Navigating Life's Tides: Rufus Alfred Ayers IV's Tales from Offshore Fisherman to Yacht Captain and the Call of the Sea

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bill (00:01):
Welcome to the podcast we Are Made For More with Megan
Alexander.
In this podcast, we'll striveto inspire people around the
world to become the best versionof themselves by featuring
guests with experiences andmindsets that demonstrate that
we are all made for more.

Billy (00:20):
Set sail with us as the waves of fate carry Megan's
brother, rufus Alfred Ayers IV,into a candid conversation about
his remarkable transformationfrom an offshore fisherman to a
yacht captain.
This tenth episode marks morethan a milestone.
It's a family affair thatunravels a tapestry of maritime

(00:41):
tales from Rhode Island's scenicharbors to the Gold Coast of
Long Island.
Beyond the catch, this voyagecontinues into the heart of a
fisherman's existence wherebeauty and brutality coexist.
Roof's journey is not justabout the allure of the open sea
.
It's a testament to the potencyof seizing life's opportunities

(01:03):
Through his eyes experience thevibrant life and unexpected
turns of a seafarer.

Meghan (01:14):
Hello and welcome to.
We Are Made For More.
I am your host, Megan Alexander, and this is my podcast.
Hello, everybody, I always kickoff with a warm welcome.
If this is your first show oryour 10th show with me, thanks
for tuning in.
I know you have a choice outthere to listen to a lot of
podcasts and I'm excited thatyou're checking this one out.
So this is we Are Made For More.
What does that mean?

(01:34):
It can mean something differentto everybody, but this is a
place where dreams, fears andinspirations hold court, and I'd
love to show the extraordinaryand the ordinary every step of
the way, because we're all madefor more.
So today is my 10th episode.
You just heard me say it, andwho's my special guest today?
But my brother, Rufus AlfredAyers IV.

(01:55):
Welcome, Ruf.

Rufus (01:57):
Hi Meghan.
Thank you for having me.

Meghan (01:59):
I'm excited to be here.
I'm excited to have you.

Rufus (02:01):
That was a beautiful introduction.

Meghan (02:08):
Thank you so much.
We're gonna have a good time.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
It's a nice day out finallyhere on Long Island Perfect.
It's been a long winter.

Rufus (02:12):
It has been a long winter .
I mean they're all the same.
They seem like they get longerevery time.
What is?

Meghan (02:18):
that I don't know.
Wow but this was a particularlylong one, but so excited to chat
it up with you today.
This was a particularly longone, but so excited to chat it
up with you today.
Listen, folks, we are going totell a couple of chapters in a
decades-long life.
Right, we're not going to tellthe whole life story today, but
today's journey is aboutoffshore fishermen to yacht

(02:38):
captain and what that lookedlike for Rufus in his life, and
he's going to navigate usthrough all of those steps and
some really cool stories.
I'm sure I'm going to learnsomething today that I haven't
heard before.

Rufus (02:49):
Megan, you know most of everything that's going on, but
maybe there's a few things thatwe can stir up.
Sure, I mean, let's dig around,have some fun.

Meghan (02:56):
Let's do it.
So, what I'll do is giveeverybody a little bit of a bio,
a couple tidbits so they knowwhat they're going to hear about
, and then we'll let you takemost of it away I love it okay,
everybody here.
so here we go roof, we call himroof.
Um, really, he fished out ofmultiple ports in rhode island
for about 20 years, and thoseincluded ports such as newport,

(03:20):
beautiful, beautiful uh city ortown, if you've never been there
Little Compton, tiverton, point, judith.
He also fished out of Cape May,new Jersey, in the summers for
squid out in the canyons there.
I'll let him take the languageaway because I don't want to
mess it up at all.
But then he transitioned tobecoming a yacht captain on the
Gold Coast of Long Island.

(03:40):
Like I said earlier, this isjust a couple of chapters of his
life, but they're reallyinteresting, and so I thought
you'd all really like to hearabout it today.
So let's get started.

Rufus (03:50):
Awesome, megan, awesome.

Meghan (03:51):
Thanks, let's have you take it away.
I've already spoken too much,so I'm turning it over to you.
Tell everybody a little bitabout you, first, just a little
bit about your life, and thenwe'll kind of take it right into
how you got into fishing.

Rufus (04:03):
Okay, well, kind of take it right into how you got it got
into fishing.
Okay, let's uh.
Well, born in danbury,connecticut, grew up in
watertown, connecticut.
We lived there through most ofour well, all of our childhood,
really yeah and um through highschool I went away for a couple
years to berkshire to boardingschool and then back to
watertown high to finish up.

