Meet The Staff!
Location: West End, Tortola
Welcome to Breakaway! Over the next 17 days, we will be filling you in on all of our adventures, inside jokes, diving, sailing, and general fun-having through this blog. While we wait for our shipmates to arrive today for their very first day, we’d love to introduce you to the staff of Breakaway! After 2 FABULOUS sessions earlier this summer, we have been getting so excited (and sad) for our third and final session. We scrubbed the boat from top to bottom, filled every crevice with food, and planned out how we can cram the most excitement possible into 17 days that will fly by. We are so thrilled to meet you all and see what this session holds - but before we do that, let’s tell you a little bit about us.
Hedrek - Skipper
Hedrek grew up sailing around the North Coast of Cornwall and started working on boats professionally in 2019 as an engineer. He has since accrued some 8k nautical miles in a combination of deck and engine roles, sailing from Southampton to Turkey, from Dover to Finland, and spending a 6 month season sailing between Corfu and the Peloponnese. He worked as a teacher in the NGO sector in East Africa and has always loved imparting knowledge and the shared experience of learning. This is his first season with ActionQuest, and, holding his RYA Yachtmaster offshore, he feels ready to hit the ground running.
Liz - Dive Instructor
Liz has been diving since she was 12 years old, becoming a PADI Divemaster at 18 and Dive Instructor at only 19 years old. She loves to introduce shipmates to the underwater world for the very first time and share her passion for diving. She was a student at ActionQuest in 2015 and came back this year to work as staff. Before ActionQuest, she was a scuba instructor at the University of Florida, as well as a scuba instructor in Connecticut. She graduated from UF in 2021 with a marine science degree and plans to attend graduate school for marine science in 2023. She is super excited to share her passion for scuba and marine science with everyone who comes to ActionQuest.
Allie - Mate
Allie has spent most of her summers in the chilly waters of Cape Cod. For the past three summers, she worked as a lifeguard and watersports instructor at Cape Cod Sea Camps. In the spring of 2020, she went on a Seamester voyage from South Africa to Antigua, where she had the time of her life. Eager to ensure others have the same great experience she had, she is joining the AQ team as a mate this summer. Her favorite AQ activities are wakeboarding, Zesting, sailing, and diving. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Cognitive Science this spring. When she isn’t on or near the water, she can be found dancing poorly, faking accents, and finding fun in unsuspecting places.