Return to Sundeer Sale Page       Professional Crew

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We highly recommend that the buyer of Raven retain our excellent professional crew, Captain Rod Bradley and First Mate Anouk Reijerts. They are very experienced South Pacific cruisers in their own sailboat, and can help the new owner with the first few months or years of cruising Raven in that fascinating region. They can also give the new owner a detailed "course" in Raven's characteristics and systems, how to use and maintain them.

We cruised Raven by ourselves for three years, spending two winters in Mexico and then sailing across the South Pacific in 2002. By the time we reached New Zealand in November that year, we had visited the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Rarotonga, Niue, and Tonga, loving every minute. And there were still many more islands we wanted to cruise, but a family health crisis meant we had to curtail our cruising. And since we couldn't be aboard Raven full time, we decided to hire professional crew. We interviewed a dozen people for our crew positions and are extremely pleased with our luck in hiring Rod and Anouk in early 2004.

Rod and Anouk have several years' experience cruising their own sailboat through many of the islands we want to visit: Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomons, New Caledonia, etc. They sailed Raven to Fiji so that we could meet them there for a couple of cruises. We couldn't be happier with the way they handle Raven, maintain her systems and her looks, and the way they take care of us when we're aboard.

Rod is a Kiwi and has thousands of sailing sea miles under his belt. He takes care of all the technical and mechanical side, and has solved several problems aboard Raven that had stumped Jan.

Anouk is from Holland and is a full watch-standing partner to Rod on the bluewater passages, while taking care of the domestic side. Her cuisine is excellent, and we're especially happy with her sushi (lots of fresh fish available out there) and her Asian/Thai fusion style dishes. We look forward to her meals every time we're aboard!