Chef Jane McKen, British

Jane has been a keen sailor since she was very young.  By the age of twenty she was working as a freelance skipper on cruising and racing yachts around the Solent and south coast of England, and as a skipper/instructor for the British Offshore Sailing School in Spain and Portugal at twenty-one.  From that solid start she has filled almost every crew position on sailing yachts up to 198 feet in length - private, charter and racing.  She is a qualified skipper, First Mate, Stewardess, Cruising Instructor and Watch Leader. 

Jane was First Mate on the 109’ VESPER for eighteen months, cruising the South Pacific, Caribbean and North America as well as cooking for the owners’ month-long trips with guests in the Caribbean.  Finding that she enjoyed the creativity of planning and preparing fine cuisine, Jane spent three months in 2004 taking several intensive cooking courses in Milan.  She was the chef on a 60 meter (198 foot) motor yacht based in Monaco for a year prior to joining KALIKOBASS II.   

Enthusiastic and cheerful, Jane gives a hundred per cent and more to ensure that KALIKOBASS II’s guests enjoy every meal to the fullest.

Qualifications:
RYA Yacht Master Offshore
RYA Yacht Master Cruising Instructor
Very basic Italian & French

First Mate Tom de la Haye, British

Tom is from Jersey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France, where learning to sail is as natural as learning to walk  - and starts about the same age.  He has years of experience in every facet of caring for charter guests while ensuring their safety at all times.  Tom is an RYA qualified Senior Sailing Instructor and taught sailing for five years in England, Greece and Turkey. 

While earning a diploma in Marine Studies at Falmouth Marine College,    Tom learned silver service working in the four-star Falmouth Hotel in Cornwall.  He worked six winter seasons managing ski chalets in Val d’Isere, France for resort companies and private owners with responsibility for up to nine guests, including preparing breakfasts, afternoon teas and three course dinners daily.

A keen runner, Tom also enjoys skiing, cycling, surfing, wind surfing and wakeboarding.   His favorite sport is racing boats, from dinghies to Lulworth, a restored 1920 gaff-rigged cutter competing on the Mediterranean Classic Yacht Regatta Circuit, to the modern classic White Wings in Les Voiles d’Antibes.   

Tom holds six RYA licenses, a current Seafarer Medical Certificate and is STCW95 certified.   His goal every day is to meet and surpass guests’ expectations with the highest standard of service.

Stewardess Bridget Edwards, 25, British 

Bridget’s enthusiastic, caring and bubbly character makes her a great addition to Kalikobass II’s crew.  She brings a strong background in the Hospitality and Travel industries as well as experience as a stewardess on both sailing and motor yachts over ninety feet in length.

Working as a senior waitress at New Zealand’s four and one half star Heritage Hotel gave Bridget solid training in silver service.  She also completed elementary, intermediate and advanced wine courses with a final assignment of designing a first class wine menu.   Over the one year term of her employment in New Zealand, she developed skills in wine and food pairing and was often commended for her excellent customer care. 

Bridget returned to England to study Hospitality Management at the University of Gloucestershire where she earned an HND (Higher National Diploma).   She has completed STCW 95 training and qualified as a Certified PADI Open Water SCUBA Instructor in 2008.

Sports and outdoor activities, including squash, scuba diving, tennis, cycling and walking, are Bridget’s favorite pastimes and she is seldom without a good book.  From the age of twelve to eighteen she was a boarding student at Girl’s College, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.