This is a story that begins in 1979. It starts with a generous friend and his family and an invitation to Mark to come live aboard their sailboat Liahona.
That summer, that boat, and that family would forever change the life of a high school teenager. It would become a literal demarcation line in his life, splitting things in two—life before and life after the Liahona.
It was a summer that’s been relived through a thousand retellings, because once the sea gets deep in your bones, it never leaves you.
There have been sporadic returns in the years since, but never long enough. The only thing constant were Mark’s stories of a life once lived aboard a boat back in the summer of ‘79.
In the fall of 2021 we headed to Greece to begin a new chapter. We think we’ve found our boat. She’s sitting in a far-away marina waiting for us, and we’re hoping she’s the one.
Since Mark left the Liahona all those years ago, he’s been counting the days until he can set sail again—and share it with our children, family, and friends—so this time around we will all have stories to sail.