Meghan (04:24):
Right.

Rufus (04:24):
And graduate from Watertown.
I was glad I did that.

Meghan (04:27):
Okay.

Rufus (04:28):
Yeah, I played sports all the while Hockey, soccer,
baseball, loved all that stuff.
And then out of high school Iwent right into the air force
and that was eye opening youknow, getting.
I didn't really know what I wasin for and I liked parts of it,
but it wasn't for me.

Meghan (04:45):
Okay.

Rufus (04:46):
I knew that kind of right away.

Meghan (04:47):
Airman.

Rufus (04:47):
Ayers, airman, ayers, yeah, and then you know Airman
First Class, and then they wouldtake a stripe away for
something stupid I did, and thenI'd get it back on.
I would actually keep multipleuniforms with different stripes
on them.

Meghan (04:58):
No way it was so back and forth.

Rufus (04:59):
Is that true?
Oh yeah, I was a case.
I was a hard case.
My immediates hated me.
The major loved me because Iplayed soccer and hockey with
him.
So the major of the base I wasin with the higher ups, my
master sergeant, would come offbase and save me.
In Plattsburgh, New York.
I was off tubing the Saranacand then running up to Sorority
Row in the morning.

Meghan (05:19):
Oh, you were trying to have some fun.

Rufus (05:20):
That.
That's all I wanted to do I wasrebelling, I was rebelling.
So it was not conformative forme to be in the Air Force.
You were rebelling because ofthe Air Force or just life was
rough at that time.
Life at the time, yeah.
But so almost three years inthe Air Force and then kind of
bebopped around for a little bit, moved to New Hampshire with a

(05:43):
girlfriend at the time and livedup there, worked at Attitash
and was a mountain bike guideand worked on the Alpine Slide.
I was making like $5 an hourbut rent was like $200 a month.
It was nuts.
I did that for a little bit andthen went back to Connecticut.

(06:03):
I didn't really know.
I moved to Little Compton,rhode Island, with a good buddy
of mine, jay Burchard, in 97.
Yeah, and just to get out andtry some other stuff.
I almost went to Colorado, toLeadville, with another friend,
but I didn't.
I went to Rhode Island and I'mglad I did yeah.
I made a life for myself therefor many years.

Meghan (06:22):
Right, you really settled in there.
Yeah, it became home for youfor a long time it did.

Rufus (06:26):
Met some really great people and it was fitting for me
.

Meghan (06:30):
Right.

Rufus (06:30):
Loved it and I found the ocean, which I knew nothing
about.
We're from Watertown, you wouldthink you know, but there was a
couple of lakes around youweren't really near the water
Canoes or a sailboat,sunfishfish, but never really
anything on the water.

Meghan (06:47):
But I'll lead right into the.
Yeah, I was gonna say you're apisces, so the pisces are drawn
to the water aren't they?

Rufus (06:51):
I mean, I guess.

Meghan (06:51):
So if you believe in that stuff, but yeah absolutely
yeah, sure, so yeah we want tohear.
We want to hear today about,about the fishing story, and I
know it's.
It's a good one.
So where do you want to start?

Rufus (07:01):
how did it it begin for you?
Actually, it started in LittleCompton.
It was by chance, Megan.
I left my car in anex-girlfriend's friend's
driveway overnight.

Meghan (07:17):
Okay.

Rufus (07:17):
And the next day I went back to get it and there was a
note on it looking for a job AW.
Well, aw turned out to be AllenWheeler and I ended up moving
in with the Wheelers and trapfishing with them for a couple
of years.
And the kids are great too.
I'm still friends with Luke andCorey and Miles and just a
great bunch of people andhardworking.

(07:39):
You know they are the last trapfamily in Rhode Island and what
an eye-opening experience thatwas.
I'll tell you trap fishing is.
You're not going to get rich,but it's fulfilling in many
other ways.

Meghan (07:52):
How?

