Staff

SAILING THE CARIBBEAN ABOARD

THE SEA CLOUD II

January 31^st –February 6^th , 2009

LINDBLAD EXPEDITIONS  

Christian Pfenninger – Master

Sergei Komakin – First Officer

Thomas Darlington – First Officer

Angelika Ciechowlaz – Second Officer

Vasile Coman – Third Officer

Miladin Vucetic – Chief Engineer

Stanley Kaczorowski – Electrician

Svjetlana Skakelja – Hotel Manager

Mirko Diekmann – Purser

Andrea Klenner – Chef de Cuisine

Birthe Hartmann – Maitre d’Hotel

Avelino Saltarin – Barkeeper

Anne Kreidl – Housekeeper

Dr.  Christina Bourne  – Ship doctor

Tom O’Brien – Expedition leader

Patrycja Kaczynska – Assistant expedition leader

Berit Solstad – Undersea expert

David Barnes – Historian

Rocio Tencio – Wellness expert

Gaynor Trammer – Musician

Expedition Leader

Designing and leading Lindblad Expeditions voyages since 1986, Tom O’Brien now directs environmental policy for Lindblad Expeditions from their west coast office in Seattle. With an international upbringing, Tom began his career in the educational travel industry with Lindblad Travel in 1980. After completing his B.S. in Physical Geography from the University of Utah, Tom spent the next six years leading expeditions to numerous wilderness regions of the world. Tom’s increased involvement with international protected areas led him into a graduate program at the University of Idaho’s Department of Resource Recreation and Tourism. As Lindblad Expeditions’ Director of Environmental Affairs he has designed, coordinated and led environmental conferences and events aboard the ships, as well as worked closely with management bodies and local communities in expedition destinations. Tom continues to research and design itineraries and lead expeditions whenever he can make time.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION?

I don’t really treasure any possessions; only the experiences, memories and people that they represent.

WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE JOURNEYS?

Driving and car-camping through Southern Utah.

WHAT IS A RECENT BOOK OR FILM THAT CAPTURED YOUR ATTENTION?

The Patrick O’Brien Master and Commander series of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin in the British Navy during the Napoleanic Wars. They combine sailing and maritime life and adventure with natural history and international culture and history. And they are captivating novels and a good read.

WHAT FOOD COULD YOU NOT LIVE WITHOUT?

An apple a day.

NAME A CARTOON/FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU RELATE TO.

Bagheera, the panther in The Jungle Book.

Undersea specialist

Berit Solstad grew up sailing and exploring the ocean’s edge in Marblehead, Massachusetts. After studying tropical ecology, coral reefs and oceanography at Bates College, she combined her biology degree and love of the ocean and began teaching marine biology. Berit has worked as naturalist, scientist and educator on whale watch boats, research vessels, and traditional sailing ships and at Boston’s New England Aquarium. For nearly ten years, she taught oceanographic research techniques to students and teachers on a vessel based at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Whether investigating marine mammals or mud, Berit loves sharing her understanding of the natural world. Since 1992, she has worked with Lindblad Expeditions in a variety of destinations. 

Historian

David Barnes studied history at the University of York in England and the University of Wales, Cardiff and religious studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He has spent most of his professional life teaching history, most recently in adult education departments within the University of Wales. Although his graduate research have been devoted to Welsh religious history, he has taught a wide variety of courses pertinent to the wider Atlantic world. In 1988, he made his first lecture-tour of the USA for the English Speaking Union. He has published extensively on Welsh history and topography – his most recent book being the Companion Guide to Wales (2005) – and is a frequent contributor of articles and reviews to Welsh cultural and literary journals. In the1990s, David was active in the field of international education, traveling worldwide and spending a year in the United States (in Atlanta and New York City). He speaks English and French in addition to his native Welsh.

David joined Lindblad Expeditions as a full-time expedition historian in 1998 and has traveled the world in that capacity, from the Arctic to the Antarctic (via Saudi Arabia) and from the Seychelles to Easter Island (via Namibia). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1998 and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2003. David is married to a Latvian educated in St Petersburg and divides his land time between their apartment in that city and their dacha in the Cambrian Mountains.

WHO HAS BEEN A MAJOR INFLUENCE IN YOUR LIFE?

As far as my intellectual life is concerned, my university teacher Gwyn Alf Williams. Politically, Gwynfor Evans. Spiritually, a succession of Welsh nonconformist ministers including my present minister, W.J. Edwards.

HOW WOULD YOU COME BACK IN ANOTHER LIFE?

I would like to have lived from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century in the vicinity of Llangeitho and Y Bala.

WHAT IS A RECENT BOOK OR FILM THAT CAPTURED YOUR ATTENTION?

The second and final volume of Janet Browne’s biography of Charles Darwin, The Power of Place. A truly magnifient achievement which blends history and natural history to perfection. Any Lindblad expedition would be enhanced by having read it.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST FEAR?

Flying – and it is a fear that is getting worse, not better, as the years go by.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION?

The complete set of tools of my great grandfather, Noah Vaughan, a blacksmith.

TELL US ABOUT AN INSPIRATIONAL MOMENT YOU’VE HAD IN NATURE.

Watching a family group of elephants rescue a young elephant from a water hole in the Etosha National Park, Namibia.

Assistant Expedition Leader

Patrycja Kaczynksa was born and raised in Poland, where she earned her masters degree in biotechnology and a diploma for German language. Her interest in travel and nature soon often took her abroad, and she has since lived in Egypt, Cuba, and Spain while hosting and leading international tour groups. Her personal interests include dance, sports, and diving. She loves dolphins and her dog Mika. Pati has traveled with Lindblad Expeditions on Sea Cloud II in the Caribbean, Egypt, and aboard the Panorama in Greece and the Dalmation Coast.

Wellness Specialist

Rocio Tencio Aguilar was born Turrialba, Costa Rica. As a child, she was always physically active and enjoyed exercise. She studied modern dance and ballet as a young adult at the Universidad Nacional in Heredia. Friends and associates realized that she had the special touch and was gifted with her hands.

But then her goal to become a masseuse was interrupted by family matters. She moved to San Jose with her son and started working in an office as a telemarketer for approximately thirteen years while she raised her son. By 2000, she finally was able to attend the Institute of Dones de Los Manos, where she studied massage therapy for one year.

In 2004, she had the opportunity to work with Lindblad Expeditions as a therapist and has continued to enhance her skills as a wellness specialist. She enjoys doing exercise, yoga, massage and other activities such as hiking, with the guests. She knows how important exercise is and she tries to communicate this to her guests through her job, with the energy, vitality and the force to have a stronger and healthy body and serene mind.