MEET YOUR CREW
CAPTAIN: Gino Barale
CHEF/FIRST MATE: Nikita Du Preez

Gino grew up in the bush, travelling across Southern Africa with his parents. Any chance they got they were out camping in remote locations, which is where his great sense of adventure came about. Gino was introduced to sailing through his father, which is where he began to compete in multiple races, working his way up from crew to skippering his own boat.

After 3 years of racing keelboats, Gino found himself in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean enroute to Rio De Janeiro competing in the Cape 2 Rio Ocean race. This ended up being a 3-month journey, sailing from island to island in Brazil once they got there before starting the passage back home to Cape Town, South Africa.

Nikita found her love for cooking at a young age in the kitchen with her dad where he taught her all the tips and tricks to cooking a delicious meal. With time, this slowly ended up becoming weekly competitions in the house in who created the better dish.

Nikita decided from the get-go she would not be spending her life in an office but rather exploring the world. After discovering the beauty of sailing and life on the water, Nikita quickly booked her course to become a stewardess and culinary courses to increase her culinary skills, which led her to working as a sole chef/stew in Cape Town, South Africa on a superyacht. This is where both her passion for the sea and cooking aligned and she knew her career choice was right.

Gino and Nikita, being friends since high school and having created endless adventures, memories, and stories together, decided to join forces and run sailing charters out of Cape Town. Realizing how well they work together they made their way to the Virgin Islands for another adventure together.