The 72-foot motor yacht, Lady of the Sea, is a luxury small cruise ship new to the Homer Harbor this summer and a new business venture for locals Rand and Lauren Seaton.

Lady of the Sea features an open design, large, full-beam salon, formal dining room and breakfast bar, with white and wood trim and teak flooring, and an outdoor deck and couch providing room for outdoor dining, lounging and scenic viewing. Guests have access to a 30-foot foredeck and flybridge with 360-degree visibility, the main cabin with windows around the entire above deck area, and accommodations include three staterooms, each with their own bathroom, shower and nautical-themed artwork.

Purchased in Bellingham, Washington, by the Seatons last year, Lady of the Sea was at one time a houseboat or personal watercraft, and was refitted in 2019 by the previous owners who intended to run cruises in and around Bellingham, but were stymied by COVID-19 and then decided to retire rather than run the business.

“The previous owners wanted their boat to stay in the charter business and not become someone’s personal yacht,” Lauren Seaton said. “They were as excited to find us as we were to find them.”

Originally intending for the couple, their young daughter, Nora, and several family members to make the journey aboard the boat from Bellingham through the Inside Passage and to Homer in early April to debut with single overnight trips during the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, their departure was delayed due to 50 mph winds in the Bellingham harbor and rolling squalls forecast across the Gulf of Alaska.

On May 12, Rand and his parents, Paul and Tina, brought the boat to Homer, departing Bellingham on May 12 and arriving into Homer on May 21, stopping in ports daily to avoid driving the boat at night.

“I feel so lucky to have my parents be able to join me in bringing a boat up the Inside Passage, and to share this adventure with them,” Rand said.

For the young couple, offering Lady of the Sea Adventures small boat cruises is the culmination of Rand’s lifetime of boating experience, Lauren’s enjoyment of outdoor adventure, and their mutual desire to share their love of the ocean and Alaska with others.

Born and raised in Homer, Rand grew up with his parents fishing and tendering in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound. When he was 5 months old, his crib was a drawer on their boat and his bathtub a sink on the boat.

As he grew up, Rand crewed on his family’s vessels, eventually running them, including the F/V Georgia Straits, a 64-foot converted landing craft that his dad turned into a tender, and then the F/V Albatross, originally a wooden square bow herring boat fishing the Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay.

After college, he returned to Homer, got a teaching certificate, and for the next nine years spent the school months teaching math at Homer Middle School and his summers commercial fishing, including on the F/V Totem, the last of his family’s tenders, with his wife of one year working alongside him.

Lauren was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, and came to Alaska in 2011. For two summers, she worked at Alaska Wildland in Cooper Landing before moving to Homer and working as an aid at Homer Middle School, where she met Rand. Getting her master’s degree in teaching, she taught at Homer High School for four years, commercial fished seasonally for three of those years, and then moved over to the Homer Foundation, where she currently works.

Raised in a family of outdoor adventurer enthusiasts, she grew up fishing rivers, hunting and hiking, and did not spend much time on boats.

“Being with Rand and his family who are knowledgeable and experienced on the water has helped me tremendously,” she said. “Since working on the Totem, I’ve been less likely to be sick on boats, which has definitely helped me want to be on them more.”

The couple considers Lady of the Sea Adventures a marriage of her knowledge of the tourism industry and adventures on Kachemak Bay and his years of experience commercial fishing and exploring the local landscape.

With a vision of creating private luxury tours of Kachemak Bay, the couple found their perfect vessel in Lady of the Sea. Lady of the Sea Adventures provides small ship multiday cruises around Kachemak Bay with excursions including kayaking, paddle boarding, glacier viewing, hiking, fishing, wildlife tours, tidepooling, and more, as well as longer, up to eight- or nine-day cruises across Cook Inlet. They also offer a four-hour evening Wildlife and Dinner Cruise, which includes a three-course dinner.

“We saw this opportunity for Kachemak Bay with a lot of fishing charters, but not as many adventure charters,” Lauren Seaton said.

While Rand captains the vessel, Lauren runs the back end of the business and helps with shore logistics. Their crew includes Mike Tozzo, second captain, who has lived, commercial fished and run tenders and water taxis in Alaska for more than 15 years; Kelsey Haas, naturalist, Homer born and raised on the waters of Kachemak Bay and hiking and exploring the local landscape; and Avram Salzman, chef, a lifelong Homer resident and recent Yale graduate who has worked and cooked on commercial fishing boats, and guided and cooked at area wilderness lodges.

The couple are hard at work, building an eco-friendly business that will thrive for years to come.

“Having grown up here, I’ve seen quite a bit of change and I want to be able to show people the amazing things we have here — wildlife, scenery, glaciers — without leaving damage on the environment,” Rand Seaton said. “It’s really important to both of us that Nora has the same experiences I had living here surrounded by pristine nature. This beauty is what we want to share with everyone.”

For more information, find Lady of the Sea Adventures on Facebook and Instagram. Book your overnight or dinner cruise at ladyoftheseaadventures.com.

The “Lady of the Sea” fuels up in Petersburg, Alaska in May 2023 on her way from Washington State to Homer. Photo provided by Rand Seaton

Second captain Mike Tozzo, chef Avram Salzman, and captain and owner Rand Seaton pose in front of the “Lady of the Sea” on Thursday, June 1, 2023 in the Homer Harbor in Homer, Alaska. Photo provided by Lauren Seaton