Select a Trip Log

British Virgin Islands - 2016, Session 2

Staff Update Day 1

Location: West End, Tortola

Day 1 of this summer's second session is finally here. Cat, Sarah, and I are all so excited for the three week long adventure that is about to begin. For the past few days, the entire ActionQuest staff has been working tirelessly in order to prepare the fleet for the upcoming session. Great White, our home for the next few weeks, has been stuffed to the gills with food, water and fuel in preparation for our students' arrival. I cannot express how excited we are to sail away on our next adventure with a whole new group of incredible students!

Here is an introduction to the crew of Great White:

Cat: Skipper/Dive Instructor/Medic

Cat hails from the great state of Texas, where she was born and raised, though she now Seattle home. She is a PADI certified Open Water Scuba Instructor and has been teaching diving for 8 years. Along with that, Cat is also a captain and a member of the medical staff with her Wilderness First Responder certification. She has her IYT 200-ton Yachmaster and has just received her USCG Captains License as well! She was lucky enough to do an Atlantic crossing with Seamester in 2010 and hopes to one day circumnavigate the globe under sail! She has worked in the Caribbean for 7 summers, ranging from the beautiful BVI all the way down to Grenada. This past year Cat spent quite a bit of time traveling through Europe and Tanzania and actually summited Mt. Kilimanjaro! She enjoys skiing the beautiful mountains of the Pacific Northwest, riding around on her long board, listening to podcasts and laughing at her own jokes. Cat graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 2011,where she studied International Political Economy. Overall, she's pretty neat!

Sarah: Dive Instructor/Mate

Sarah grew up and went to university in the landlocked state of Colorado, but has always been fascinated by the ocean. She fell in love with diving while taking a coral reef ecology course, where she spent a week diving in Roatan, Honduras. She graduated from University of Colorado with a degree in Ecology and took a research job working for National Marine Fisheries on the Bering Sea in Alaska. The contract based work allowed her the opportunity to travel and do other ocean research internships. She studied great white sharks in South Africa for 2 months in 2012. In 2013, she moved to Florida to pursue diving and became a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor in early2014. Since then she has been traveling, working, and diving in various parts of the world.

Oscar: Dive Instructor/Mate

Oscar began as an ActionQuest shipmate in 2010 on the Vega program, and has participated in seven sessions since then as a student. He has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 2012, and has spent a few weeks in Thailand and Cambodia in 2014 all with ActionQuest. He fell in love with diving and continued his passion to become a Divemaster in 2015, then later a Dive Instructor. Oscar is from Atlanta, Georgia, but is currently a student at Kenyon College in Ohio, majoring in Chinese language, French language and studio art focusing on sculpture and film. His favorite animals are tigers and jellyfish, and he loves spicy food and chocolate.