Our staff

For as long as Sara can remember, she has had a passion for travel and for finding the wildest and most remote places on Earth.

When she was only 10, she sold her favorite pink bicycle to start her travel fund. 

Every birthday and Christmas, she added more to the kitty until finally, at age 18, she realized her dream of diving the Great Barrier Reef! At that moment, the travel addict was born.

Ever since, Sara has been traveling the globe in search of wild and remote places.

She has also spent many months volunteering on wildlife conservation projects to help some of our most iconic and endangered species.

Sara’s love of wildlife and the outdoors has taken her to all seven continents.

She has traveled extensively in the polar regions, including the Antarctic Peninsula, the Falklands, South Georgia, Spitsbergen, Greenland, Iceland, Baffin Island, and the Canadian High Arctic.

Back home in the UK, Sara used her knowledge to work as a polar specialist for several years, but in 2016 she joined Oceanwide Expeditions, trading life on land for a life at sea.

Sara is a keen wildlife photographer, and when she is not in the polar regions, she enjoys working as a photographic guide in Botswana, specifically the beautiful Chobe River and Okavango Delta.

Jonny Baird grew up in the small village of Taynuilt near Oban on Scotland’s west coast, where he first discovered his passion for climbing and skiing. He is now based in the French Alps near the Chamonix Valley and has worked as an IFMGA-certified Mountain Guide since 2005.

Since 2017, Jonny has worked regularly as a mountaineering guide aboard the Oceanwide expedition ship Ortelius and as Lead Mountain Guide aboard Hondius on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Over the years, his deep appreciation for the Antarctic has grown—not only for its mountaineering potential but also for its unique and abundant wildlife.

In winter, Jonny primarily guides ski mountaineering trips across France, Italy, and Switzerland, with regular expeditions further afield. His Arctic guiding experience includes trips to Arctic Norway (Lofoten Islands, Kvaløya, Tromsø, and Arnøya), Greenland, and Iceland’s Troll Peninsula.

During the summer months, Jonny focuses on alpine climbing, mountaineering, and rock climbing, sharing more than 35 years of personal climbing experience with his clients. His climbing has taken him around the world, including the European Alps, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Canada, the U.S., Morocco, New Zealand, Australia, and of course Scotland, where it all began.

Beyond guiding, Jonny has worked in mountain safety for television, film, and photography projects. He is the co-author of a ski touring guidebook and has contributed to several online publications.

Jonny is a member of the Syndicat National des Guides de Montagne (SNGM), the French national mountain guiding association. Over the years, he has climbed, skied, and guided on every continent.

Born near the German city of Cologne, Joachim Schiel grew up some distance from the coast. His first contact with vessels came from the yearly sailing trips he made with a youth group on the Baltic.

After finishing school, serving in the military, and working a few different jobs, he started an apprenticeship in boat building. It was not long, however, before he realized he would rather work on vessels at sea than in the shipyard.

So in 1998, he started his sailing career on tall ships. Over the following years, he sailed during the summer and attended nautical college in Enkhuizen during the winter. This led to sailing on many different vessels all over the world before he became a captain in 2006.

He first sailed to Svalbard in 2009 and instantly fell in love with the Arctic, preferring to sail in the far north ever since. He has been on Rembrandt van Rijn since 2017, making voyages in Northern Norway, Svalbard, and East Greenland.

When Joachim is not sailing the polar regions, he likes to go hiking and diving in the warmer areas of the world.