Sea Sense Offers Trawler Training

Sea Sense has added single-engine trawler training on Chesapeake Bay from Annapolis, MD.  These new courses are both the traditional scheduled classes for women as well as customized instructional charters for couples, families, and groups.  Training is conducted aboard a new, 47-foot Selene trawler, fully equipped from galley to flybridge with every modern amenity. You can read about the specific trawler in an earlier article we wrote here.  Students will be exposed to the most modern systems and equipment, including bow and stern thrusters, sophisticated electronics, and an engine room layout ideal for identifying and understanding boat systems.

Captain Patti Moore, co-founder of Sea Sense says, “These training classes are unique in that they offer potential trawler enthusiasts the opportunity to gain sufficient knowledge to confidently bareboat charter or to handle their own boat.”

Sea Sense-scheduled, women-only courses have a cruising curriculum that covers everything from boat-handling to confidence-building exercises. These are 5-day, 4-night classes scheduled monthly from May through October. As an incentive to fill the first season, the all-inclusive cost has been reduced to $3895 per person.

Instructional charters aboard the Selene are ideal for couples, families and groups and are customized to meet individual needs, calendars and cruising goals. They can also be scheduled from May through October. Sea Sense instructors are also available to teach aboard your own yacht (power or sail).

Copyright © 2010 by OceanLines LLC.  All rights reserved.

—–

The Essence of Genovese Pesto as Prepared by Victoria Allman

Re-Discovering Pesto

By Victoria Allman

For the past year and a half, the memory of one dish of pasta has haunted me.

It was our first and only night in Genoa, Italy.  We arrived tired and worn from a long day on the train.  We lugged our bags, heavy from everything we would need for the next two years of travel on the boat, down narrow streets to the busy port.  Frustrated by lack of taxis and grumpy from empty growling stomachs, we stopped at the first restaurant we came to.

It was nothing special, just a few plastic patio tables and chairs overlooking the commercial port. A laminated menu translated a handful of pizzas and half a dozen pastas into a comical form of English. Smelly Blue Cheese seated on Linguine was the one that made me smile.  But, I opted for a simple dish of Pesto Pasta that I ordered with Drink Water.  I was too tired to try and think of anything more exciting.

When my dish arrived, I was surprised by the color.  When I make pesto, a dark green paste is produced.  It is strong and bites with the licorice taste of basil.  This, in front of me, was creamier and a softer green.  I took a bite.  It was not as sharp as my version.  It was rich in flavor, but smooth and well-balanced.  With each bite, a taste of what I could only describe as green filled my senses.  I ate the dish with wonder and relished each bite.  I wish I could have eaten more.

We left the restaurant and sailed away the next day, but I had not forgotten that one perfect pesto dish.  It played in the back of my mind every time I’ve made pesto since.

When the boat returned to Genoa I danced on my toes, excited to go find the secrets of the regions most famous dish. I started at the market, where all good food discoveries begin.  Italian men in stretched and misshapen white tank tops called out their greetings to me.

 ”Buongiorno,” I replied, trying out the few words of Italian I could remember.  “Basilico?”  I raised my eyebrow, hoping they would understand.

“Si, si.”  A man waved me over, wearing no more than a white apron over his faded baby blue boxers and the bright orange clogs that Mario Batali made famous. He handed me a bunch of small-leafed emerald green basil.  The tiny delicate leaves meant the plant could be no more than a few days old.  He broke off the heart of a stem and rubbed the leaves between his thick rough fingers.  He brought them to his face and breathed deeply, shutting his eyes and smiling. He was lost in thought.  He opened his eyes in a dreamy lulled way and broke into an Italian soliloquy for the next three minutes.  I did not understand a word he said, but his voice sounded like music. I smiled and nodded.

Maybe he knew I didn’t understand him.  Instead of repeating, he cupped his hand gently behind my head and held the basil out for me to smell. It was a sensual act.  I leaned in, closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The aroma nudged my memory.

It was different than the basil I had known.  It was sweet smelling and mellow.  I smiled with the same hazy look he had had. “Due.”  I held up two fingers to make sure he knew what I wanted. As I walked away, in search of the Parmesan and pine nuts I needed to complete my dish, the man broke into song.  His deep baritone voice reverberated an opera through the market. It could not have been a more Italian scene if a director set it up.

