Captain Red is the best of the best -- knows his stuff and obviously very committed to customer safety and experience.
James Palkovic
The Vessels
Blackbeard’s cruises are delivered on one of our two 65′ diving liveaboard sailboats, the Sea Explorer and the Morning Star.
- Exceptional oceanfront and island views
- Dining – picnic-style outdoors in the horseshoe or inside near the kitchen (galley)
- Bunks – beds come in doubles and singles as uppers or lowers
- Bathrooms (heads) – small and shared with your mates
- Showers – hot water and long showers are a luxury – enjoy them before you arrive
- Kitchen (galley) – yes, a compact space where all your meals are prepped. We’re serious.
Don’t pack tons of clothes. We’d rather have room to store all the food we’ll eat each trip.
Our dinghies are our transportation to and from islands.
Meet Our Crew
Drew
Captain & Assistant Crew Chief
Drew has a long history with Blackbeard’s! going to his college days at Ole Miss where he was the scuba club sponsor and brought new students out each year for spring break. We finally lured him to the life at sea and he joined us as an instructor working his way up to captain. He hails from Itta Benna, MS and now lives in Miami Beach when not on the boats.
Morgan
Engineer/ first mate
Morgan, or Biggins as his friends know him, comes to us from Orlando, Florida. When he was just eight years old, he took a trip to Boston with his family and ended up meeting his father’s scuba instructor, Steve. Morgan was fascinated by the underwater photos that were on Scuba Steve’s walls and told himself that he too, would one day get scuba certified. He got his scuba certification in 2010 and has loved being on the water ever since. All thanks to Scuba Steve! Morgan took to the water for 4 years with The Navy as an Aviation Electrician and when he got out he went to the Marine Mechanical Institute in Orlando for a year. In his spare time he loves metal working and aquariums. When you see him, please make sure he has put on sunscreen!
Eli
Dive Instructor
Eli joins us from Virginia Beach, VA. Shortly after graduation from high school, he attended trade schools and received his marine diesel tech certification. He enjoys fishing, free diving and tinkering on boats. He is a master fish ID’er for Chesapeake Bay. He became a dive pro the age of 16 and continues to expand his knowledge of the sport daily.
Chris
Captain
Hailing from San Diego, Chris is a professional Uno player and believes you can stack multiple pickup cards on top of each other. A recently certified diver, working towards his rescue course, he now enjoys the recreational activity of practicing rescue breathing on damsels in distress. His favorite color is pink, he owns the most magnificent flamingo shirt. He traded in his bar tending skills and cold water fishing expeditions for the sunny teal blue skies of the Bahamas. Tinkering is his strong suit, therefore as one of our engineers, he plays with all sorts of tools.
His hobbies included crafting animal figurines out of used o-rings, and racing Japanese imported hamsters.
Stephen
Captain
Stephen was born in Michigan, the land of 10,000 lakes. He started diving in the Great Lakes and local quarries & fell deeply in love with diving while visiting his parents in Fiji in 2018. Stephen came home, quickly sold everything he owned and quit the corporate lifestyle to make the ocean his office. He believes his passion for the water came from his parents raising him on a houseboat, literally spending every waking moment on or in the water! He is a big fan of anything water sports, fishing being his #1.
Gabe
Dive Instructor
Gabe is originally from Portland, Oregon. Growing up spending summers in Puerto Rico, he developed a love and respect for the ocean. After attending High Point University in North Carolina, where he first learned to dive, he moved to Asia to work as an English teacher and ultimately become a scuba instructor in Thailand. Having worked and dived all around the world, the Caribbean feels especially like home. When Gabe is not working he can be found playing in the mountains in Alaska.
Sarah
Engineer and Dive Instructor
Sarah comes to us from Ontario, Canada. While working at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada in Toronto, she got her Open Water certification and never looked back knowing life on the water was where she was meant to be. After an unusual journey to become a PADI Dive Instructor, Sarah has worked in Cozumel and Italy, and diving everywhere in between, with The Bahamas having a special place in her heart. When she’s not diving you can find her doing yoga, reading every book in sight or pursuing her other passion as a professional hammock sleeper. She is known to be the human form of a pineapple and her favourite animal is the Great Canadian House Hippo.
Sarah
Chef and Engineer
Sarah’s from the sunny beach town of Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. Starting from a young age when she was able to look over the kitchen counter top, food overtook her imagination and most of her free time. If she’s not busy you’ll find Sarah baking something delicious, running around barefoot on an adventure, or asking a billion questions about everything to anyone who’s listening. Hobbies include baking, reading, hiking, swimming and photography. You would never guess that she’s secretly a qualified ninja, and her favorite animal is a penguin!
Patrick
Engineer
Pat, as he is called by friends, hails from Germantown, MD. He has a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. Pat likes playing guitar, diving, rock climbing, spearfishing, sailing, backpacking, and reading. He has been to about fifty countries and, prior to Blackbeard’s, he lived on his own sailboat for a couple of years and sailed primarily around the Bahamas. His favorite sea creatures are Orcas and a fun fact is that he traveled to all seven continents by the age of 25!
Chris
Chef
I grew up in Plettenberg Bay South Africa. As a kid I loved going to the beach with friends and playing soccer in the sand. The first sea creature I ever saw I jokingly called an Elephant Shark. I later came to find out that there actually was an elephant fish. I took a cooking class that was offered in high school and my life was forever changed. I fell in love with cooking and the joy that it spreads. After high school I went into hotel management and started cooking full time and have not looked back since. It gives me great joy to see the happiness that a good meal can bring someone!
Haley
Chef
Haley is originally from ATL Georgia but was quickly whisked away by the ocean on the east coast of Florida to research bottlenose dolphins while she attended Flagler College. Like a typical dolphin out of water, she is quite clumsy and you will probably witness Haley hit her head on at least one thing. Her favorite animals are toothed whales (belugas, dolphins, etc). Her cooking skills are a self taught obsession and curiosity as she always wants to recreate any recipe she loves. All international and traditional foods pique her interest and are currently what her focus is on. When Haley is not cooking, one could find her reading, doing yoga, diving, or talking someone’s ear off about whales.
Sophie
Dive Instructor
Sophie grew up on a working cattle ranch on the central coast of California. After diving in the cold waters of the Santa Barbara Channel as a teenager she decided to go off traveling in search of warmer waters! She has worked in Honduras, Thailand, Indonesia, and Curacao but her favorite ocean will always be the Caribbean. While she moved back to the states for a bit to pursue new things such as snowboarding and bartending, she has decided that the ocean is where she is meant to be! Though Sophie may have a tattoo of a sea lion on her ankle, her favorite fish are either frogfish for the rewarding search and grumpy faces or yellowheaded jawfish for how ethereal they look. When not working she likes to relax by doing arts and crafts of any kind (though not well), reading, or taking a long hike.
Taryn
Taryn, AKA “T” hails from Fort Walton Beach Florida. Her hobbies include obviously scuba diving, longboarding and paddle boarding. Her favorite critter is an Octopus because they are so smart. She is super funny and always chipper!
August
Chef
August joins us from Simsbury, CT and attended U of Montana and the Greater Hartford Academy of Arts. He likes creative writing, reading, the arts and diving! He has traveled extensively thru the Caribbean and the entire continental US. He loves penguins and can totally relate. They love the water, but wish they could fly and so does Augie!
We Are Now Hiring
We are always looking for adventurous individuals to join the team.
Life on board is hard work but very rewarding- send in your application today!
Dive instructors, chefs, and engineer positions available.
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