ABOUT OUR BOAT:

Nancy Lu is our 2004, Swedish made, 43 ft., Hallberg-Rassy, sailing sloop. She has provided two other owners, before us, with safe and comfortable sailing adventures. Under the name Pearl, she sailed from Annapolis, through the Caribbean, and on to Seattle, Washington. As Rogla, she sailed from Seattle, through the Caribbean, and back to Annapolis. That’s where we met up with her!

We were excited to christen her with her current name when we became her proud, new owners. Nancy Lu is now named after our mothers, Nancy Rae and Lunell! We love her name! We wanted to name our boat a “people” name; what better people to name her after than the one’s through which we came into this world in which we are now exploring in a new and exciting way?!

ABOUT HOW WE GOT TO WHERE WE ARE NOW AND WHAT WE DO:

We are Mark and Kathy from Texas. We’ve been married for 30 years. We met at our college, Baylor University. Baylor actually plays a significant part in what we are doing now, years later! Mark took a sailing course as a Health and Physical Education requirement the spring semester of his senior year. When he would ask his girlfriend, at the time, one of my apartment-mates, to go practice-sailing with him on the little Sunfishes our Hobie Cats at the Baylor Marina on the Brazos River, she usually declined. He would then ask me if I would like to go.  Always one prone to a little fun over study, I was more than willing! 30 years of marriage, 3 wonderful, grown kids (Amy, Ethan, and Claire), and 3 sailboats later, the rest is history!

We were married the same summer we graduated from Baylor after a whirlwind dating/engagement/wedding-planning period. Sailing was not part of our lives again until years later when we bought a little company and moved to an obscure little town with a big lake. We ended up buying a little 22ft. Catalina and enjoyed sailing her on Cedar Creek Lake. Later, we bought a 27ft. Catalina and named her Tidly Idly II after one of Amy’s favorite bedtime stories, Burt Dow Deep Water Man, by Robert McCloskey. When the kids were young, we started chartering sailboats in the Virgin Islands and once in Belize for vacations several summers. That’s when the dream of owning a blue-water sailboat and living the cruising lifestyle began.

We live on our boat part-time. Our first period on Nancy Lu lasted 9 mos. Our youngest daughter, Claire, was part of the crew for that period. She had just graduated from high school and took a year off before starting college. Our next period started about 9 mos. later and lasted 17 mos.  Now, we’re back out after another 9 mos. period at our land-home. We hope to sail to the Caribbean this summer!

ABOUT THE CREW:

Captain Mark:
Mark is the real sailor in the family. He is passionate about it! When we took bare-boating vacations while he worked so hard (sometimes 7 days a week) running our company, the job of captaining the sailboat in which his family was temporarily sheltered, totally consumed his mind and gave him a respite from his many responsibilities as a small business owner. He was hooked! He still loves the way the constant management of the systems on our boat, the figuring out of sail plans, the watching of weather, and the problem-solving (yes, even the constant fixing of things) that is necessary to the cruising lifestyle occupies his mind. He’s also pretty good at “managing” his wife’s enjoyment of the cruising lifestyle. Oh, and he really loves actual SAILING!!

1st Mate:
Kathy is the more romantic of the crew. She is all about experiencing the uniqueness of living on a boat in all different cultures from “Down-east” Maine to the Family Islands of the Bahamas. She gets excited when she takes the perfect photo to depict, not only what she’s seeing, but also what she’s feeling about what she’s seeing (like the one on our home page)! She likes to craft on Nancy Lu, read God’s Word on Nancy Lu, feed the crew on Nancy Lu, snorkel, swim, and most of all, volunteer by teaching ANYTHING to kids who she comes across wherever she goes. She doesn’t care whether she’s teaching a craft, ballet class or a bible verse! One of the things that she loves best about the cruising lifestyle is experiencing the omnipresence of God. No matter where she is, God is near to her and those she meets along the way.

2nd Mate:
Timmy is Nancy Lu’s 15 year old, miniature-dachshund, geriatric, boat-dog. He likes sailing because he’s never very far from his woman! He has recently retired as Chief Security Officer due to diminished hearing and eyesight. His favorite pastime is sleeping.