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Caribbean Leeward Islands - 2023, Session 2

Welcome to Mary Lee

Location: West End, Tortola

The crew of Mary Lee has been hard at work over the past few weeks prepping for the start of session two! 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, and sailing equipment. During our next 21 days, we are going to explore the islands of the British Virgin Islands, Saba, Statia, Nevis, Antigua, and St.Barths, all while doing some diving, snorkeling, hiking, sailing, and tons of other land activities. The crew of Mary Lee could not be more excited to kick off this session, and we can not wait to see everyone grow and become more confident in their skills!

Here is an introduction to the crew on Mary Lee:

Skipper / DiveMaster : Margaux d’Arbeloff

Margaux grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts, a small town outside Boston. She started sailing with her parents at a young age, including 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 Vega and Minerva programs. After obtaining her IYT Master of Yachts 200 Ton Limited License, she returned to ActionQuest as a skipper for the Vega program in the summer of 2021 and 2022. 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 Seamester’s transatlantic voyage aboard S/Y Argo. In the winters, when she misses ActionQuest, she works as a kids (7-teen) ski instructor at Beaver Creek Resort. She cannot wait to return to the sunny and warm Caribbean for another amazing ActionQuest summer!

Mate: Davis Smith

Davis grew up in Alabama but spent every summer sailing on the coast of North Carolina. From age 10, he fell in love with the water and spent every summer on a sailboat. Davis learned how to dive at age twelve and loves exploring the waters of Grand Cayman. Davis is a senior at the University of North Carolina, where he’s studying Computer Science and is a member of the sailing team. If he isn’t on the water, he’s probably in the mountains pursuing his other loves: rock climbing, mountain biking, and backpacking.