Our crew
You'll remember our crew longer than the boat.
We select our crew for two things. 1. How they handle a boat: safety first, a clean deck, everything in its place 2. and how they make people feel welcome on it. We never hire one without the other.
They know this sea, they respect it, and they'll show you how to read it. Below, each of them in their own words. Tell us who you'd like on board, and we'll do our best to match their schedule, though we can't always guarantee it.
“The best trips start with the people, not the boat.”
Thibault has called Mexico home since 2016. After seven years scaling tech ventures in Mexico City, he turned his energy toward what always mattered most: adventure, human connection and the power of the sea. He is building Eagle Ray one trusted relationship at a time, bringing together sea people who share the same warmth, curiosity and instinct for life at sea.
“The calmness of the deep and the glassy water.”
"I've spent 15 years on sailboats around the world: the Bahamas, Polynesia, Brittany, the Caribbean and the Sea of Cortez. I've skippered boats from a Lagoon 41 to a Lagoon 62, and I'm a certified marine engineer, so I know the boat from the helm to the engine room.
On board, I teach sailing, kiting and freediving, and take you paddleboarding and snorkeling. Years of all of it in Baja have taught me to read the sea and the people on it, and to adjust the day as it goes. If it's your first time at sea, you're in the right place."
"The story I tell most: seeing Kavachi, an active underwater volcano in the Solomon Islands.
Crossing the equator is when I understood what sailing does for my life, and decided to spend it bringing other people closer to the ocean."
"I love the calm of deep, glassy water, and the adrenaline of the perfect wave and the right wind.
What I look for in guests is the spark in their eyes when the sea starts to work on them. I've watched it change people, me included."
15 years in the role
“While everyone watches the horizon, I'm watching what the boat needs.”
Benji spent eight years running industrial and energy operations before trading project sites for the helm. The civil engineer never disappeared: he reads weather routing like a systems map and notices what the boat needs before it asks. While everyone watches the horizon, Benji has already cleared the way for the next adventure.
“My boat is an extension of me.”
"I've sailed over 30,000 nautical miles, including a round-the-world journey between 2016 and 2026: across the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, and from Alaska to Japan through the Aleutians and Kamchatka. Before that, I was a maritime lawyer: I worked at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and took part in international climate negotiations.
On board, I'll hand you the helm if you want to learn, and take care of everything if you don't. My students say I stay calm when others don't, and that my stories make even cleaning the bilge enjoyable. They also say I make storms feel like part of the plan. I hope we won't need to test that one."
"A transatlantic passage from Spain to Barbados, planned for two weeks, took me 44 days and several broken sails. In 2020, with ports closing worldwide, I sailed from Mexico towards French Polynesia, was turned away, and kept sailing. A cat named Demonic crossed the Pacific with us.
Sailing from Alaska to Japan, I climbed and skied volcanoes in the Aleutians and Kamchatka, with sealskin skis and bear repellent in my bag. I reached Japan with a broken boom."
"I sail under sail whenever the wind allows, not on the engine, so you can hear what I listen for: the silence, and the sound of the hull moving through the water.
For me, the sea is where time feels limited and freedom stays intact. In Baja, I share it from the deck of a boat I know inside out."
11 years in the role
“Ocean is emotion”
"I'm a PADI scuba instructor. I've lived in more than seven countries and explored 58, mostly by water: the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, the Atlantic. Before diving became my work, I studied hotel and resort management at ESADE and worked in five-star hospitality at Ritz-Carlton and Mandarin Oriental.
Thibault and I met in Chile when we were five. Most people call me the Pirate. On board, I lead the dives and the snorkeling, and I'm usually the one suggesting which cove to anchor in and which story goes with dinner."
"In Sri Lanka, I led a group of 12 experienced French divers. I had everything ready before they asked: DIN valves on every tank, extra weights for the switch from steel to aluminium tanks, the right tools for their gear. With divers like that, the details are the experience.
As a kid I was always exploring: boats, the ocean, what I call the pirate way of life. Adventure was always part of it."
"What I love underwater: pelagic fish, sharks, clear blue water, and the poetry of it. For me, the ocean is emotion.
I see guides as ambassadors of the ocean. My job is to share it, and to pass on why it's worth protecting. And after a long dive, a long French dinner."
2 years in the role
“I love teaching and having fun at sea with people who share my passions.”
"I'm Sergio, but you can call me Canei. You might know me from Survivor México, which I won in 2025. A few years earlier, I decided to take care of myself: training, eating well, learning how my body works. Today that's what I teach, as a personal trainer in Cancún and to the more than 100 people I've coached.
I've led groups of 8 to 19 through Iceland, the Acatenango and Fuego volcanoes in Guatemala, Hawaii's Big Island, the Dolomites and the Camino de Santiago. On board, we start the day moving on deck. Before you go in the water, I teach you to breathe, and each day you hold your breath a little longer."
"On the Camino de Santiago, on the longest stage, part of my group woke up with blisters and no energy left. Before we set off, I ran an exercise on intention and reflection, and we walked that stage with a different attitude.
