The Captains
Gart Curtis
Gart has spent much of his life on the water, sailing dinghies at age 6 in southern California. Not long after graduating from Walla Walla College with a degree in English, he headed to Dutch Harbor to work on a catcher/processor. After fulfilling several contracts in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, he immediately spent his crew share on a 34 foot sloop and made for Baja, eventually getting across the Pacific as far as New Zealand before running out of money. Gart worked a number of years for National Geographic/Lindblad Expeditions, running eco-tours in South East Alaska in summer, and in the Gulf of California/Baja in winter. He has crewed for several yacht deliveries on the east coast and spent a summer running shuttles and tours on the Susitna and Talkeetna Rivers. For over a decade, Gart has been happily operating the Blue Too on one of the most beautiful bays in the western hemisphere, and going home every night. He lives in Homer, Alaska, with his wife Deb, and their two children, Leland and Margo. They ski, hike, fish, and even surf from time to time.
Lance Haggerty
Born and raised in Homer, Alaska, Lance and his twin brother Max, aka Port and Starboard, made a formidable duo in the Homer Little League. Lance began his maritime career early: fishing and boating with Mom and Dad, swimming for the Homer High School Mariners, seining in Prince William Sound, gill-netting in Bristol Bay, king crab fishing in the Bering Sea, and drifting aimlessly on a reed raft in Thailand. Lance holds a 100 ton Master’s license, volunteers as a trail blazer in Kachemak Bay State Park, lives to ski, and works tirelessly on his homestead with his main squeeze, Pam the Halibut Researcher. He is currently Master and owner of the Mulligan.
Don’t ask him about his commercial fishing career unless you have time for some great stories.
Curtis Jackson
Curt grew up along the shores of Lake Michigan in Indiana where he first took the wheel of a sailing boat on open water. Graduating from Purdue University with a degree in Biology, he published research on the role of bird communication in forest ecosystems. He spent three years teaching high school biology/environmental science in Compton, California, where his daily classroom mantra was “Live your dream!” During the third year of teaching, a student asked Curt what his dream was and he left the classroom to get busy pursuing it: a career on boats. He worked as a research diver and boat operator in grad school, tracking giant ocean sunfish, tagging mako sharks off the coast of Mexico, and observing swordfish and leather backed sea turtles in the Pacific with the National Marine Fisheries. He arrived in Alaska in 2000, working as a halibut researcher on the remote Aleutian Island of Adak. For the next decade he worked aboard fishing vessels out of Homer. In 2015, Curt and his wife, Jen, became the proud parents of a sailor-in-training, Oberon Jackson. That same year Captain Curt also became the proud owner of a thirty two foot, nine thousand pound Munson landing craft, the Orca.
KARI hendrich
Kari grew up on the coast of Maine where she spent many days fishing flounder out of a rowboat and sailing with her dad. Not long after making her way to Alaska, she got work as a commercial long line fisherman and spent the next decade fishing in the Aleutian Islands, the Pribilofs, Bristol Bay, Nome, Prince William Sound, and Southeast Alaska. On one of her first adventures across Kachemak Bay she purchased land and built a cabin on a steep cliff with a view of the Herring Islands, Grace Ridge, Sadie Peak, and Eldred passage, one of the most beautiful places on earth. For many years she and her husband and daughter have divided their time living across Kachemak Bay during the long days and spending the winter months at their cabin in the Chugach Mountains in the Girdwood Valley, back-country skiing and playing old time music. She can be found running the Blue Too.
Janel Harris
Born on the ocean with salt water blood, Janel was raised in a small coastal community in California, sailing, surfing, and playing on the water. She attended the University of California and earned a degree in Anthropology. She has worked as a field technician in archaeology, wildlife biology, botany, and geophysical mapping. She currently holds a 500 ton USCG Master’s license and is an Alaska Marine Safety Education Association certified marine safety instructor. She has also spent time as a kayak guide, Harbor Patrol Officer, and deck hand on a NOAA research vessel in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. She loves the diversity that each day brings while running small boats. Janel currently lives in Seldovia where she is a Seldovia Fire & EMS volunteer firefighter, and most importantly a mom to her daughter, Lily. She loves to take photos, paddle, hike, and pick berries with friends and family. She can be found running the Munson landing craft “Orca”.
