I grew up in the water — first a surfer, then a diver, then the kid on a sailing yacht who actually wanted to be on the helm. At seventeen I sat my RYA Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster Offshore exams. At eighteen I'm already on more boats than most crew twice my age.
Along the way I built SurfaBabe — a surf lifestyle brand I founded and still run. It taught me what Michelin menus and marina paperwork don't: how to make guests feel something.
I'm looking for crew work on the right boat — Med summer, Caribbean winter. I can take a watch at three in the morning, run the tender through a rolly anchorage, brief a dive, teach sunrise yoga on the foredeck, and still serve lunch with a smile.
Sailing, safety, diving, wellness. A three-crew cat doesn't need to hire a dive instructor or a yoga teacher; I arrive with both already qualified.
Commercial-endorsement-eligible offshore skipper qualification, including Coastal Skipper. Passage planning, offshore nav, and command up to 200GT within 150nm of safe haven.
Practical sail cruising licence — passage planning, navigation, and safe pilotage of yachts up to 20m in tidal waters by day and night.
Commercially endorsable powerboat competence — tender ops, guest transfers, and powered small-craft handling in all conditions.
Marine radio operator's licence — Short Range Certificate. DSC procedures, GMDSS basics, routine/distress/urgency/safety traffic.
Mandatory commercial crew basic safety: personal survival, firefighting, elementary first aid, personal safety & social responsibility. With PSA.
Five adventure dives incl. deep, navigation, performance buoyancy. Dive supervision for guest experiences.
Enriched-air nitrox — extended no-deco limits and safer repetitive diving. Gas analysis and MOD calculations.
Primary and secondary care, CPR, AED, and serious-injury management — the on-board medic-lite every small-crew yacht benefits from.
Registered 200-hour yoga teacher. Hatha & vinyasa sequencing, anatomy, trauma-aware practice. Sunrise sessions, post-dive stretch.
A crewed catamaran in the BVI. Six guests. Captain and chef. And me — taking the day from sunrise to sundown across every skill on my ticket rack. Hire one crew member; get a deck team, a dive guide, a yoga teacher, and a watch-keeper.
Forty-five minute vinyasa flow for the three guests who wanted it. Blankets laid, music low, the sun coming up over the anchorage. Post-session tea and fresh fruit handed over to the galley.
Deck wash-down, fenders and lines stowed, engines checked with captain, weather routing reviewed on chart plotter. Dive gear laid out and kit-matched to each guest's log.
Site briefing — entry, exit, navigation, marine life, max depth, no-deco limit on nitrox. Lead guide in the water for the first dive; buddy for the second. Kit rinse and log review back at the boat.
Plating support for the chef, deck service, drinks refresh, allergen tracking. Reading the table — topping up the guest who won't ask, leaving the one who's mid-conversation.
RIB to the beach for the guests who want lunch ashore. Back aboard with the rest for paddle-and-surf — boards rigged, safety brief, tow-outs from the tender. Everyone home by five.
Thirty-minute restorative session on the bow. Bolsters out, tea on, the light going long and orange across the cockpit.
Canapé tray timed to sunset. Cocktails mixed to preference sheet, non-alcoholic options for the guest flying tomorrow. Reading the room. Reading the forecast.
Running through tomorrow's route with the captain. Tide and weather check. Anchor bearing logged. Last walk-round before turning in.
I founded SurfaBabe at sixteen. It's a surf lifestyle brand — gear, content, community — and I still own and run it every day I'm not on a boat. It's how I learned hospitality before the word made it onto my CV.
Why this matters to a charter captain: running a brand teaches you what guests actually want before they ask. You learn presentation. You learn that a small detail is the whole experience. You learn that the product is the memory.
Calm and competent on a night watch. Handles a tender better than half the deck crew I've worked with, and she's eighteen.
Ailie is exactly what a modern charter crew looks like — multi-skilled, guest-facing, and genuinely excited to be at sea.
We booked the yoga. We got a crew member who ran the whole water-sports day. Extraordinary value.