Sans Souci

The crew of Sans Souci is so excited to welcome their new crew of shipmates onboard. Gabe, Charlotte, and Claire have been working hard preparing the boat for students’ arrival. Food is stowed, bunks are made, and the crew cannot wait to set sail around the BVI again. The West End docks are full as we gear up for ActionQuest’s largest session of the summer. Gabe Charlotte and Claire can’t wait to show shipmates the gorgeous beaches and reefs of the British Virgin Islands while teaching students to dive and sail for the next 21 days.

Here's an introduction to the crew of Sans Souci:

Gabe- Skipper

Gabe grew up on the swampy shores of the San Francisco Bay. Starting in high school, he joined up with the local sea scouts and learned to sail upon the churning and ferocious waters of Northern California. As soon as he was good and graduated, he jumped on board the Seamester vessel S/Y Argo, for a semester-long voyage across the Atlantic. There was no going back after this; Gabe had chosen the life of the sea. In 2014, Gabe graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a bachelor’s in Geography. He has worked as a sailing instructor, tall ship sailor, submarine co-pilot, English teacher in Japan, and researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Most recently, he has spent his days as a dive boat captain and scuba guide out of Honolulu. Gabe holds both US Coast Guard and IYT captain’s licenses, a PADI divemaster license, and Emergency First Response instructor license.

Charlotte - Dive Instructor/Mate

Charlotte was a former ActionQuest student in 2008 where she first learned to scuba dive and live aboard a sailboat. She fell in love with both and has continued to do both since. She recently got her PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor certification in Thailand. Charlotte grew up sailing small boats, mostly in the Chesapeake Bay off of Maryland. She worked as a sailing instructor in Maryland and Virginia at summer camps during her college summers. She did Sea|mester in 2012 during a gap year before starting college, and it solidified her desire to work in the diving and sailing world. She was a trip leader for the outdoor program at her college in southern California, and through which she became a Wilderness First Responder. She has renewed and maintained her WFR since. She took the STCW10 course while traveling in Australia in 2017 and is a CPR/First Aid Instructor. Diving and sailing has taken Charlotte around the world where she can do another thing she loves, trying new food.

Claire - Mate

Born and raised in Washington, DC, Claire started sailing at the age of 8. She developed sailing skills over the years while vacationing in the British Virgin Islands with her family, at her summer camp in Maine, and on a summer-long wilderness trip in Nova Scotia, Canada. Claire worked as a camp counselor and sailing instructor in Maine in 2016 and 2017 and took a gap year to further pursue sailing and diving. She spent one semester aboard S/Y Argo where she completed the theory for her IYT Master of Yachts 200 Ton Limited certification and three months in Andros Island, Bahamas doing reef conservation work and completing her PADI Divemaster. Claire graduated from Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in 2017 and begins at the University of San Diego this fall. In her free time, Claire enjoys hiking, camping, and traveling.