Known as the First Lady of Cruise in Australia, Sarina Bratton, is now chair of the new collaboration between the Paspaley pearling industry family and the luxury, family-owned cruise line Ponant. Paspaley Pearl by Ponant is about to embark on its inaugural cruise season to the Kimberley, a relatively untapped global destination. It’s among many firsts for Bratton.

You get the feeling that Sarina Bratton has itchy feet and those itchy feet would prefer to be on a rocky escarpment in the Kimberley, or on the bank of the Sepik River or in a pair of swim fins at Rowley Shoals.

These are not everyday destinations. She calls the Kimberley her favourite and one of the great untouched destinations in the world and is looking forward to connecting with its people. She already has a strong, ongoing connection to the indigenous communities of the Sepik River in PNG, from way back when she ran Orion Expedition Cruises, which she founded in 2004. But she is yet to step foot on Rowley Shoals, a group of three atoll-like coral reefs south of the Timor Sea, about 260 km west of Broome.

But that is soon to happen with Paspaley Pearl by Ponant, the result of a partnership of two luxury family brands. She holds the role of global strategic advisor to the CEO and the board of management and honorary chair for Ponant in Asia Pacific. Plus, she has a separate contract with Paspaley Pearl by Ponant, as chair of its board, and executive advisor to the startup. There is not a lot she hasn’t seen both in her travels and in business.

“I haven’t been to Rowley Shoals before, but I’m a great lover of snorkelling,” says a tanned Bratton via Teams from her home in Port Douglas. It’s one of the many destinations that the luxury ship will visit after in its first season in Australia, after a significant refit.

Bratton is well accustomed to cruising. She was awarded an Order of Australia (AM) for her service to tourism, particularly the cruise ship industry, in the 2014 Australia Day Honours. She served Cunard Line for 14 years, ultimately as vice president and general manager Asia Pacific, and founded her first line, Norwegian Capricorn Line, in 1997, a joint venture between Australian interests and Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line. The company was acquired by Star Cruises in 2000. She then pioneered luxury expedition cruising in Asia Pacific, creating five-star Orion Expedition Cruises in 2004. After serving as managing director of Orion until early 2013, she sold her remaining shares in the company, but there was no thought of taking on another role – until she was convinced otherwise.

Ponant contacted her within a week of her exit, but it took a personal phone call from CEO of Compagnie Du Ponant, Jean-Emannuel Sauvee – and “his gorgeous French accent” – to convince her to spearhead Ponant’s moved into Asia Pacific. After her non-compete ended a year later, Bratton started working a few days a week, with three people in a Sydney office, starting with a blank piece of paper.

“It took me two years to convince Ponant to come to the Kimberley,” she says. “‘Oh, wow. They’ve never heard of it’,” she recalls thinking.

“Nobody had heard of it outside of Australia. And so I insisted.”

Sauvee came for the original Ponant voyage around the region and was “blown away”, says Bratton. Now the dream of a permanent itinerary is becoming a reality. Since her involvement with the company, Ponant has grown from a fleet of four small, luxury vessels to 13 small expedition ships with three, including Paspaley Pearl by Ponant cruising the Asia Pacific region in the 2024-25 season.

“We now represent 20 per cent of the global business,” says Bratton. “For us to be able to create a new standard in boutique expedition travel, you know, it rarely passes you by,” she says. “There’s obviously a lot of work that needs to be done, and you certainly need a motivated, committed team to execute the demanding standards that we’re setting.”

But it’s not the first time she’s discovered a gem in the cruising space having worked before with Nick Paspaley who was an investor in Orion.

“I think trusting relationships put you in good stead,” she says. “Nick called me and said, ‘Look, I’ve bought this little ship. You’re the first person I thought of. What can we do?’

“And here we are, Paspaley and Ponant bringing their collective expertise, but he was the one that introduced me to the Kimberley in 2003,” she says.

Paspaley offered her a former pearling fleet master to help get her started.

“I remember being up on one of these escarpments at the time, and I just thought, ‘This is it!’. I pledged to myself to make everything possible, to show as many people from around the world this remarkable destination.

“And so here we are again and we’re trying to also now get more people to understand about what Paspaley has done in this region, for the last 80 odd years, and what their pearling luggers have done the history of it all go to different places where other ships don’t go.”

But the days of old pearl luggers have long passed with new ships offering a dynamic positioning system, stabilisers, bow thrusters, and the latest Azipod system to protect the delicate ecosystems where Paspaley Pearl by Ponant will travel.

“In terms of boutique small vessels, this has got it all,” Bratton says.

A Redner of Paspaley Pearl.

Where to from here and with whom

Bratton says the Kimberley “is one of the most untapped regions in the world”.

