More Elegant Mode Of Travel — And A More Intimate Europe

Setting sail on Sea Cloud II invites one back to a more elegant mode of travel — and a more intimate Europe.

- Judi Cuervo

It’s nearing 10:00 p.m. and Sea Cloud II is about to depart St. Malo under a ceiling of puffy, sil-ver clouds. Most of the ship’s 94 guests are at the ship’s rail enthralled by the view — the lights of the historic fortress are the only illumination on this balmy evening. It’s the Feast of the Assumption today and a procession through the streets of the old town is underway, haunting chants from its participants wafting across the water and up to us on the Lido Deck.

As our ship begins to glide out of its berth, something remarkable is happening all along the St. Malo dock. People are assembling, the vision that is Sea Cloud II luring them closer. It begins slowly but quickly grows to hundreds of onlookers, dazzled no doubt by the tall masts, the rigging, the gleaming woods, and the polished brass of a vessel that casts them back to an early era of sea travel.

Into the Old World

My fascination with Sea Cloud II began in much the same way. It was in 2001, while sailing aboard a megaship, that I first glimpsed the newly built Sea Cloud II skimming across a sapphire Caribbean Sea, her 23 white sails billowing in the breeze. I stood spellbound until she was out of sight, silently vowing that one day I’d experience her magic.