to use it.

You wouldn’t like this one then Paul, sorry. I’d like to say you’re not missing anything but that would be a huge lie.  All the more for us.

I picked up some wet garlic from the little market in Ajaccio, the town in Corsica where we’re moored up awaiting our first regatta of the season. I originally purchased just the one bulb and took it back to the boat with huge pride and excitement. My fellow crew members weren’t quite as excited as me though and I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to best make use of my little gem of loveliness. Wet garlic is fresh, new season garlic and is available in late spring. It doesn’t take long for it to begin to dry and take on the papery skin of the regular garlic you get in the super market. But it is sweeter and very mellow flavoured without the potential acridness of regular garlic that can linger in your mouth and ruin an otherwise perfectly good date.

In the end I decided that the best way to enjoy the rare opportunity to eat wet garlic was to eat a lot of it. And we did. I went back to the market the next morning and bought more bulbs to roast whole; drizzled with olive oil, some of what’s left of my rather depleted lemon-thyme, lemon zest, salt and pepper. A little squeeze of lemon juice later and in to the oven they popped. I can’t type this fast enough, I’m so excited to tell you about it.

So in addition to buying extra garlic at the market I also bought some Corsican goats cheese. It was recommended to me by the chap selling the cheese after telling him what I was serving it with. I felt pretty proud explaining about the imminent roasting of garlic despite my very poor attempt to speak French to him. Of course he spoke almost fluent English back to me which say’s a lot about my French. (Must try harder)

However his choice of Corsican goat’s cheese for my menu was spot on. The crew gathered in the forepeak and we pretty quickly managed to ‘mmm’ and ‘oh’ our way through 3 large bulbs of roasted garlic with lemon thyme, served with Corsican goats cheese and a drizzle of honey on warm, brown, crusty bread. Obviously we ate this with some very nice Corsican red wine. And some beers and some rose. Well, one really must try the local cuisine when one is abroad mustn’t one?

The crew loved it so much I think I may have to repeat the experience several times whilst we’re here. The garlic was so soft and mellow that one or two of the guys were convinced they could go out afterwards in the hope of meeting some Corsican girls and not worry about garlic breath. I’m not sure anybody got lucky last night but I do know it was nothing to do with the garlic.

Give it a go! (Wet garlic that is; not trying to get lucky with Corsican girls) You’ll probably find wet garlic at farm shops and farmers markets in the UK. Or start growing your own! One day, when I have my very own garden…

Guess that finished then.

See you soon, and Thanks for reading!

Cooking Frittata In Corsica.

We’re here and it’s good. Mind you my scope off the boat so far has been to the market and to the shore-side accommodation, which is about 100 yards further than the market. However, my trip to the market this morning was very successful as you shall see and I am lucky enough to have a room/sofa bed at the crew-side apartment for the next few days. So all in all, I’m very happy to be here so far in Ajaccio.

Our trip from Nice was un-eventful, which is great apart from the absence of fish. Just the one is all I hope for considering the lack of room I have in my freezer, however this trip we caught nothing and my nori, sushi rice and rolling mat are back in storage.

The weather is beautiful and this morning I made an early trip to the market to get supplies for a day at anchor. Jim, our captain and George, 1^st Mate and my Fella, had the task of cleaning the hull today in preparation for the regatta, fast approaching. So dive equipment was hired for the day and the sound of bubbles emanated from underfoot as Sian and I cleaned and polished down below, which is always strangely pleasing.

I literally had to cross the road from the port and there was the market, small but perfectly formed. It had everything I required for lunch and some extra stalls for interest. Corsicans do charcuterie. And they do it very well as you can see.

We’ll have plenty of time for that. Today I bought the usual baguettes, two very pert, fresh lettuces and a big, fat bulb of wet garlic which fills me with great excitement. Wet garlic is fresh, seasonal garlic pulled from the ground and not yet dried. It is sweet and a much better flavour than the everyday, supermarket version. It is the joy of garlic without the potential bitterness. I shall definitely come up with a suitable recipe that will do it justice for you. For today though I’m blogging lunch. A leek, tarragon and feta frittata.

