Hydrotherapy

CAPTAIN KIRILL & CHEF/MATE SHAHAR

Kirill was born in Ukraine but grew up in Israel at the age of 10. He picked up his passion for sailing after attending a maritime high school where he first learned sailing. After high school, he joined the military in Israel where he served for 3 years. Once his military service was complete he returned to sailing, as that is where his passion was.

He worked on a 40m sailing yacht for a company called Silhouette Cruises in Seychelles as a deckhand for 6 months where he was responsible for all the deck jobs, maintenance of the yacht, and taking guests scuba diving and to snorkeling sites. He gained a tremendous amount of experience and from there went on to complete the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore course in South Africa.

Kirill joined multiple Atlantic crossings, skippering two of them himself on a 67 ft sailing catamaran, where he also gained a lot of knowledge, confidence, and experience. On these trips he mastered the celestial navigation skill with navigation by the sun and the stars, having an old-school sextant device onboard. Kirill then began working for a flotilla charter company in Croatia, which he did for three seasons sailing all over Croatia and also in Greece and in the BVIs. In between the summer sailing seasons in Europe, Kirill has also worked as a sailing instructor.

Most recently, Kirill has been working as a captain on a 62ft yacht, then progressively on a 67ft sailing catamaran, both privately owned by an Israeli family, cruising the Mediterranean but also sailing to explore the Caribbean for one season. Within the last two years, Kirill met Shahar and they have been happily working together as a couple and team aboard the privately owned vessels. Apart from sailing Kirill is a free spirit and loves nature, traveling, meeting new people, and exploring new cultures. He loves hiking, water sports like kite and wing foil surfing, scuba, and free diving. His favorite sport and martial art is the Brazilian Capoeira. Brazilian Capoeira has taken him to Brazil three times where he lived in total for six months. Brazil has become his favorite country and culture, he also learned to speak Portuguese while there.

Shahar was born and raised in Israel, Texas, and Brazil, growing up near the coast all her life. As a daughter of a professional windsurfer, it was a foregone conclusion that she would also fall in love with the sea. From the time she was a young child, she was constantly by the water practicing water sports, surfing, and scuba diving. She has a very special and close relationship with her family; she has two brothers and two sisters. She initially learned to cook from her mother and grandmother, and as a child was always helping around the kitchen.

After graduating high school she joined the IDF and served for 3 years as a commanding and coordinating officer. When she completed the service in the army she decided to combine her cooking with her sailing passion. She went to a sailing academy in the UK and did the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore course. In these last few years, she has lived on the water working on charter and private boats.  She worked for a charter company as a host and first mate in Corfu, Greece, and later on in the BVI, Caribbean on 50 and 60 ft catamarans.

Her last role on the privately owned yacht 67ft sailing catamaran required her impeccable time management, as well as a high level of service and flexibility due to food constraints.  Nothing brings Shahar more joy than seeing her guests gathering around the table and enjoying her food, as well as the smiles on their faces after an amazing experience on the water.