Longing to do something different struck and although Brett and Angela had a lovely home, complete with flower and vegetable gardens and even chickens, she longed to do something where she could use her cooking talent and see the world.  On a whim she bought two tickets to London and found it was not hard to convince Brett to take the plunge into yachting. Her boss told her “you can make a home anywhere…go for it”; and they did.

Andrea’s brother, Paul Hunt, was in the yachting business and added two Clarks, Andrea and Brett, to the permanent delivery crew on MIRABELLA.  This led to Brett being offered a crew/cook position on WILD HORSES, a racing yacht.  Following this the Clarks did a two-month charter on ARIA with Brett at the helm as Captain and Andrea in the galley as chef.  They stayed with ARIA though a long refit furthering their already impressive resumes.  After three seasons on ARIA they planned to take six months six months off and visit New Zealand when they ran into Karen Kelly of Nicholson’s Newport, who put them in touch with the owner of TRUE NORTH.

The owner invited them to sail with him for ten days as his guests from Trinidad to the Virgin Islands.  Andrea was so impressed with the chef on TRUE NORTH that she would offer to peel potatoes or whatever she could do for the opportunity to watch everything about the preparation and serving of fine cuisine.  The owner then invited them to fly with him to his estate in Texas for ten days and to meet his wife. After getting to know Andrea and Brett he began making plans for his new yacht offering them the chance to run it for him.
First came the name and the foursome decided to “go Pacific” and came up with MATAU, a New Zealand Maori name meaning, “a whale bone hook, life of plenty, safe passage over water.  Many areas aboard MATAU are Maori words such as “Moana Bar” (the Ocean Bar), where guests meet at cocktail time, which can be whatever time they choose on MATAU. 

Andrea and Brett joined MATAU in England where Andrea had only four days to provision for the season which included Croatia and Greece, then four weeks of back to back charters, thence to South of France, Portofino, Monaco and Mallorca.  While in Mallorca they did road trips and loved the Lamb Restaurant in the mountains where they ate lamb dinners and drank brandy, rum coffees named Electric Soup (recipe below). In addition to her love for being in the galley, Andrea enjoys anything outdoors - snorkeling, swimming, and arranging and cooking outdoor BBQ’s. She is also looking forward to getting into surfing.

Andrea really showed at the 47th Antigua Charter Yacht Meeting this year where she received 2nd place award in the Concours de Chef even though she has no formal training.  Andrea‘s ambition is to take advanced cooking courses and achieve the 1st place award.  Often quoted on MATAU is Nike’ which to the crew means “just do it” and Nike’, Nike’ means “and do it right”.  With Andrea’s natural talent and her enviable energy and determination, there is little doubt she will meet that goal.

Electric Soup:

70% brandy
30% rum
Espresso coffee
Lemon rind, cut into chunks
Coffee beans
Sugar

Mix in a terracotta bowl, set on fire, ladle with a soup ladle, burn off the sugar and alcohol until desired flavour.