Interesting characters you have met

[Baboontyme 2845]

I feel like this guy's story is pretty good, but not good enough that he deserves his own thread. I am sure there are millions of people around the world who do unique stuff like this, so let's hear about those who you have run across. 

I want to talk about my wife's best friend's Dad. We'll call him Captain Ed. Ed bought a jewelry store in Grosse Pointe, MI in the late 60s/early 70s. This was and still is a high falutin' area with a lot of money. Ed says that he made his fortune because he was good with his hands in terms of doing whatever jewelers do, and because he took care of his customers, regardless of what it meant to his bottom line. He did well. 

At some point in the late 80s, Ed attended a Boat show at Cobo Hall in Detroit. He had worked on some sort of Great Lakes boat out of Cleveland as a teen, but had gotten into trouble for duplicating the key to the bar and stealing all of the liquor and getting caught. He was denied entry to the Coast Guard but always carried an affinity for the water, despite going into the Jewelry business. He was a self-admitted troublemaker and heavy drinker who got into trouble with the law quite often in his teens and 20s. 

Anyway, there was a particular boat, a trawler(?) maybe, I guess that caught his and his daughter's eye at this boat show. A 36 footer Kadey-Krogen. Ed's 10 year old daughter said she liked and it he should buy it. So he did. It was iirc 90k at the time, and he got an additional 3k off because they planned to take it to the Toledo Boat Show the following weekend and he let them. 

Within a few years, Ed found himself divorcing, because in his own words, he's "an asshole, who does what he wants". But he has "a certain charm" and everyone likes him. Can confirm. Ed decided he wanted to sell his business and live on the boat. He found a younger woman who he dated who he talked into doing this with him. The price? He surrendered his vote to this very progressive young woman, and he promised to give her his Marco Island beachfront condo when he kicked it. Ed says this was the best deal he ever made. 

Ed and his new bride took to living on the boat. They hail out of Grosse Pointe and now own a marina slip in St. Clair Shores, MI, a few miles up the shores of Lake St. Clair from The Pointes. They are "loopers". They hold the record for the most iterations of "the Great Loop" of anyone. They are going on their 33rd year of doing The Great Loop. They spend July to early October in SE Michigan. They then take off heading North into Lake Huron, pass through the straits of Mackinac and head South in Lake Michigan towards Chicago. They take the Chicago River to another river to the Tennessee River and eventually find their way into the Mississippi into Mobile. They stay a few months in Mobile before heading to the Gulf and eventually to their winter slip in Marco Island (his sister lives in the condo). In the Spring they take off from Marco and either head around the tip of FL or through Okeechobee and come up the Atlantic Coast, into the Erie Canal etc and back to Michigan. 

The Great Loop has become a thing, in large part due to Ed and his wife. Europeans quit their jobs and move to the US for a year or more to do it. They have become quasi-famous. Their boat - the Manatee - has it's own fan pages on FB and people post often of sightings. The Manatee has its own 'dinghy' - a maybe 10 ft inflatable boat with a crazy, overpowered outboard motor. I don't know shit about boats but Ed tells me it's powerful enough that he can rig it to actually push or tow the 36 footer at a speed equal to the 36' top speed of ~ 7 mph. Yes, they circle the country via rivers at 7 mph. When Ed and his wife have had enough of each other he will take off with the dog in the dinghy and go do an errand or a "field trip" and it's fast enough (or the big boat is slow enough) that he can catch back up with her on their journey. I've been on the Manatee 4x including yesterday, and every time it's more fascinating than the last. 

Ed is now 82 years old. He does everything on the boat - he has an air compressor that he uses to not only clean the boat but also to blow him air so he can go underneath the rig and clean the prop, transducer, etc before heading back down South every year. That was part of our mission yesterday. Inspect the boat for sea-worthiness before they take flight in a month. He has a winch and an indestructible mast and a sail and he uses the winch to hoist/offload his 125cc scooter that they park on land at the marinas for errands. 

In terms of the character himself, Ed drinks to the chagrin of his wife. They bicker as you can imagine. It's a miracle she puts up with him. Ed says the key to longevity to any couple that decides to live on a boat is to get a dog. And for that we can all thank Patches, a 10 year old King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. Patches has become famous in her own right, as she often finds her way off of the Manatee and into the water where Ed and/or his wife have to retrieve her with a custom made fishing net that hangs near the mast. Ed tells me he starts drinking most days around 3 PM. He drinks the cheapest scotch he can find in a plastic bottle, as glass is a no no if you can avoid it when on the seas. He has not been short for money in the past but he just has lost his taste for good liquor so why splurge. At dinner time he lays down in bed to satellite TV, and his wife serves him dinner. Then he drinks more scotch and passes out. The dog wakes him up around 5 every morning and he takes her for a long walk before coming back to the Manatee to research his stocks.

The market has not turned Ed's way of late, endangering their current "looping" lifestyle as they embark on Loop #33. He says with a wink that he will figure it out because he always does. I have no doubt he will. 82 years young. Cheers to Captain Ed. 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by Baboontyme

[WhatTheBuck 28852]

So that’s how Captain Stabbin’ got his start. 

[Baboontyme 2845]

Few more pics. The first one is him jumping into St. Clair from the TOP of the pilot house in 2019. You can see the inside of the "salon" is a bit of a mess. My 9 year old mixing him a drink 😉. Other one is my oldest kid in the dinghy with the good Captain, also in 2019.

[Al_4_ISU 12550]

Fuckin' Patches seems like the character here.

[RollLeft 5053]

Damn is that his wife, washing dishes, is younger than i thought.  

Edited September 9, 2022 by RollLeft

[Baboontyme 2845]

That is my 9 year old. That shits even creepy for surly. I think. Maybe Brat can weigh in. 

 

[Hook1997 5435]

What’s Captain Ed and the manatee’s Facebook to follow these adventures?

[Baboontyme 2845]

I'm a little torn on giving the name out because I aired some personal stuff. Then again knowing Ed a little bit I don't think he would mind, and he'd probably spill his guts to anyone who would have a drink with him within 20 minutes. I felt it was important to share those details to help build his character arc. I'll just say that it wouldn't be too hard to find using the Google machine and it's his wife's page and if you do follow, please be respectful. I'll edit some of those details so we don't have to move the thread. I think it would be awesome to hear other stories. 

[Guest]

Sitting in a Waffle House in Nashville, because hey… why not?

Two white ladies and 2 black ladies working the counters and cooking, all under 30.  Pretty sure all 4 could kick my ass.

They start talking about all of the men they date and running off this one and that one. One of them starts talking about working a double shift and being dead-ass tired and heading over to her new boyfriend’s apartment.  She walks in the door puts some take out on the counter that he wanted, then in her words, “ plop my ass down on the couch and put my feet on the table.”  She’s just relaxing a minute and then an older lady in the corner recliner asks, “ Who the hell are you?”

After her heart jumped out of her chest, she  realized she was in the wrong apartment.

It’s the stories that keep me coming back…lol.

Edited December 21, 2023 by slorch

[Horn Draoi 256]

Probably the shrimper I met when he came up to my fishing partner and I to cadge a beer poolside at some skeezy motel in Aransas Pass.  Grabbed my hands, looked ‘em over, and said i obviously didn’t work hard because they weren’t as calloused and scarred as his.  Then offered to sell us a pound of weed, fresh off the boat.  Then invited us into the hot tub, since it was getting dark.  Uh, no man.  We’re getting up early to go fishing, so time for us to hit the hay………..