Our Staff
Leah Westphal
Office Manager Extraordinaire! Efficiency Queen, Tamer of Chaos, 21st century Techno-Wizard. Leah actually sees our daily taxi schedule page in three dimensions, as round trips! Born into a large fishing clan in Soldotna, Alaska, she left to start a family and begin a long, grueling stint as a dairy farmer in Wisconsin. She eventually migrated into a Real Estate gig in Arizona, and then “came home to where (she) was meant to be”. After earning honorary degrees in exploration and flying recon missions for sunken treasure in the South Seas, Leah found she wasn’t challenged enough; that changed when she joined Mako’s.
vicki muenchow
Vicki started out in Minnesota where she earned her BA in history from the University of Minnesota. She spent a decade as an overland adventure guide through all 50 states, Canada, and Mexico. She made her way to Alaska in 2013, working summers guiding kayak trips in Kenai Fjords National Park and Kachemak Bay. She can be found in the Mako’s Water Taxi office when she isn’t exploring the Alaska outback.
tia clucas
Tia grew up under the eagle-eye of Leah, our office manager, on their Wisconsin farm. While there, she ran wild in the countryside hunting deer in the forests bare-handed, tubing in the rivers without a paddle, and climbing trees chasing racoons in blizzards. It is no wonder that as a hearty Alaskan she loves to hunt and gather Alaska’s bounty and go snowboarding, cross-country skiing, and kayaking with her husband, Christopher, and puppy, Cha-ka. When she isn’t playing, she is working as a bookkeeper for her aunt and uncle’s local plumbing company, and in the office at Mako’s, where she began indoctrination at 16. Tia earned her bonafides and sea legs as a cork stacker on a cape seiner off Kodiak for three summers. If she weren’t such a prankster she would bring some sanity to Mako’s office on the Homer Spit; instead, she brings her smarts, creativity, and wit.
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max haggerty
Max, the Port in Port and Starboard, shared a wholesome childhood with his little brother, Lance, until he moved to Oregon to earn his Bachelor’s in Political Science at the University of Oregon. Max is a Sports Statistics Wizard, Fantasy Football Champion, and CFO of Mako’s Water Taxi.
amy bright
Amy is a desert rat turned Sandhill Crane, who has been migrating north for the last seven summers to be Mako’s life support system, bookkeeper, seamstress, cabin host, cultivator, editor, and partner in crime. She earned a Bachelor’s in Linguistics from the University of Arizona after her children fledged, teaching high school English to at-risk students in Tucson until her retirement.
the many, the brave, the visionaries
Mako’s wouldn’t be Mako’s without the cumulative energy that has flowed into the operation since it first hatched in Mako’s mind. The contribution of innovations, ideas, technology, creativity, wisdom, patience, and brute force by a host of actors (you know who you are!) has nurtured a force for good on the Homer Spit. Thanks to all of you for your service.
Special thanks to Abby Franke for pushing the vision into the 21st century, Sarah Robertson for supplying warm rays of sunshine still felt on rainy days, and Barb Davis for keeping it all above board.
The Fleet
Mulligan
Built by Blackfeather in Juneau, Alaska, it sports twin Honda outboards at 225 horsepower each, and cruises comfortably in calm or choppy seas. The Mulligan is a fast, friendly ride across the bay.
Blue Too
Locally built, the Blue Too is the longest active boat in the Mako’s Water Taxi fleet and the hardest working boat in Alaska. This catamaran has twin 225 horsepower Honda outboards and a fantastically cool mural of an octopus on the cabin.
Mighty Quinn
This modified Uniflite carries 23 happy passengers on tours and makes beach landings, making it a great choice for group outings. The Mighty Quinn, with comfortable seating and large windows, delivers an adventure rain or shine.
Orca
This Munson built landing craft can do anything. It is our all-purpose go-to boat; whether you are looking for an intimate wildlife tour or to move a unit of 2 by 4s, this is the boat you need.