Staff Update Day 1
Location: West End, Tortola
As our docks fill with boats and the suns shine down, our AQ team has been busy preparing for the arrival of our shipmates. The boats have been loaded up with delicious food and gear for scuba diving, sailing, and exploring. Spindrift and its crew are ready to begin our adventures together in the Caribbean, meeting new friends and seeing new sights. We can't wait!
Here is an introduction to the crew of Spindrift:
Charlie grew up on the lakes of Minnesota, but after graduating from Gustavus Adolphus College headed for saltier waters! In 2007 she sailed with Sea|Mester as a student, then later joined the AQ team as a skipper in 2009. Besides sailing with AQ, Charlie has also worked for S.E.A., Spirit of South Carolina, the windjammer Angelique in Maine, and scuba dive live-a-boards in the Bahamas. She currently holds a 200T IYT Master of Yachts Unlimited, a 100T USCG Master, and a PADI Divemaster certification.
Originally from Massachusetts, Catie began scuba diving in the cold New England waters. Despite the cold waters, Catie fell in love with diving and grew to appreciate it even more in the warm waters of the British Virgin Islands during her first summer with Action Quest as a student in 2009. Since then, Catie has gone on to become a PADI Scuba Instructor, holding a certification as an OSWI instructor as well as specialty instruction for the PADI navigation and PADI naturalist specialties. When not on the water, Catie is a current student at the University of San Diego, where she is studying Environmental Studies and Business Finance.
Evan was born in Buffalo, New York, and lived the first ten years of his life along the east coast of the United States. After that, he moved to the Middle East to spend the next eight years in Doha, Qatar. After graduating from high school in Qatar, he moved back to the US to attend university. As of this summer, he is a rising junior at the University of Miami studying Marine Affairs, Business, Spanish, and French. He spends most of his weekends underwater with the University of Miami Scuba Club. After three trips with AQ as a shipmate, he decided to come back as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor along with the side qualifications of EFR Instructor, DAN O2 and First Aid specialty and Equipment Repair.
Pippa is a gap year student from England who discovered ActionQuest in 2010 as a shipmate on the Dolphin voyage. She is an avid scuba diver who was first certified at age ten and is now a professional scuba Instructor with teaching experience gained in the Gili islands, Indonesia and Mauritius. This September, Pippa will be following her passion for the ocean by studying Marine Biology and Oceanography at Newcastle University, UK. If she is not under the water, you will find her on top of the water, in a rowing boat. Pippa is a member of the GB Rowing World Class Start Program and hopes to one day represent her country at an international regatta.