After 13 years in the professional yachting industry, Mike has gained valuable experience cruising and chartering on both sides of the Atlantic, and Central America. After originally serving in the South African Navy as a Submariner, Mike followed his passion for sailing and ended up in Florida after competing nationally and internationally in various sizes and classes of sail boats.

He then discovered the world of Megayachts where he has refined his skills and gained in-depth experience while serving aboard renowned charter yachts such as Victoria Won, Carmac VII, Katharine, Seahawk & My Iris.

The highlight of his career thus far was being awarded the Charter Captain of the Year ’02, in Monaco. In his spare time Mike is an avid scuba diver (certified divemaster), and is still a true sailor at heart. Mike holds a British MCA 3000 ton captain’s license as well as International and South African Yachtmaster Ocean certificates, and is a certified divemaster

Chief Stewardess ~ Gillian Gething ~ South Africa

Gillian was introduced to the yachting industry 9 years ago, having served on board various yachts such as S/Y Katatomic, M/YCeltic Pride, M/Y Seahawk and M/Y My Iris as a Stewardess, Cook and Mate. After completing her schooling, Gillian’s enjoyment of working around people and traveling took her to studying Travel and Tourism, as well as Management. Once her studies were completed, she worked both in Restaurants and Guest Houses up to Management positions.

After completing 2 ocean crossings and seeing the wonders of nature while traveling the world, she achieved her Yachtmaster Offshore Certification, and through this broadened her knowledge of the yachting industry. Since then she has done several more crossings and has had the opportunity to travel extensively of which Turkey, Malta and the Californian coast have been on the list of her favorite destinations, of course the Mediterranean is always a wonderful place to travel, with the many people of various cultures she has met and special friends she has made in her travels.

Gillian has enjoyed the challenges that yachting has presented her and learnt from being exposed to experiences such as what goes into building and decorating a yacht.  In her spare time, Gillian enjoys Scuba-diving, sailing, reading, cycling and adventuring.

Stewardess ~ Kimberly Hogan ~ New Zealand

Kimberley is the 2nd stewardess onboard and grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. After school Kimberley studied Film and Media, where she completed her degree. Shortly after her study completion, she decided to try yachting, as the travel interested her. It was very different from what she was expecting but nevertheless, she found the fun side in the industry and has now been working in yachting for 4 years. Before joining Lady Michelle she worked on M/Y Passion and M/Y Big Eagle. Her interests include Photography, Film, Watersports, Snowboarding and diving. Kimberley recently completed her Advanced Diver certificate. Yachting has also introduced her to the various wines of the world and she has taken a keen interest in learning about them, hoping to one day create a piece of art with the many wine corks she has collected. Her yachting industry experience and her endearing personality make for ensuring a pleasurable stay aboard Lady Michelle. 

Stewardess ~ Candice Eaglestone ~ South Africa

Candy is the 3rd Stewardess, who grew up in a town called Krugersdorp, about 40 minutes outside of Johannesburg. After finishing high school, she went to college and studied Travel and Tourism as she has always been excited by the complexity of the world with all its various cultures and landscapes. Prior to yachting she worked in an office for various travel related companies from cruise tours to land tours, safaris and specialized sports tours and product development.

Candy was invited to join the yachting industry by friends and family for a freelance experience, after an enjoyable couple of busy weeks onboard, she completed her STCW ’95 and Silver service courses. Now rather than booking tours and experiences for clients to have the holiday of their dreams, Candy is ensuring first hand that the guests aboard Lady Michelle have the holiday of their dreams. Candy is fascinated by Eastern Culture, especially the martial arts side of it, falling in love with it when she did Choy Lay Fu Kung Fu. Her hobbies are outdoor related, whether it be running while listening to music on her I-pod or doing a mountain trail on her mountain bike and interests are all aspects of health and wellness. Candy hopes to complete her open water dive course and begin enjoying another aspect of this wonderful planet we live on.