I read a group in three steps: the welcome message, a longer call before the trip, and body language on day one."
"What draws me to the sea: its mystery, its animals, its colours and its size.
Leaving something good in other people is what makes me feel whole. At sea, I take care of the group. The Eagle Ray crew takes care of the boat."
“I might be the reason someone falls in love with the ocean.”
"I'm a PADI scuba instructor, a freediver and a kitesurf instructor, with more than 1,500 dives from the Red Sea to the Caribbean. Today I live in Baja California Sur, between the wind of La Ventana and the Sea of Cortez.
On day one I watch before anyone speaks: who brings their own gear, who shows up early, who talks for the group. By the first briefing, I know where each person is starting from. My job is to put you in the right place at the right moment, so the rays come to us."
"In Tanzania, with a group of beginner divers, the current came up stronger than forecast. I saw the hesitation at the briefing and changed site on the spot: calmer water, the same marine life. One diver surfaced saying it was the best dive of her life. The whole boat was buzzing.
Before Baja, I led dive groups of four to eight, and outdoor programs for groups of students."
"The first time I went in, the ocean showed me what it could do: the life, the silence, the feeling of being part of something much bigger. I wanted other people to feel it, not as something to check off a list, but as something that changes how they see the world.
What I love most is watching someone who stood on the boat thinking they couldn't do it find out they're braver than they thought."
5 years in the role
“Underwater, everybody helps everybody. I wish it were like that on land.”
"I grew up by the beach in Brazil. After 16 years in large corporations and teaching English, I made the sea my work. Today I'm a PADI dive instructor and a licensed expedition guide in Mexico. I've lived in Baja California Sur for six years, one of them in La Paz."
"I've guided groups of every size, from all over the world. On a sailboat, I prefer small ones. From the first briefing, I watch how each diver moves, who is relaxed and who is nervous, and I plan the dives around them."
"What keeps me at sea is the life underwater. Ocean people are like a family: everybody helps everybody. I left corporate life to have fun and to make people as happy as the sea makes me."
20 years in the role
“It's everywhere: mysterious, powerful, calm, life everywhere.”
"I became a scuba instructor at 21, and a cave, cenote and shark dive guide in Cozumel before 23. I've taught diving in the Maldives, Indonesia and Guatemala, but the waters I know best are the Sea of Cortez.
I start every trip with questions: what's your name, where are you from, have you been in these waters before, what do you definitely want to experience? Then I plan around the answers. It's hard to stay tense when you're telling your own story."
"Most recently, I sailed solo from Loreto to La Paz. Before that, I spent more than 30 days in a row as a deckhand on a liveaboard to the Socorro Islands.
I've led dive groups of up to eight in hard conditions, beginner divers and snorkelers, hiking and camping groups, and sailing charters as a guide and deckhand."
"It started the first time I went diving, when someone told me I could do this for a living and travel the world.
What I love about sharing the sea fits in a list: intimacy, confidence, learning new skills, facing fears, unexpected encounters. And trust."
10 years in the role
“You don't need to know how to do something to start. You just take one step at a time.”
"I'm Andrea, a sailor and an adventurer. I crossed the Atlantic by rowing boat with Oceanida, and it taught me that you don't always need to feel ready to face the unknown: you trust, you adapt and you keep going, one stroke at a time.
I've spent five years on boats, charters and tours in Mexico, with small and medium groups of every age and level: welcoming guests, coordinating activities, keeping them safe and adapting the day to the group. On board, I guide kayaking, snorkeling and hikes ashore."
"In Cozumel, I guided a family whose parents had never properly learned to swim. They wanted to get in the water and were terrified of it. After the safety briefing, I went to them to understand what scared them. We moved to a calmer, sheltered spot, I gave them the right safety gear and stayed close until, little by little, they got in. Then I took the rest of the group snorkeling on the reef. At the end, the parents came to thank me.
Before all this, I worked in set design and sold boat tours in Puerto Aventuras. I watched the boats leave every day and asked myself why I wasn't on them. I went looking for work at sea, learned as I went, and a few years later I rowed across the Atlantic."
"The sea is a teacher: you're the one who learns to adapt to it. I find freedom there, and it asks for humility. It reminds you how small you are, and shows you what you're capable of.
Sharing it means adapting to the conditions so each person can live it their own way. The sea is our road and our way of getting here, so we enjoy it, respect it and leave as little trace as possible, for whoever comes next."
5 years in the role
“At sea, the best dish is the one served when everyone is excited for it.”
Antoine has spent 15+ years cooking aboard boats and superyachts, including as a private chef for senior executives. He knows exacting standards, tiny galleys and saltwater appetites. His magic is restaurant technique made for the sea: precise without stiffness, generous without spectacle and served when the whole crew is ready to remember it.
“Magic lives in the timing, the texture and the detail nobody asked for.”
Ana built her own pastry business from scratch, so she knows magic rarely arrives by accident. It lives in timing, texture and the extra detail nobody thought to request. On board, she cooks the same way: attentive, inventive and quietly generous, turning a simple breakfast into a ritual and dessert into the story told back on shore.