No wonder the pasta tasted so good.  In Italy, there is life and love in everything.

The Pesto of a Midsummer Dream by Victoria Allman

Pesto

By Victoria Allman
Author of: Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean
www.victoriaallman.com

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 cup Parmesan, grated
1/2 cup olive oil

In a heavy bottomed frying pan, sauté the pine nuts over medium heat.  Shake the pan constantly so they do not burn.  Toast until they turn golden.  Remove from heat and cool.

To create the soft creamy pesto of Genoa, grind the garlic cloves and salt in a mortar and pestle (hence the name pesto).  Add the basil leaves and press until a rough paste is achieved.

Add the pine nuts and Parmesan and press to incorporate.  Slowly add the olive oil to emulsify into the mix.

You can also use a food processor for larger batches, but the blades will bruise the basil leaves and the color will darken.

Makes 2 cups pesto

Recipe, photography and narrative Copyright © 2010 by Victoria Allman

Copyright © 2010 by OceanLines LLC.  All rights reserved.

Sea Sense Canal Cruise in France

Sea Sense, the St. Petersburg, Florida-based sailing and powerboating school for women, is offering a new international class on Ireland’s Shannon River and canals. Every year, the company offers a different international course, with previous locations including various Caribbean locales, as well as Italy, Greece, France and Tahiti.  The 2010 course will be aboard a modern, 48-foot canal barge and will run from Sept. 11-18.

The boat for the course can accommodate a total of six students. Capts. Patti Moore and Carol Cuddyer, Sea Sense founders, will be the instructors for the seven day adventure and the itinerary includes free time for individual exploration of the area. The route will begin in Shannon and meander through the beautiful Irish countryside that is home to ancient Celtic monasteries. Each evening will be spent tied along the canal in picturesque village ports with hospitable people and warm pubs for dinner and music.

Canal cruising is a unique way to see the Irish countryside but is also an ideal learning opportunity for women to experience boat handling, navigation, and routine boat maintenance in a controlled environment. The course will focus on chart reading, helmsmanship, hands-on maneuvering and docking, knot tying and proper line handling, and basic engine checks and troubleshooting. Capt. Patti Moore says of canal cruising, “Rivers and canals provide a protected environment in which women can learn while doing. The international charters are great because everyone is in a new area and can focus on learning and working together, all while cruising in an absolutely gorgeous place.”

Sea Sense Canal Cruise in Venice, Italy

The Shannon River charter is open to women with any level of boating experience as the small group size allows instruction to be tailored to fit individual needs and goals. Individuals as well as groups are encouraged to request additional information. Space is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The per person price is $3,895 which includes the charter fee, instruction, fuel, and basic provisions for the week. Sea Sense will provide guidance and resources for travel but all registrants are responsible for their own travel arrangements and arrival to Shannon for the course.

Capts. Moore and Cuddyer provide all kinds of training and assistance, such as teaching deliveries and rendezvous instruction, to couples and mixed groups as well. I’d say that anyone interested in learning more about canal cruising might consider hiring them for a first-time experience.

Copyright © 2010 by OceanLines LLC.  All rights reserved.

NextGen Selene 47 Holiday -- Photo: Billy Black

Selene Annapolis Charter has teamed up with the Sea Sense Powerboating School to offer the Selene 47 Holiday for charter and/or instructional charter on the Chesapeake Bay in 2010.

Charters are a five-day, four-night on-board comprehensive experience. Sea Sense will provide a structured course covering boat systems, operation, course plotting and navigation, boat handling, docking, and a variety of other topics for singles as well as couples. The instructional charter is intended to provide those with a serious interest in cruising a comfort level and knowledge foundation to schedule bareboat charters and confidently handle their own boat. Sea Sense Captains Carol Cuddyer and Patti Moore regularly offer in-depth trawler training around the country, including the popular two-day PassageMaker University Course for women.

Holiday is a 2009 Next Generation Selene 47, which means it has the increased engine room height, cruiser stern, prop pocket, offset galley, L-shaped pilothouse settee, and anchor pulpit of this latest model. She also features the latest in electronics, and both bow and stern thrusters for added maneuverability. Bart and Beth Beckman own Holiday and say, “Holiday is a fantastic trawler, perfect for a couple or two to explore and enjoy coastal cruising.” The company did not disclose the rates for these charters but said they are available upon request.