Frittata or Spanish omelette was definitely not a favourite of mine for quite some time. I had a job as a stewardess on a boat when I was about 22 years old and the chef used to make a frittata about twice a week for the crew lunch. I couldn’t bare it and that really doesn’t happen to me all that often. As far as I was concerned, it was over-cooked, stiff egg with onions and peppers. There’s something not quite right about stiff egg. And of course, when I finally agreed to eat some at a small tapas bar in Spain, I realised how a frittata was supposed to taste. A frittata should be slice-able and yet be able to retain its ‘creaminess’.  It should be able to sit unsupported and yet have a softness about its flavour and texture.

This is a great lunchtime dish for any time of year if you change the filling with the seasons. And a great crew lunch being easy, vegetarian and budget friendly. I made 2 frittatas for 12 people using 16 eggs but if you want to halve this then I would be tempted to keep the same amounts for the filling ingredients and cut the eggs down to 6-7.

My ‘thing’ with cooking frittata is to do it gently and please do not over cook it! It does not need to be solid.  Let’s crack on. (Little egg joke there)

You will need;

16 eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper

2 medium sized potatoes, sliced, not peeled

4 leeks washed and sliced, the white and light green parts only              

1 tsp sugar

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 courgettes, 1 sliced, 1 roughly chopped quite small

1 bunch of fresh tarragon, stalks removed, half chopped fairly fine

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 pack of feta or goat’s cheese according to taste and mood and what’s in the fridge

Small pot of crème fraiche

Parmesan cheese

Method;

• Begin by putting the sliced potatoes into a pan of salted water and bringing to the boil. You want them to be almost cooked through but with a bit of bite left. Drain and set aside.

• Whilst the potatoes are cooking sauté the leeks in a non-stick frying pan in some sunflower oil and a small knob of butter. Season with salt and the tsp of sugar. Let this slowly sauté until soft for about 10 minutes. Add the fennel seeds and the half of chopped tarragon and continue sautéing for another 5 minutes.

• In another pan, fry the sliced courgettes in a little oil on a high heat till they have browned on both sides. This helps get rid of some of their water which means you won’t have a soggy frittata. When the sliced ones are done then do the same with the roughly chopped courgettes, when these have had a good sauté and are slightly coloured, add to the leeks and stir to combine.

• Bung the potatoes in to the pan with the leeks and courgettes making sure they are spread about evenly. Crumble the feta or goats cheese over the leek mixture and then using a teaspoon dollop the crème fraiche in amongst the feta cheese in little - well, dollops.

• With the pan now on a gentle heat, pour in the beaten eggs and using a fork, encourage the egg to nestle down amongst the leek mixture to get to the bottom of the pan and to distribute well amongst the mixture. This also helps to mix the crème fraiche with the egg a bit more.

• Lay the sliced courgettes over the top with the remaining fresh tarragon leaves and a good sprinkling of parmesan.

• Now let this sit quietly on a very low heat for about 10-12 minutes. When you can see that the egg at the edges are cooking and it may look like it’s rising slightly then this is when to take it off the heat and stick it under a hot grill. Keep an eye on it and take it out when it is nicely browned on top. If you think that the egg in the middle might still be too soft then put it back onto a gentle heat on the hob for another 5-6 minutes. Otherwise let it sit and rest in the pan and cool down a little to ‘set’.

• When it has had 10 minutes to rest, turn it out onto a serving dish and slice. I turn mine out upside-down onto a chopping board, then put a plate over the frittata and turn the whole thing over so the top is at the top again…follow?

You can add bacon to this or serve with smoked salmon and salad. Up to you, but also you can adapt the fillings to what’s in season and what you have in the fridge. A plain potato, onion and cheddar cheese frittata is a very soothing, comfort dish and served with bacon and toast makes a great breakfast.

The crew on Mariquita are preparing for our first regatta which starts next week. We have guests staying onboard so she is looking very beautiful down below and the deck crew have scrubbed decks and polished the hull. She looks beautiful. She looks fast.

More classic yachts are arriving and it’s great to meet other crews and old friends from the circuit. The marquees are going up and Ajaccio is preparing for a great week of sailing and party throwing. So you’re all invited to join in! I’ll keep you updated and boy have you got a treat in store in my next blog…

See you then, Thanks for reading. Cheers!