about us
Meet Mark & Stacy
CAPTAIN MARK
Not a single day has gone by since the summer of 1979, when Mark sailed the sea of Cortez with the Mitchell family, that he hasn’t dreamed of getting back on the water. If you’re familiar with the Gulf of California, you’ll know it has a way of settling so deep into your bones that you’ll never get it out. It permeates everything you do after that.
With the memory of that water sloshing in his brain, Mark spent years doing everything he could to return to the sea. He took sailing classes, developed an addiction to sailing videos, and chartered boats as often as possible.
In 2022 he finally retired from a 30+ year profession in forestry and land sales. He spent most of his career in the mountains while dreaming of a life on the sea. The time had finally come.
Mark spent the last several years looking for the perfect boat, but was never quite able to find the right one. Early one morning while surfing the web, Mark came across a facebook post about a couple who had just ordered a new Lagoon catamaran. Mark quickly did the math and realized that meant they would be selling their current Lagoon so he sent the owners a text which started our journey to official boat ownership and a brand new friendship with the owners.
These days, Captain Mark can be found paddle boarding to shore every morning for his daily jog—his marathon running days have been swapped for easy island jogs. He’s got a perma-smile at the helm and a day never passes when he expresses gratitude for finally returning to the sea.
STACY
Stacy spent the first ten years of her life in Southern California, always in flip flops and forever begging to go to the beach. Her family would eventually move to Oregon but she would never shake her need for bare feet or the ocean.
It was in Oregon, many years later, where she and Mark would meet. Remarkably, his love for water eclipsed hers and soon it became apparent that life with him would be one forever chasing after water in flip flops. A notion her ten year-old self would give her present self a high-five for.
His marriage proposal sounded something like, “Will you cross an ocean with me?” and her answer began a lifelong pursuit to make it all happen. Their dream and life aboard Bedouin has become a technicolor collaboration of dreams, blending Mark’s love for sailing and Stacy’s restless need to wander and the strong pull she feels towards anything to do with the ocean—it’s the perfect melding of both their passions.
Sailing has reunited her with her beloved flip flops and so many beaches that her heart feels blissfully at home. On land she was happiest on her wakeboard or motorcycle—always something moving. Her wakeboard was swapped for a paddle board and some dive fins and she sold her beloved motorcycle. Now, most of their sailing plans have become suspiciously in line with MotoGP’s race schedule. It’s a blending of dreams, of hers and his, land and sea. And it’s the next chapter in a life full of extraordinary adventure.
Meet our kids that come and crew
BOSUN CHLOE
We get spoiled when our youngest daughter Chloe comes aboard to visit. She’s an expert Bosun and loves running the top side and does it better than we do–so well, that when she orders us around we do exactly what she says. There are few jobs she’ll turn down. This 5’4” girl can handle the sails like a boss and maneuvers the dingy like she’s Don Johnson on Miami Vice. Here in this photo, she’s helping troubleshoot a clogged generator inlet. The girl is all in when she’s onboard.
She shares her dad’s love for the water and is game for any water adventure, especially if they can add a bit of speed and insanity to their exploits, like surfing behind the dingy around the anchorage.
When she’s trapped on a boat with her parents, Chloe comes up with interesting ways to entertain the crew. She refers to herself as “Debbie Deckhand” and films quirky documentaries about sailing life. She’ll often grab her travelling microphone (yes, she has one) and also films herself giving daily weather reports. Chloe is also our boat DJ, making sure we have the perfect playlist.
When she’s on land she’s always behind a camera. These days she’s working at Walt Disneyworld as a photopass photographer in Florida, mostly so she can enjoy a winter which has way more sunny days than she would normally get back home in Oregon. Summer in the Med is coming soon, so we’re hoping she’ll trade in a little Florida sun for some back on the boat.
CHEYENNE & CLARK
Our oldest daughter Cheyenne and her husband Clark run a little family farm back in Oregon where they are raising three kids, nine alpacas, four chickens, three fainting goats, two dairy goats, two bunnies, two Guinea hens (we’re not sure what those are), two dogs, and two cats. There used to be a pig but we haven’t seen him in a while and are suspicious he’s lodged somewhere in their freezer.
They basically run a zoo, so when they come to visit, life aboard Bedouin is easy sailing. They are no strangers to hard work and they’re pretty good at all the crazy jobs on board.
Cheyenne is great in the galley and when she comes aboard, she often ends up as our cruise director, turning everything into an adventure or a party. She loves to travel and so she’s usually making plans for places to go and see. She loves the paddle boards so if you want any time on them when she’s in residence, you’d better book a time slot.
We call Clark “Tall One” and when he visits, he gets all jobs that are out of Stacy’s reach. She loves when he’s aboard and makes him roll the sun shades up and down, hang the laundry on the lines that are way above the cockpit seats, and reach into the bowels of the lockers with his long arms. When Stacy’s not making him reach for things, he’s avid about history so wherever Cheyenne’s wanderlust takes us, Clark usually can tell us the in-depth history behind the places we visit.
RACHEL & MITCHELL
CONNOR
Connor’s first car was a dingy. He was about eleven years-old when he learned to drive around our anchorage and had his first taste of freedom. It was always torture coming back to land because it meant his driving privileges got revoked. Life at sea put him in the driver’s seat and land wouldn’t let him near a car for another four years.
After high school he made a long series of moves that eventually lead to Florida where he traded in his wake and snow boards for a surf board and reunited with his passion for the ocean. There he discovered another passion—freediving. He started training in the underground springs near his home in Florida and PR’d a four-minute breath hold. Florida’s waters were a warm welcome compared to the dive training he did on the Oregon Coast.
This kid is always chasing adventure and these days he’s found it in outer Mongolia. No kidding. It’s hard to picture our youngest son in a land locked country but there he is, in sub-degree temperatures, eating goats and teaching English. And whenever he gets the chance to video chat, he’s always got a perma-smile.
Thankfully, he loves the sea and Bedouin is calling his name so we hope to see him back aboard soon. We miss our Dingy driver and dive buddy.
