About Nautiste
We focus on the details so you can focus on your purpose
our north star is your quality experience
In partnership with incredibly kind and competent captains, some of the most sought-after hospitality professionals in the nation’s capital, and a singularly talented, celebrated, and uncompromising chef — it’s an honor to elevate the expectation of an on-the-water experience for our guests, and help bring fellow dreamers’ celebratory visions to life on the water.
Trusted by DC’s premier guest experience providers
Meet the Founder
Hannah Puckett - USCG Captain, CREATIVE DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
Since returning to DC in 2023, it’s Hannah’s joy to bring her career in design, guest service, as a USCG 25T captain to her private clients’ benefit, sharing her nautical joie de vivre to design experiences befitting exceptional moments together on the water.
Hannah jokes that, for a Navy brat, her parents taught her almost nothing about boating. Yet childhood memories of living on the seaside in Monterey, California and a women’s sailing clinic on Lake Travis would eventually sway the latter-day Austin-ite to uproot from central Texas in search of her own life aquatic.
In 2017, Hannah took her 9-to-5 tech career in applied anthropology & experience design on the “road” while exploring her passion for sea life, slow travel, and cultural communities on the water. Thanks to patient teachers and mentors from Alaska to South Africa, she gained an appreciation for the meaning of “seaworthy” while crewing yacht deliveries around the Caribbean, and cruising the North American Atlantic coast on a 42’ racer-cruiser sloop named Galatea (which also taught her a good deal about caring for vintage boats, fixing things, and West System two-part epoxy).
For someone who didn’t grow up sailing, Hannah amassed more than 15,000 nautical miles of sea-time in six years. Even more than the mileage, she holds dear an appreciation for all the moments in between milestones: how sunrises, sunsets, and shared meals on the water make for precious, unforgettable memories worth celebrating in and of themselves.
