<B>Brad Marquart</B> grew up in a small Mississippi river town in Missouri. After completing a degree in Biology at a liberal arts college it was time for some adventure, and he left the Midwest for a new life on the ocean. He joined a commercial fisheries management consultancy in Alaska, working on fishing vessels to provide precise and timely data regarding fishery health directly to NOAA. After working aboard 12 large fishing and fish processing vessels operating out of Dutch Harbor and Juneau, he traded the Bering Sea for the Rocky Mountains and moved to Denver, Colorado. There he started as a bioenergy researcher developing alternatives to mining coal, before switching gears and becoming an environmental scientist liaising between the oil and gas industry and state regulatory bodies. However, his previous life on the ocean had left a mark.

Upon meeting Kristi, the new team set out to reconnect with previous careers on the water. Denver provides perhaps the most landlocked American Sailing School in the USA, and Kristi and Brad took every class they had time for. They left Denver for the east coast where they assisted with a sailboat delivery, and then took to new careers aboard a 74 foot charter ketch here in the Virgin Islands. Now starting his third year in the term charter industry, Brad has obtained his USCG Captain’s license, nitrox scuba certification and enjoys sharing chef’s and guide duties with his wife aboard Genesis. An innate naturalist, he loves identifying fish and watching their behavior. He loves life most when guiding snorkel and hiking excursions in the beautiful Virgin Islands and when winding down with our always-interesting guests after a memorable day...read more