Copyright © 2010 by OceanLines LLC.  All rights reserved.

———-

A Culinary Theatre

 by Victoria Allman
www.victoriaallman.com

It was already a late hour by the time we secured the lines and straightened the fenders, but Spain does not even consider eating until long after the sun has retired for the evening.  Famished from a long crossing, we wandered through the old Roman streets of Barcelona dizzy with hunger.  We passed stone buildings with more history than we could remember, to a tiny square where tapas bars crowded every corner.
 
In the one we chose, dark-haired men stood behind a long counter, backs to us, hunkered over a stove.  They were busy submerging squid in oil and tossing peppers in a smoking hot cast-iron pan.  We pulled bar stools up to the high counter and watched the action of the cooks like we were following a soccer match. Our necks craned to see a plate of sausage and beans being delivered to couple across the room. Razor clams sizzled on hot skillets.  A tortilla passed so close that we could have reached out and taken a bite. We followed it with our eyes.
 
A round of steaming clams were set just to the right of us; their smell filled the small space. We immediately ordered a bowl and watched as one of the cooks, with a heavy pan, flicked his wrist sending a dozen muscles and their juices flying through the air.  He caught the wave of shellfish and broth without spilling a drop.
 
Without a word, he placed the bowl in front of us and cut thick slices of chewy bread, rubbing the surface with a half tomato to spread its sweet flavor like butter.  He picked up a slender bottle of olive oil and drizzled a golden sheen on top.  The bread glistened. He leaned in close, pinching sea salt between his thick fingers and sprinkled it over the bread like an artist applying the finishing touch to his masterpiece.
  
By my first bite, I had already fallen in love with Spain.

Spanish Clams with Sherry and Iberico Ham by Victoria Allman

Spanish Clams with Sherry and Iberico Ham
by Victoria Allman
1 1/2 pounds fresh clams
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
4 cups cold water

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 shallot, finely chopped
¼ cup Iberico ham, finely chopped (or Serrano ham)
¼ cup dry sherry
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Scrub clams and soak them in water and coarse salt for 45 minutes.
 
Heat a heavy-bottomed sauté pan over high heat.  Add olive oil, Iberico ham, onions, and garlic.  Saute 3 minutes until the onions are soft.  Drain the clams and add to the pot with sherry.  Cover and cook for 3 minutes until the shells have opened.  Discard any that remain closed.

Toss with parsley and ladle into bowls.

Serve with crusty bread, rubbed with tomato and drizzled in olive oil, and a glass of wine.

Serves 4

recipe and article Copyright © 2010 by Victoria Allman

Copyright © 2010 by OceanLines LLC

Sea Fare: A Chef's Journey Across the Ocean, by Victoria Allman

Victoria Allman is a classically trained chef whose wanderlust took her to sea for nine years as a chef aboard a megayacht.  She has collected her memories of that experience in Sea Fare — A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean.  Readers here on OceanLines are, by definition, interested in travel, adventure, yachts and food. Allman’s experiences finding new ingredients and recipes in all her international ports will inspire cruisers of all kinds to be more adventurous and add new dimensions to their own onboard cooking.

Sea Fare is a fully dimensioned memoir, although the central narrative thread is Allman’s culinary responsibilities.  She writes also of the larger experience of living and working aboard a yacht and even about finding love.  Her food-related adventures include buying fish from an “olive-skinned Italian wrinkle of a man,” traveling up a muddy river in Papua New Guinea past “wide-eyed, crusty-nosed children with bloated bellies to barter for bananas among women with breasts sagging to their bellies,” and snorkeling the Bombay-colored shallows of the South Pacific “in pursuit of one of the world’s deadliest creatures for dinner, led by a Tahitian man with dark tribal tattoos of tikis, turtles, and rays” running up and down his body.

The short promotional video below will give you a taste for the book.

Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean is available at www.norlightspress.com, Amazon and at independent bookstores.

Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean by Victoria Allman; Nonfiction; $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-935254-01-0

Copyright © 2009 by OceanLines LLC