I’m Micha, I’m from Germany and have owned Pantagruel for 20 years. I’ve been sailing for 25, including 9 Atlantic crossings, and have sailed countless ocean miles as yacht charter entrepreneur and skipper between St. Petersburg, New York and New Zealand!
- Civil Engineer,
- Travel Organiser,
- Canyoning and ski guide,
- Coach Business Manager,
- Teacher at University of Applied Sciences of Frankfurt, Germany: Experimental Education Medium Sailing
“After decades a of being a captain and a tour operator I still enjoy meeting new people and bringing them together to infect them with team spirit.”
I have both the English and German yacht master qualifications and as a trained engineer, can fix pretty much everything on the boat. I’m a relaxed person who enjoys travelling, adventure and meeting new people. I’m a keen divers and have snorkelling and scuba diving equipment onboard including a compressor.
About you
I view my guests as being part of the crew and whilst I don’t require my guests to have any prior experience, I do expect you to have a sense of adventure and an eagerness to learn and you will get the chance to learn a lot! I all share the jobs on the boat, including sailing the boat, keeping watch (especially when night sailing – but don’t worry you won’t need to do this alone), cooking and cleaning.
Our thoughts
I want to use the boat for what it’s built for: crossing big oceans. It is made for long journeys and feeling close to the ocean. I both like to discover new countries and cultures when I’m onboard as well as onshore and really enjoy having a mixed international crew sailing with me (because it means I can fly more flags). Over the years I’ve had people from many countries onboard, including Argentina, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Russia and Mongolia! I’ve had great experience with this and with this in mind I’d like to invite the first person from a country whose nationality I’ve not yet had to sail with me on the boat for free.
Pantagruel 
Hello Micha and Jo,
I have sent you a request on findcrew.net and you replyed positive, thanks for that! So I did a little enquiry and here I am replying on your very informative web site having checked before your attractive facebook pages!
I can not skip “… we would like to invite the first person from a country whose nationality we have not yet had to sail with us on the boat for free.” Am I the lucky one? First Bulgarian willing to join your crew and get aboard of the old “gentleman’s yacht” Pantagruel? How big may the Bulgarian tricolour be? I’ll bring with me the biggest acceptable size if I’m the pioneer Bulgarian ‘welcome aboard’.
Of course I’ll bring also some Bulgarian culture and my ‘manycolour’ personality, because during my curriculum vitae I used to live also for 6 yars in the Nederlands (holding also a Dutch passport, which is more visa friendly) and for 3 years in East and in the later reunificated Berlin (witnessed the opening of the Wall and the hoisting for the first time of the German banner on Unification Day, 3 October 1990 on the pillar in front of the Reichstag:).
You asked me do I still live in Bulgaria, because my ip address shows I’m in Turkey now. Both is true….I’m on my way to Varna, my home town on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, from Thailand, where I had a snorkeling/diving holiday on Rawai beach, Phuket) and sinds yesterday I’m stranded in Istanbul because the Winter has closed the roads up North.
My e-address where you can mail me if you wish so is sailingcrewpeter@yahoo.com or pkirjazov@gmail.com.
Wishing you a lot of prejoy while preparing and planning (although it seems everything is already well planned)
I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
Warm regards,
Peter.
LikeLike
Hi Michael, we got in contact before via find a crew.
I’m still interested to know more about you, the crew and the boat as well as the options to sail with you.
As I don’t had the options to send a message before on find a crew now I discovered your website and so I’m writing to you.
I would be happy to hear from you soon….
Thanks,
Timo
LikeLike
Hey Timo, thanks for getting in touch, we have a lot of info on our website about the boat and our ideas for sailing as well as our schedule and which trips still have free places. Could you email us at info.pantagruel@gmail.com and tell us a bit about yourself, which trip(s) you’d be interested to join and any questions you have. Cheers, Jo
LikeLike
hi micha and jo,
you have a spectacular adventure planned!
like timo, i also contacted you via findacrew a while back and then found this great blog. i sent a message to your pantagruel email but have not heard any reply. i thought maybe it got lost in the spam folder so id contact you this way. i have some sailing experience , play violin, love adventures and would love to potentially join your travels. if you are interested in further communication, I would love to talk/email!
thanks ,
andrew
LikeLike