About Us

Mark is a goofball with a nerdy knack for fixing things and a talent for breaking them. He is the Captain and Engineer of SV Timoneer, maker of messes and sometimes, pancakes. He is a Systems Engineer by trade with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Born and bred in New England, playing American football, rugby and wrestling, he one day decided to move to San Diego, and immediately loved the beach lifestyle and warm temperate climate. Within a few weeks he was volunteering as crew in sailing races. Fatefully, a friend of a friend sold him an O'Day 19' for a dollar and he sailed it regularly in the bays of San Diego, honing his skills. After hearing about the Pacific Puddle Jump and talking to people in the cruiser community, Mark decided to try his luck finding a boat to cross with. He was lucky to meet the right people at the right time and hitchhiked his way from San Diego to Polynesia on a handful of different sailboats. Eventually he was hired to Captain a boat from the Marquesas to Australia. Then he made it all the way to Thailand on a Super Yacht and has been sailing/working on boats since then. Mark is adventurous, spontaneous and a hard worker. When he's not covered in grease in the engine room, he's on deck tanning his bum and enjoying a cold beer. He loves the laid back lifestyle of cruising and is happy to be running from the system for the time being.

Layla is what you would call the First Mate (and author of this blog), she helps Mark sail, handle and maintain the boat. She does most of the cooking onboard and loves to improvise with whatever ingredients are available in the bilge or at the market. Born in Australia to French parents, she spent her first ten years growing up in Bali and then moved to Byron Bay, Australia, where she started surfing at the age of 12 and spending winters in France skiing and snowboarding. Layla has worked in a variety of jobs along the way- teaching (French and English) at High Schools, working with homeless young people, various hospitality and retail jobs and just recently as a Chef on a 105ft Superyacht, and as a hostess on a shark diving boat. Layla also loves to sing and for years was gigging with a band on the weekends, and also recording vocals. In 2012, Layla decided she wanted to travel and quit everything with the intention of backpacking alone for a year in South East Asia. When that year ended, she extended her trip and spent another year traveling Nepal, India, and back to Thailand and Indonesia. Layla then decided she wanted to try sailing, since she had done it as a small child when her parents had a boat. She flew to Nuie (in the South Pacific) and after hopping 2 boats met Mark, who was delivering a sailboat at the time, and crewed for him for 3 months through the south Pacific. But she wasn't done with the travel bug and spent the next year in South America backpacking solo. After a brief time back home working as a teacher, more travel came in the form of working as a chef on the super yacht that Mark was employed as an engineer. Together they sailed through West Papua, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The rest is all documented on the blog- so it seems the travels haven't ended yet! Despite having gladly ditched her 65L backpack, she is now happily taking on this new adventure of sailing.