One of the world’s few female luxury-liveaboard captains shares her passion for her work and her world

Scuba diving was a passion I discovered later in my life, and I am envious now when I see the young divers that come aboard my home, the M/V Turks & Caicos Aggressor II, that I was not able to start diving much earlier. At the same time, I am excited for the adventures that await them.

The Aggressor in Turks and Caicos has not always been my home. Until 12 years ago insurance claims handling dominated my life until I discovered scuba while on holiday in Turkey. In a very short period of time I had quit my job, downsized my property and was heading out to Turks and Caicos. Almost nobody I knew had heard of the islands and, I confess, neither had I. In reality, most of my friends thought that I had moved to Turkey!

As a rookie dive instructor, with just 300 dives under my belt, most of which were in England, I was about to take on the world of dive instruction, sharing my newfound passion with anyone who would let me, travelling the length and breadth of the world’s oceans. I made it to Turks and Caicos and stopped! The rest, as they say, is history. I immediately fell in love with the diving around Turks and Caicos and the culture of the islands themselves. That was 12 years ago.

At the time, I was the proud owner of a small digital point-and-shoot camera and was delighted to have a housing for it. Not once did I shoot that camera underwater in Turks and Caicos. Instead, a housed Nikon D70 was thrust into my hands right from the outset and I very quickly learnt underwater photography from Captain Piers, who later went on to become my