Our staff

Jan Belgers was born in the Netherlands and currently lives in Rotterdam. He has been working as a professional outdoor guide and expedition leader for many years.

Traveling and wilderness guiding are his passions. His work as a guide has brought him from the high ranges of the Himalayas and Andes to the extreme latitudes of Spitsbergen and Antarctica.

He took his first steps in the polar regions as a student in 1992, participating in an international winter expedition to Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. Since then he has joined several research expeditions to remote places in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans.

Jan feels at home on the sea due to his background in marine biology, and he is one of the expedition leaders on our historic schooner, Noorderlicht.

He lectures on natural history and biology, and is a confirmed polar literature fanatic.

Henrik is an experienced dive leader, rebreather instructor trainer, and one of the first dive masters to bring tourists diving in Antarctica.

Henrik has been diving for over 25 years and teaches all levels of recreational and technical diving up to Advanced Trimix CCR.

He runs the IART (International Association of Rebreather Trainers) Regional Office for Northern Europe and is a member of the IART Board of Advisors.

Henrik is a keen wreck diver and has been involved in deep-wreck expeditions all over the world. Some of the interesting wrecks he has visited are the WW2 disasters General von Steuben and Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic as well as the HMS Victoria ("the vertical wreck") at 145 meters (475 feet) off the Lebanese coast.

His interest in both the ocean and space has engaged him in projects with the European Space Agency (Mars500 Project) and SeaSpace Exploration and Research Society (Project Poseidon), among others.

He has a military background, having served in peace keeping and enforcing missions in the Middle East and former Yugoslavia.

He has been leading dive expeditions in Antarctica and the Arctic for almost 20 years in remote and challenging waters, many of which have never been dived before.

Henrik holds an M.Sc. Degree in Electrical Engineering and works in the automotive industry when not traveling the polar regions.

He has lived and worked in Tokyo for two years but currently lives in India with his wife, three teenage daughters, and five-year-old son.

Remmert Koster was born in the Netherlands, and from a young age he was convinced he would become a captain.

After completing nautical college, he sailed general cargo ships for several years before switching to heavy-lift ships, transporting such loads as offshore platforms, Dutch Royal Navy vessels, submarines, parts for petrochemical plants, dredgers, cranes, and other such items.

Since 2016 he has captained passenger vessels, starting with two mega-yachts and later becoming a captain with Oceanwide Expeditions on its Polar Class 6 vessel, Hondius.

Remmert is married and lives with his wife and her daughter in an old farmhouse in north Holland. When he’s not busy renovating the house, he likes to cook, travel, and spend time with his family and friends.