we talk to Captain Winston Joyce-Clarke about Big ... - Aquos Yachts

Big Fish owner Richard Beattie diving in Cocos IslandT “here’ll always be owners in theyachting world who have a thirst foradventure,” says Big Fish’s captain,Winston Joyce-Clarke. “My hope isthat this project encourages people tothink about their original passion forboating and exploring and travel to destinations theymight have considered a bit too far for the averageboat.” Joyce-Clarke is between charters after an epic16-month voyage around the world, during which henavigated the 45-metre expedition yacht throughwaters that would challenge much bigger boats.For the Aquos Yachts team, project Big Fish wasabout more than taking guests to extraordinarydestinations. Captain Joyce-Clarke was involved in theearly stages of planning, when he sat down with 37South’s Allan Jouning and Jim Gilbert, commercialdirector for Aquos Yachts. “We thought if we could get a45-metre boat to do what most people expect fromheavily constructed 80-metre expedition boats, we’d besetting a new precedent for what can be done with arelatively small boat and a small crew.”And they have. Big Fish’s maiden voyage saw theyacht cross the South Pacific, navigate a portion of theAmazon and experience the wilds of Antarctica.“Antarctica was the pinnacleof our achievement,” saysJoyce-Clarke (pictured right).“For a small motor yacht likeBig Fish to be able to do a triplike that is remarkable.”Although in general, according to Joyce-Clarke, heand his crew were “extremely lucky” when it came tothe weather and conditions, difficult situations didinevitably arise. “Going down the Magellan Strait, wehad 80 knots of wind one night,” he says. “By the timewe had to cross the Drake Passage we had a two-dayweather window, so that was sufficient time to be ableto go across the strait, but it would have been a truechallenge if we’d had to be on a schedule, like thecommercial boats that operate down there. You can seevideo footage of the 88-metre cruise ship Clelia II – shegot her starboard bridge windows blown out goingacross the strait before we got there.“Our experience goes as far as a blizzard, ahorrendous three-day front that came across. Westopped for three days in Antarctica before goingaround the back of the front and heading up towardsCape Horn, where we arrived in glass-flat conditions.”Such weather windows, he adds, are key to a successful

Superyacht adventure special“You can anchor in lagoonsthat people dream about as theperfect charter anchorage”Top: A spectacularAntarctic sunset.Middle: The cruise offeredthe opportunity to snorkelwith penguins.Above: A curious visitorchecks out the Zodiac.first time in your life, I’m definitely on the sales pitch forthe South Pacific,” says the captain. “I’ve been to FrenchPolynesia a number of times and it’s always a highlightof travelling in the Pacific to be able to go anywherearound the Marquesas. They genuinely end up beingthe same as the postcards: there’s no disillusionment.The South Pacific has that mystery that people havebeen writing about for decades. You can anchor in baysand lagoons that people dream about as the perfectimage of a charter anchorage.”And if you’re looking for somewhere equallyenchanting but slightly less tropical, Antarctica isJoyce-Clarke’s favourite place. “I think it’s a highlight ofany cruising I’ve ever done,” he says, adding that theperfect day in Antarctica would be on board in theLemaire Channel, with guests sitting in the hot-tubunder blue skies, as leopard seals pop up and the icecloses in.“The majority of people cruising in ice have donesomething like Alaska, and you just can’t comparethem. Antarctica is a vast wilderness of ice and even theconcept of a glacier becomes surreal: everything’s aglacier. In terms of rugged beauty, it really is exquisite.We went to beaches and snorkelled underwater withpenguins, an incredible experience. Walking around onland, the birdlife is right up close – you don’t even needa long lens to photograph it. Once, a pod of orcas usedthe boat as a practice range, swimming around it likewe were all part of the same environment. That waspretty amazing! In the commercial world there arepeople who spend their lives travelling between theArctic and the Antarctic, and it’s easy to see why theyare so smitten with it. These places are really,stunningly beautiful.”So what’s next for Big Fish, now at 44,000 miles?“The programme so far is Panama in January, thenthrough Costa Rica, Ecuador, possibly a stop in theGalapagos, definitely a stop off in the Marqueses,” saysJoyce-Clarke. “We’ll be at the two-year mark by May, sowe’ll take it back down to New Zealand for some servicework, then up to Fiji and the Coral Sea.”For the crew as well as the guests, being on board isan opportunity to see the world from a uniqueperspective, and, says Joyce-Clarke, their enthusiasm isinfectious. “There’s nothing more fun than being ableshare with people the experience of what we’re gettingout of these amazing places,” he says. And after thepast year, is he excited about cruising again? “It’s thereason that life exists, isn’t it?” SyWwww.mybigfishcharters.com58