Sans Souci

Sans Souci is excited to welcome her third group of summer 2018 students! The staff have been spending the last couple of days preparing for this moment, and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our twelve new shipmates. We have stocked the boat with dry food, fresh food, PADI open water diving manuals, IYT sailing books, waterski gear, medical supplies, cleaning supplies and everything else necessary to run an awesome trip- now we just need the crew! Our shipmates are from New York, Oklahoma, Colorado, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Florida, California, Connecticut, and Tennessee, and are all part of the Vega (intro to sailing and diving) program. We can’t wait to go on our first sail tomorrow, and for all the adventures to come! For additional updates during the trip, follow ActionQuest on Instagram and Facebook!

Here is 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.

Jay- Mate

Jay was born and raised in the charming southern town of Athens, GA (filled with football, fine foods, and great music) and graduated from the University of North Georgia with a Bachelor’s in Business Management. In 2007 he had the opportunity to try scuba diving for the first time and was hooked instantly. Shortly following his first dive he worked his way up to earning both PADI and SSI Scuba Instructor ratings and has led trips all of the Caribbean and the southern United States in places like the Bahamas, Cozumel, Key Largo, Cayman Islands, and more. Jay’s sense of adventure, enthusiasm for the ocean and passion has allowed him to work all through the Caribbean, on tall ships around the US (including the San Juan Islands) and ultimately lead him to Action Quest in 2017. Over the past year, Jay has helped with S/Y Ocean Star’s and S/Y Argo’s refit periods as well as sailing both boats from Antigua to Florida (accumulating over 6000 sea miles along the way). When Jay’s not above or below the water you’ll find him hiking, camping, cooking and playing the didgeridoo. He is excited to get back down to the British Virgin Islands and share his passion for the ocean with all of his new shipmates!

Amanda – Mate

Amanda is new to the AQ team this summer and is very excited to return to the BVI. She started off with GXG in the summer of 2015 as a student on S/Y Ocean Star, where she became advanced open water scuba and IYT certified. Since then, she has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Science from the University of Maine and has completed a year in the Master’s program at the University of New Haven for Environmental Science. Amanda is a rescue diver, lifeguard, and certified US sailing instructor. She enjoys teaching others about the wonders of the ocean with hands-on experiences above and below the surface of the sea. During the school year, Amanda competes in cross country and track, as well as tutors fellow athletes and instructs biology courses. Despite growing up in the Northeast, Amanda has always been called to the ocean-especially water above freezing!