"Think of our ship as a doctor, and over the days you'll relax and feel better," says captain Sergey Utitsyn to passengers as we board Star Flyer at Civitavecchia. The ropes are cast off, Vangelis music surges over the loudspeakers, and the ship's great white sails spread like the wings of a seagull. Then we're out into the open Mediterranean, floating on sunshine.
Sailing on Star Flyer is a visceral experience. You feel the sun on your cheeks, the wind in your hair, the wooden decks creak and tilt beneath your feet. You can't hide away in casinos or card rooms or windowless theatres and pretend you're in a resort hotel. This is real cruising, taut sails pregnant with the wind, sea hissing, crew scrambling with ropes. Over the next few days it brings the cure the captain has promised. My fellow passengers become increasingly tanned and windblown, relaxed and dreamy-eyed.
A good spot at sunset is the net, suspended like a giant hammock off the bowsprit, where I can lie face down and be soothed by the bow wave and occasional dancing dolphins. But my favourite time is after dinner, when all I can hear on deck is the snap of sails and slop of water in the swimming pools. Glimmering stars are caught in the sails' canvas, and lights twinkle on coastlines that are rarely out of sight. No need for a spa on Star Flyer. The sea and sky provide their own soothing treatment.
For a cruise with a difference – almost an anti-cruise in its pared-down simplicity – Star Flyer is a ship that reconnects passengers to the sea and takes them back to the way sailing must once have been. In return, though, you'll find limited space compared with even a mid-sized cruise liner. A small lounge-bar squeezes in cosy nooks in which to play Scrabble or quaff cocktails, and a somewhat gloomy, red velvet-draped library provides air-conditioned peace.
However, Star Flyer follows the sun. I spend a lot of time outdoors, flopping on a deckchair by one of the minuscule swimming pools, or sitting amid neatly coiled ropes watching the crew work the sails. The awning-shaded, outdoor Tropical Bar becomes the social epicentre of the ship, whether over coffee or cocktails.
A single restaurant provides the only dining option, apart from an early risers' breakfast in the lounge and always popular afternoon munchies (finger food, sandwiches, fruit) at the Tropical Bar. I find myself eating elbow-to-elbow at banquettes for six against the restaurant walls, though there are also larger tables in the centre of the room. It takes a while to become accustomed to all these limited spaces if you're used to larger ships, but it hardly seems to matter. In the restaurant I find nice compensation in excellent lunch-time buffets that run through Italian, Asian and seafood themes, with an impressive array of salads, a selection of hot dishes and a carving station from which the chef serves up roast pork and turkey and slices of giant fish. Dinner is a la carte and runs through a choice of appetisers, soups, salads, mains (often including a local dish) and desserts. Soups and fish dishes are always excellent and the rest, though not haute cuisine, impresses with its variety and consistent quality.
My cabin too (number 111) is compact, though various clever storage areas that keep it uncluttered. Wood panelling, brass fittings, blue carpets and attractive artwork depicting famous sailing ships and yachts – repeated in grander style in the public areas – provide a pleasantly retro ambience. Beds are narrow, blankets tucked in with military precision by housekeeping. The bathroom is minute. The shower curtain clings to me like an amorous octopus and the water washes over the floor. There's no countertop, and the sink is awkwardly wedged in one corner.
In common with almost all cabins on Star Flyer, mine has neither balcony nor opening window, rather a porthole; in my case scarcely above water level, where seawater sloshes as if I'm peering into a washing machine. I find this unnerving at first, then strangely mesmerising and soothing.
In surprisingly quick time, Star Flyer's limited amenities and space become an irrelevance. Passengers aren't on this ship to swan about vast lobbies and sit in the corners of underused nightclubs. The atmosphere is informal and sociable. English, French and German are all used on board (as is the euro), pointing to the European customer base. There are some families and younger couples, and everyone is fairly active; Star Flyer has steep, narrow staircases, high thresholds at doors and plenty of obstacles on deck.
A startling number of passengers are repeat customers with Star Clipper, which operates three tall ships. A number are keen sailors. Hands down the biggest drawcard is the experience of a ship under sail, and time spent in small ports, such as Bonafacio and Porto-Vecchio in Corsica or Elba in Italy, unvisited by larger cruise ships. We all have abundant opportunity to see how Star Flyer operates, including engine-room inspections, sea-chart readings with the first officer, turns at the wheel, and mast climbing with the sports team.
Captain Sergey Utitsyn meets with guests in the library to recount stories of his seafaring days and the world of tall ships, on which he first trained with the Soviet navy. "Come up to the open bridge whenever you want and ask questions, or watch the sea and the dolphins," he says. I do, and he patiently explains the functions of sails: outer jib, mizzen staysail, main fisherman.
To be technical, Star Flyer is a four-masted barquentine with 16 sails, a type of ship nimble in variable winds and once common in northern European waters, where it served the timber trade. Though a replica, it was built using 19th-century architectural drawings and modified only to suit contemporary regulations in safety and sanitation. Sails and ropes are now made of polyester fibres, which retain their shapes better and aren't spoiled by damp. Electrical winches are used to hoist and lower the sails, but the crew still has to be conversant with miles of ropes, knots and splices and the handling of sails.
In all respects this is a working sailing ship, and provides one of very few opportunities to have a cruising experience on a tall ship, rather than a working passage or apprenticeship. About a third of any cruise might be made under sail without any engine support. Star Flyer is wondrous, and the thrill still hasn't worn off by the time I disembark. The staysails and some of the jibs are usually hoisted on departure, sometimes the topsails and topgallants. It makes me feel like an explorer or a buccaneer as we surge forward from battlemented port towns.
Off Santa Margherita in Italy, all 16 sails are unfurled on an evening of perfect golden sunshine, turning the sails to beaten gold. Star Flyer is a magnificent sight. The doctor-ship has worked its magic just as the captain promised, and I'm tingling all over.
TRIP NOTES
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CRUISE
The writer travelled on Star Clippers' seven-night Rome to Cannes cruise, which this year has slightly altered itineraries aboard Royal Clipper departing August 19 and September 16, 2017, (or June 3 and August 26, 2017, in the reverse direction). Star Flyer sails other itineraries in the western Mediterranean before moving on to Greece and the Adriatic. Prices from $2425 per person for a seven night cruise. Phone 1300 295 161. See www.starclippers.com
FLY
Emirates flies from Sydney and Melbourne to Dubai with onward connections to both Rome and Nice. Phone 1300 303 777, see www.emirates.com/au
Brian Johnston travelled as a guest of Star Clippers but paid for his own flights.
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