Sundays with Chef Peter….
The Seraph
Daahlings, Helloooooo…….!
Apologies (again) for those who couldn’t wait to get to The Yum List last week for their weekly dose of Sundays with Chef Peter, only to find he was not there!
It was just such a busy time daahlings with Les Diables cakes and creations being enjoyed all around the island, I couldn’t seem to get five minutes for a chat with you!
I then decided I must allocate early Sunday morning but on delivering a cake Saturday night where my customers who are darling friends “insisted” (J) I stay for a drink… the rest is history!
Fabulous evening but Sunday morning came far too quickly and I had a full day ahead (including morning WAKE UP calls) for my dear friend Bib’s birthday on a boat and I hadn’t even glazed my ham yet!
Monica is always telling me I should have some pieces for spare when these emergencies arise…SORRY boss, I am trying!
Anyway, the reason why I bored you with all this trivial information is because I want to tell you about another wonderful discovery of Phuket that very day which may or might be of interest to you!
The Sun is high!
If you have a special occasion coming up or just love being on the seas, well I found a great, not soo expensive way for you to enjoy it and we really did enjoy it…
Ship Ahoy!
The Schooner Seraph which on arrival to Chalong Pier with a car laden of food and drink for an army, I stood on the pier and I said to my friends, OH Daahlings, that doesn’t look like a great boat for a party but as always I just open my mouth too quickly! Of course Tracey was the first one to tell me to shut up!
The delightfully friendly and helpful crew unloaded my car to the boat while I stood in the shade and sipped my first “Orange Juice” of the day and what a beautiful day it was.
The rest of the guests and birthday girl Bib arrived (thankfully) and it was ship ahoy!
The Birthday Girl with Khun Sii and Guest!
Let me tell you a bit about the Schooner Seraph.
Seraph is the shortened version of Seraphim – one of the Archangels who protected God in Biblical lore. A six-winged Angel, the Seraph sat at God's right hand. His upper pair of wings was to cover his eyes (he may not look at his Master), the middle pair were for aeronautic purposes with the lower pair to cover his 'private bits' (don’t you just love that!). SY Seraph sails with a full complement of six sails/wings.
The 100 year old Schooner Seraph is available for charter for day trips for up to 40 people (personally I think 20 is a good number to be comfortable) and live-aboard cruises for eight or more. She is, therefore, the ideal charter yacht for that special occasion, be it an anniversary, birthday party, wedding, corporate event or simply a group of like-minded people who want to experience sailing as it was meant to be.
Seraph was launched from a shipyard just outside Copenhagen in 1906 as a Ketch Rigged Fishing Boat destined to work for the next 70 years in the North Sea. Her initial role would have been as a 'buy boat', sailing out to meet the trawlers, transferring their catch to her large storage hold (which would have been partially flooded to keep the fish fresh) and returning to port to sell the catch at market. By the late 1970's she was bought by a Dutch couple who took her to Holland and converted her into a live-aboard Schooner with a Marconi Rig. They took some considerable time cruising the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean before arriving in Thailand in the late 1980's.
Seraph suffered a temporary setback in 1991 when a squall drove her onto a reef in the Similan Islands, from where she was recovered, restored and re-rigged in her current configuration – Gaff Rigged Schooner. She spent the next 11 years carrying thousands of live-aboard diving customers the length and breadth of the Andaman Sea. She has subsequently retired from this type of work and her present owners have, after a major refit (2005), tasked her to entertain visitors on the waters surrounding Phuket and Phang Nga Bay – a role for which she is ideally suited as she passes her one hundredth year afloat.
The Deck
We were also very lucky on this special day to have the owner of the boat on board, Khun Sii who not only has a great passion for boats and life but also for preserving a little piece of history. Thank you to her for sharing this with us.
Birthday Girl inspects the food!
Of course no day out on a boat is complete (unless of course you’re a racing sailor) without good food and drink to go along with the excellent company already aboard. Drinks were flowing and catering supplied by Moi (Les Diables), I think for an occasion like this some good simple food goes so we prepared a baked honey ham, delicious selection of cheeses, quiches, fresh breads and salads and some fried rice to have a Thai touch.
Baked Honey Ham
The sun was high as were the spirits as we sailed to Racha Island where we dropped anchor, swam and enjoyed the amazing Andaman Ocean and fabulous glorious day. Time To PARTY!
Party Time!!!
I have to share one incident of the day which just blew me away.
This is how helpful and wonderful the staff was on the Seraph. Dana was swimming and his ring slipped off his finger. Unfortunately, the ring was of great sentimental value and he was of course upset. The staff saw his concern and without asking put on their goggles and jumped in. Now seriously darlings, it really does compare with finding a needle in a haystack! Time passed and Dana was resigning himself to his loss (and also drowning his sorrows) the captain came up with the ring in hand! I tell you this upped the celebrations considerably! How simply fabulous and simply wonderful of the staff!
The Birthday Girl and Cake!
Do we have to go home now!
And as we returned in the dusk to Chalong pier, all burnt and “frazzled” from the day we departed Seraph and said our farewells to her and went home all feeling quite wonderful and happy to live in paradise!
Paradise!
See you next week (J)! Chef Peter