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British Virgin Islands - 2022, Session 1

Welcome to Wombat

Location: West End, Tortola

The crew of Wombat has been hard at work over the past few weeks prepping for the start of session one! Hard work, planning, and laughter were the essential tools to transforming our mayhem into the perfect chaos required for our shipmates to have a blast. We are stoked to finally meet our students! The boat is fully stocked with food, fuel, water, diving books, and sailing equipment. During our next 21 days, we are going to explore the islands of the British Virgin Islands while doing some amazing sailing and diving to work towards certifications. The crew of Wombat could not be more excited to kick off this summer with diving, sailing, and of course, loads of fun! We can not wait to see everyone grow and become more confident in their skills!

Here is an introduction to the crew on Wombat :

Skipper: Margaux

Margaux grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts, a small town located right outside Boston. She started sailing at a young age with her parents, which included bareboating around the British Virgin Islands and sailing on a small lake in southern New Hampshire. This passion for sailing found her attending ActionQuest as a student from 2015 through 2017 and furthered Margaux’s love for the ocean through sailing and scuba diving. In 2018 and 2019, she returned to working as a mate on both Vega and Minerva programs. After obtaining her IYT Master of Yachts 200 Ton Limited License, she came back to ActionQuest as a skipper for the Vega program in the summer of 2021. Outside of ActionQuest, she is a recent college graduate from the University of Miami, earning her B.S. in Marine Science and Biology. While in college, she was president of the UMiami Scuba Club and played on Miami’s Club Lacrosse team. In addition, she studied abroad in Australia, then took a gap semester during college to go on Sea| Mester’s transatlantic voyage aboard SY Argo. Margaux works as a kids (7-teen) ski instructor at Beaver Creek Resort. She cannot wait to get back to the sunny and warm Caribbean for another amazing ActionQuest summer!

Dive Instructor: Anthony

Anthony Gattoni started as an Action Quest student and fell in love with the lifestyle and the people he was surrounded by. After a short twenty-one days, this was something he knew that he would want to be doing for the rest of his life. One day aboard San Souci, as he was sailing in smaller waters: he looked to the horizon and saw Argo. He asked his captain, Jake, where the boat was from and was told, “That is our college-based program called Seamester.” From that moment on, he promised himself that he would be on a boat like that one day, and he was. He lived aboard Vela for the best three months of his life. This trip opened his eyes to a whole new way of living. He knew he couldn’t stop there. He quickly became an Open Water Scuba Instructor and joined the ActionQuest team. Anthony is so excited to pass on what the staff of both his trips taught and gave to him. They inspired him to live the life he wanted, and now he is ready to give that knowledge and experience to the kids he will be teaching this summer. Words can’t describe how excited he is and how much he is looking forward to this summer!

Mate/Medic: Benazir

Benazir grew up in De Pere, Wisconsin, a small town near Green Bay. As a child, she spent a lot of time on and near Lake Michigan but has since upgraded to the ocean. Benazir became interested in sailing when she was a Seamester student on the S/Y Argo during the 2020 transatlantic voyage from South Africa to the Caribbean. Since her ocean passage, Benazir has worked on other sailing vessels in the United States, as well as obtained her Master of Yachts Offshore in St. Martin. Benazir also has her Medical Person in Charge certification, making her a member of the medical staff for ActionQuest this summer. Outside of sailing, Benazir is a recent graduate of Harvard University, where she concentrated in Linguistics, Psychology, and Biology. During college, Benazir worked in a variety of labs related to child development, ecology, and language. She also studied abroad three times—once on the S/Y Argo and twice in France. Since graduating, Benazir has spent her time sailing and traveling, as well as teaching English as a foreign language and helping students with their college and graduate school applications. Benazir is looking forward to this summer at ActionQuest, which she hopes will be a fun, exciting, and transformative experience for all of the students!