“Very few people go there,” she says, compared to the Galapagos with 270,000 to 300,000 arriving annually and 100,000 going to the Antarctic Peninsula.

“It’s all getting very crowded,” she says. But not in the Kimberley, or the Sepik River in PNG, or in far flung parts of Indonesia – the Paspaley Pearl by Ponant destinations of choice.

“I don’t have any fear for too many people being or coming to the Kimberley. It’s very much a small operator’s destination,” she says.

“What we’re seeing is that post-Covid, there’s actually a desire from a lot of guests to go even further. That now needs to be even more sustainable, more meaningful of more benefit to the local populations than what has been seen before, and the only way can really do that is by being smaller, and that’s where I think that there’s a real sweet spot for the development of this smaller, boutique sector.”

The boutique nature of it includes engagement with indigenous and local populations without impacting too much on their culture.

“It’s not just about rocking up and, in many cases, in really remote areas, like up in parts of New Guinea and islands that have never seen a group of (white) people. Money actually doesn’t mean very much.”

But medical care, malarial medication and schooling equipment does, which is where they can help. That and engaging with locals on charting new territory, measuring the ocean depth through bathymetry and ensuring the safety of the new ship in unknown waters also comes at a price. In this instance about AU$400,000.

The sun deck.

The voyages ahead

A decade has passed since she left Orion, but Bratton still has those connections to isolated communities and will revisit regions that she explored around the Sepik River, supporting local crafts, tourism and their people in general.

While she is unlikely to be on the inaugural Paspaley Pearl by Ponant voyage she knows exactly what will be happening as she will have spent many months, post refit, with the full crew, establishing the operation, getting agreement on what is wanted, what the crew will be doing and how it will be delivered, then having it all documented.

Apart from accommodation, that also includes two restaurants, three bars onboard, chefs meeting with local market gardeners and fishing communities to establish supply lines.

“That makes everybody involved in the delivery, feeling proud because they know that they’re helping those local communities from a guest perspective, they love seeing these massive, big tuna being brought to the marine platform of the ship, and crabs that they bring along to us all of the fresh foods. It’s terrific.”

There are also discussions with chef Serge Dansereau about his four-course degustation menu, an array of simple dishes where waste is limited compared to a menu offering four mains, four desserts and four starters on the average small luxury cruise line.

She holds the role of global strategic advisor to the CEO and the board of management and honorary chair for Ponant in Asia Pacific. Plus she has a separate contract, with Paspaley Pearl by Ponant, as chair of the board, plus executive advisor to the startup.

“I’m scheduled to do three different trips in next year, hosting three different trips. One is late February, between Dili and Bali so East Indonesia, Komodo Island, whale sharks in Saleh Bay, which is a new destination for us, the water buffalo races in Bagasse, the cultural elements and those things. Then late April, in the Kimberley, and that’s from Broome up through to Wyndham or Kununurra for 10 nights and that’s full and then in September, to Rowley Shoals.”

Apart from scheduled cruises the ship has already been privately chartered, including out of the United States, with clients Bratton dealt with on the Orion. In 2026 there is already 56 days of charter. Old friend and guide Mick Fogg is also involved with Ponant, as he was on Orion.

But given her decades of cruise, Bratton doesn’t stray far from home when it comes to her favourite destination, which comes as no surprise.

“I can’t go past the Kimberley. And you know, I’m really in awe of the destination, and also the fact that it’s part of Australia, and hardly, not many people from around the world, even Australians, have been there,” she says.

“But that first time that I experienced being ashore and being up on the escarpment and seeing the colours, hearing about the rock art, carbon data, some 20,000 years, thinking about the Indigenous people there, recording their sightings, looking at and learning – after we started operating – learning from Mick Fogg about all of the geological strata. We’re talking billions of years ago, and I just felt … different.  I felt spiritual, I really felt ‘This is incredible’.

“And that’s when I decided that I had to try and show this to as many people as I could around the world. And, so, I’ve got this connection, I think, to that part of our country. So, I’d return there and a heartbeat again and again and again.

“I just thought, Gosh, we’ve got so much to offer.”

Jobs still unfinished

Bratton is grateful for a fulfilling career and there are not many boxes she has not ticked.

“I feel blessed. I really feel blessed that I’ve had the opportunity to do it,” she says. “I just wanted to follow my dream, my vision of trying to showcase Australia. And I’ve been very lucky in being able to do that. And you know, sometimes you leap off the career precipice to pursue something.

“It’s so clear in your mind, (but) you’ve got people telling you it won’t work. Nobody’s done it before. Why would it work? That type of thing? And you just keep powering on and you get there, you get there eventually.

“So, to have the Paspaley Pearl by Ponant opportunity come at this stage is absolutely just a beautiful place for me to be.”

paspaleypearlbyponant.com.au