Meet Our Team for the 2025 season!

Meet our team for our 2025 season! Our ship crews and shore staff work together as a team to make sure our cruises are perfect for our guests, providing an amazing sea adventure with wonderful food, companionship and wildlife experiences. All crew members are highly qualified in what they do, and enjoy getting to know our guests, ensuring their time on board is relaxed and fun as well as exciting and inspirational.  Each year around 70% of our crews return to us and any new crew members comes recommended. This results in delighted reunions when our many returning guests reunite with a favourite crew member! Meanwhile, behind the scenes our shore staff are efficiently supporting the running of the cruises.

Our Skippers

Our Skippers all have years of knowledge and experience of our ships and the Hebrides, ensuring a comfortable and safe cruise to idyllic anchorages, many of which are only known to us. All are passionate about the environment and extremely knowledgeable about the seas of the Hebrides and beyond

Our Skippers Rob Barlow and James Fairbairns are also family members who manage Hebrides Cruises, fostering shared values and knowledge amongst the team

Chris Ireland has been Skipper for 12 years, mainly on Elizabeth G.  He has many other skills and if you sit on any outdoor seating on Elizabeth G, it would have been built by Chris.

Alasdair Sinclair is returning for his 3rd season and while skippering with us had the honour of having a humpback whale named after him!

We have two new Skippers joining us for the 2025 season - Chris O'Neill and Iain Malcolm – who both have extensive knowledge of the west coast marine environment.

Chris McKinlay acts as our very experienced relief Skipper which ensures we are always covered and our crews are never under pressure.

Our Stewards, Stewardesses and Deckhand

Craig Robinson is well known to our guests who return to cruise with us, having been with us for 8 seasons now.  He loves seeing familiar faces again, especially aboard his favourite ship Elizabeth G.

We are delighted that Abbie Green and Jasmin Clifford are back with us this season as both are always ready with a smile and can anticipate what guests would like before they know themselves.  Abbie is particularly popular with guests for her cocktails and is enjoying learning more about wildlife every season.  Jasmine has a wealth of hospitality experience which she is transferring to the ships and is loving just being in the Hebrides.

Our new Stewardess this year is Trinity Minney who got in touch after completing her Stewardship Course at UKSA – we are looking forward to having her on board.

Will Jones, our deckhand aboard Lucy Mary, is now our first apprentice!  Such is his enthusiasm and ability that he will be given the opportunity to develop his skills through qualifications and experience to be a Skipper in the future.

Our Chefs 

We are delighted that our excellent Chefs, Charlie Reid, Sammy Elsegood and Izzy Corbett are all returning this season.  Our Chefs have a free rein to express themselves in their menus, using the fresh local produce available, which is one of the reasons why the food served aboard all our vessels is legendary. They are very adaptable, friendly and easy going, ensuring our guests food preferences and requirements are always met. Our new Chef this season, Sally Williams, approached us with a great level of experience at sea in the Hebrides. She would like to stay working aboard on our cruising routes and we are delighted to give her that opportunity.

Our Wildlife Guides

Our crew's ability to spot and identify wildlife for our guests is what sets us apart as a small-ship cruising company. Our wildlife guides are highly qualified and gifted at passing on their knowledge to our guests.  We are happy to retain our guides for the times they are available, just so we can have the best,

Lynsey Bland is our Head Guide who has been with us for many years and is our Green Initiative Crew Member. She will now also be spending some time on shore, helping the shore team ensure everything is perfect on board for our guests. 

Will Smith is returning for his 6th season; his speciality is birds but he is knowledgeable in all wildlife and is responsible for many of the excellent images on our website.

Indy Greene is a well-known naturalist due to his work with the BBC and Winter Watch.  His speciality is also birds, but passionate about all species and we are pleased he will be back on board again in 2025

Conor Ryan is our specialist cetacean scientist on our expedition cruise “In Search of Giants” which will provide vital data about whales over the years we run the cruise

We have two newcomers as Wildlife Guides in 2025.  We know Lauren Smith through her work with the Hebridean Whale and Dophin Trust and Dave Sexton of RSPB Mull eagle fame.  Both have extensive skills and knowledge to share and we are delighted to welcome them to the team.

Our Shore Staff

We must also pay tribute to our shore staff who are in the background doing a vital job ensuring everything is ship shape on board. Family member Emma Fairbairns is Shore Manager, provisioning the ships but also juggling sales, marketing and being the primary contact for guests.  Emma said there are two shore staff that demand particular attention.

James Little (known affectionately as Tiny and who is of course quite tall) transports supplies and guests luggage to the ships on his yellow trolley( known as the yellow peril). He is always a helping hand as the ships arrive and depart, catching ropes and slipping the lines.  Everyone loves Tiny with his amazing sea faring background. When he’s not at the pontoons you’ll find him with a pint of Guinness in the Oban Inn. 

Simone is our Hebrides Cruises Housekeeping Fairy.  She does an outstanding job cleaning the ships after each cruise, always going the extra mile and ruthless in her standards.  Her husband Thomas is sometimes her hoover boy!

With such an exceptional team of crew members and shore support, we are well set and looking forward to another great season!