Meet the Crew

Bill and his partner Nathalie are the Captain/Chef team aboard Tilly Mint. They have worked on many yachts both together and separately in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, most recently on a 100ft charter sailboat in the British Virgin Islands. They are a young and energetic couple, with a passion for sailing and water sports to compliment their top-notch hospitality service.

Bill is an American national who grew up on the tidal waters of Charleston, South Carolina. He comes from a family of sailors and took to the sport at a young age. Though he enjoyed racing and cruising on sailboats throughout his teenage years, he decided the sensible thing to do was pursue a college degree in business marketing. After studying for two years, he realized that he would never be happy in the business world. He promptly left school to follow his dream of making sailing a full time career.

He spent some time in the Caribbean gaining experience on racing and charter sailboats, then enrolled in captain’s school in Newport, Rhode Island. He now holds a USCG Masters license, an RYA Yachtmaster 200Ton license, as well as array of other qualifications. He has captained two 100ft charter sailboats in the New England area and in the Caribbean. He has extensive knowledge of both areas, though he considers the Islands his home away from home. When Bill is not driving a boat, he likes to stay active via an array of outdoor and water sports including: distance swimming, free-diving, sailboat racing, hiking, SCUBA diving, running, and coconut-tree climbing!

Nathalie is French, and is a fantastic chef as well as an experienced sailor. She grew up in Paris, cooking from a young age under the instruction of her mother and grandmother. She traveled extensively through high school and college, studying foreign languages and learning Mediterranean style cooking to incorporate into her menus. She attended classes and obtained several certificates from the prestigious Alain Ducasse Culinary School in Paris.

During the summer holidays every year, Nathalie attended a sailing school in Bretagne, France. She eventually outgrew studentship and became a sailing instructor and cook for the same school. After attending university and completing two master’s degrees in English Literature and in Translation & Interpretation, she went to work full time in international public relations. Although successful in her career, Nathalie realized that what she really wanted was to pursue sailing full time. She left her job and went to work in the Mediterranean on large classic sailboats, serving on several famous super-yachts as a hostess, stewardess, cook, and race crew. Since sailing across the Atlantic in 2010, Nathalie has worked on large charter yachts in the Islands as a hostess and cook, and has added Caribbean cuisine to her arsenal of cooking skills.

Nathalie specializes in French cuisine, makes all of her own breads and sauces, and is particularly talented at baking delicious desserts. Besides cooking and sailing, Nathalie, like Bill, keeps an active lifestyle. She enjoys swimming, diving, racing sailboats, and exploring different islands. Nathalie also has a passion for foreign languages. She is fluent in French, English, Spanish, German, and semi-fluent in Russian.