Stewardess ~ Jessica Castle ~ United Kingdom

Jessica’s passion for traveling and working with people of all cultures led her to study Hospitality and Tourism in school were she learned various aspects of management, service and while also gaining hands on experience in the industry.  During her studies Jessica was introduced to the complexities and intrigues of wine and hopes to hone her wine skills and knowledge.

After completing school Jessica worked as a corporate event planner and a Tournament Coordinator for the PGA Tour before the urge to travel took hold. She soon realized that yachting offered her a wonderful opportunity to travel, see new cultures and work with people from around the world. Jessica’s interests include golf, water sports, hiking, languages, rock climbing, reading, scuba diving, traveling and sampling new foods and wines.

1st Officer ~ Brett Gething ~ South Africa

Brett grew up in an avid yachting family and has been involved with yachting and yacht racing ever since. Competing in local events & sailing the notorious South African coastline led to participating in several international events where he was introduced to the professional yachting industry. Although still passionate about sailing he has focused on motor yachts and holds local South African and several International qualifications. Brett enjoys water sports, hiking, cycling, traveling to remote places & adventuring.

Brett holds an MCA Officer of the Watch certificate and working his way up to a 3000 ton license. Brett is also a certified Divemaster

Bosun ~ David Cooke ~ Australia

Profile coming soon.

Deckhand ~ Bradley Morris ~ South Africa

Brad is our Deckhand, who joined us in November 2007. He was born in South Africa and raised in Mauritius. Brad grew up on the beach and has always been involved in boats and the ocean. As a child, he helped his uncle build a wooden sail boat, and from then on has dreamed of getting involved in bigger boats. He pursued id yachting career by doing his RYA Day Skipper License in Cape Town, South Africa after which he was offered a position to do a delivery to the British Virgin Islands.

Brad speaks fluent English and French. He has previously worked on boats such as M/Y Bad Girl and with yachting and sailing being a passion of his he hopes to one day travel back to one of his favorite places in the world, Mauritius. His hobbies include watersports, hiking, reading and climbing, with his new found interest being kite surfing.

Engineer ~ Rob Brown ~ Australia

Hello to all, Robert Brown here Chief Engineer of the motor yacht Lady Michelle. I am a 51 year old Australian citizen, born in a small country town (farm boy) called Kempsey on the north coast of New South Wales, which is on the east coast of Australia and almost exactly half way between Sydney and Brisbane. I grew up on the farm/market garden and still love to grow vegetables and raise cattle which I intend to return too when I retire out of yachting, which in sailors terms is called “swallowing the anchor”. I have been in yachting for 15 years after having captained dive and snorkeling charter boats out to the Great Barrier Reef in north Queensland Australia and several years as a commercial fishing captain.

I currently hold an MCA Chief Engineers license class Y2  as well as an Australian Master Class IV  Trading and Master class V fishing  captains licenses as well as a MED 2 engineers license. My hobbies and interest are pretty much the great outdoors as I enjoy fishing, diving, camping and hunting as well as traveling and meeting people of other cultures and life styles around the world. I especially like the islands in the south Pacific with my favorite cruising grounds being the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, followed very closely buy Alaska.

I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay on board as our guests on the M/Y Lady Michelle.

Chef ~ Danielle Stone ~ United Kingdom

Danielle joins M/Y Michelle with a love of the ocean, fine food and the great outdoors. Her culinary career began at the tender age of 16 when she learnt the finer qualities of French Cuisine at the world renowned restaurant ‘Le Gavroche’ in the heart of London. From there she traded warm beer for sunny skies and became infatuated with clique St Barths where she worked at a plethora of high end restaurants. Yachting was the next obvious step and she has been delighting the taste buds of charter guests for a little over a year with her creative flair and unbridled passion in the galley.

Outside of the galley Danielle enjoys a range of activities including watersports, reading, snow skiing, running and horse riding. Perhaps her biggest passion is photography where the album has flourished since sailing the high seas where idyllic destinations have provided great backdrops to her wandering lens. Her highlights reel includes the chic  French Rivera, Sardina and  sharing the imposing Atlantic with plenty of dolphins. She also speaks fluent French making her an integral part of any European charter experience.

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