NEW CREW for the 2022/23 season
Mark Russel
Jaime Bayntun
CHEF ASHLEY
Chef Ashley is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, and is the oldest of five girls. She has been a visual and culinary artist nearly all her life, often painting sailboats, dolphins, and island-scapes, as well as preparing creative & delicious meals for her family & friends. She began her career in high-end dining at age eighteen and, in the Spring of 2001, moved to St. John, USVI and began to sail.
The first five years she spent on St. John full time: swimming, hiking, painting, preparing & serving amazing cuisine in the evening, and, as often as possible, sailing with some of the best sailors in the world. Regattas, weekends to Jost, and countless trips out and back, prepared Ashley for her first offshore trip from St. John to Venezuela, which she made in the summer of 2005. Soon thereafter she realized that yacht charters would be the perfect way to combine her love of sailing and her knowledge of dining and service.
In the fall of 2006, Ashley moved aboard a hundred- and seventy-foot schooner and began her career in yachting. She has been a stewardess, deckhand, first-mate and chef on mono-hauls, catamarans, and motor yachts, from forty feet to a hundred and forty feet, from South America to New England. She has earned her USCG 50T Masters License as well as her 200hr Yoga Teaching Certification. She enjoys be able sharing her love of food, sailing, yoga and the Virgin Islands with her guests.
Her training in the craft of cuisine and the grace of entertaining comes from her years of cooking and service experience in fine-dining restaurants. American, French, Italian, Japanese, Hispanic, bistro, beach-front, steakhouse, you name it; she learned ingredients, preparations, presentation, portion, pairing, table-setting, and service etiquette. For several summers, she kept a large organic vegetable garden and is very much a “gardener-chef” and her plates are fresh, vibrant, creative and healthful.
Ashley’s years of experience exploring and sailing, combine with her passion for cooking and attention to detail, allows her to create exceptional experiences for her guests. She loves what she does and loves to share her passions with others.