Rufus (07:52):
so you know it was just all encompassing.
It was everything I needed atthe time.
I'll just give you a quick gistof how it works and maybe we
have some photos to help too,but that would help as well.
But so there's one big steamer,we call it one large boat, like
60 footer, and then it tows outthree working boats, three

(08:15):
aluminum working boats and thena 15 foot skiff and basically
the traps are already set outthere.
They don't bait them oranything, and they're the size
of buildings.
They're absolutely huge and theleaders that are these straight
things that are attached to oranchored to rocks, so sure okay
um, the fish will come in andhit these leaders and then be
trapped inside, swim into thisbig net and get trapped in there

(08:37):
, and we come out and surroundthe net 15, 16, 20 people,
mostly men, but usually a coupleof tough chicks scattered in
there, um, and just literallyhand over hand, pulling twine up
and collecting all of thesethousands of pounds of whatever.
You never know what's going tobe in there that's the thing it
could be squid, it could beherring, it could be mackerel

(09:00):
scup um.
But sometimes you get sharks orsunfish these things are just
leatherback turtles, just wildthings.
And you have sharks or sunfish,these things are just in there,
leatherback turtles, just wildthings.
And you have to help some ofthese things out.
But and then, uh, you collectand you know, use this big net
to dip in and load up the boatokay and then you load up the,
you know, load up the boat withfish, hopefully so how do you

(09:21):
pull them in?

Meghan (09:21):
I mean, I think you just explained some of it, but how
does that get?
I've seen like a wheel or yeah.

Rufus (09:26):
So on these working boats you basically have to pull up
the frames and close the nozzleto trap the fish in there, and
then you can hand over hand thenet and bring them all aboard
and purse them all together Ifyou will.
It's like signing in a way.

Meghan (09:38):
Okay, that kind of idea, idea, and that is the Cadillac
of fishing, as Alan would say.
The Cadillac, yeah, that's whathe called it.
So that's the top, like the top, that's what he's saying, yeah
and you know it's open tointerpretation, for sure but, I,
happen to agree with him.

Rufus (09:54):
You know it was a great style of fishing and um, but you
don't get.
You don't get rich you workevery day.

Meghan (09:59):
Yeah, tell us about that .
I mean you're.
I love that you're guiding thestory already, so you, you work
every day, seven days a week.

Rufus (10:04):
every day, Seven days a week yeah.

Meghan (10:07):
You're there every day, every morning.
When do you get the day offthen, if it's seven days a week.

Rufus (10:10):
If it's NASEO, you know it's weather dependent, really
Okay, so in other words, youcould.

Meghan (10:14):
What was the longest stretch?
You would work.

Rufus (10:18):
Was it 30 days?
So it's a young man's yeahtypically Typically A hard man's
or a hard person's job youcould say I say man, I know, but
young person For someone,that's tough.
You got to find that extra gearand just keep going.
You know, Okay.
And that's all.
Fishing is like that, I found.

Meghan (10:38):
So what was it like out on the water?
Like, first of all, give us therundown, because you've done
many types of fishing.
We're going to talk about otherthings after this one, but with
this particular type of fishing, how long was the trip?
That's a day.
Come out in and out for the day.
That's correct, right, it wasjust.

Rufus (10:54):
They're short days, okay you know you're there early in
the morning, at five in themorning.
You get out I think the boatleaves at six, if I remember and
then you steam over to Newportoff of the mansions over there
and the traps are set up.
It's beautiful, it's absolutelygorgeous.
You know to be in that area.
It's special.

Meghan (11:11):
Was it hard work?

Rufus (11:13):
Yeah, it's hard work.

Meghan (11:14):
Yeah.

Rufus (11:14):
It's hard work and it's day in, day out, so you got to
show up every day and just youknow, grin and bear it.
But it's rewarding in many ways, if you could find that, yeah,
let's talk about that.

Meghan (11:23):
What was rewarding about it for everybody or for you?

Rufus (11:25):
The experience, you know, the camaraderie of everyone
working together.
I love that you know I'vealways liked team sports and
those kind of things.
But sure I like to go off solo,but it's great when everybody's
working towards the same goal,you know.

Meghan (11:41):
And at the end of the day, you've all achieved that
goal.
How many people would be onthis boat?
Typically 20, you know you needat least 15 to to get the job
done Right.

Rufus (11:48):
But yeah, and there's mostly young kids.

Meghan (11:51):
You know, I was in my early twenties, exactly when I
did this, was there anythingthat would happen out there that
was alarming at all?
Oh my.

Rufus (11:58):
God, I remember one time this storm came over Newport and
there were orange lightningbolts hitting everywhere around
us.
We had nowhere to go, we weretrapped.
A little storm literally poppedup on us.
So these tires, they were inaluminum boats.
Yeah, think about it, you know.
And the mast on the MariaMendoza was the name of the
steamer and that's a steel ship.
So there's nowhere to go.

(12:19):
So these tires that were hangingover, you know, to keep from
bumping into other boats, wetires that were hanging over,
you know, to keep from bumpinginto other boats, we would roll
them in and stand on them,hoping that that may help, and
who knows if it did or not.

Meghan (12:28):
But you know kind of clutching towards anything Right
.

Rufus (12:31):
What a massive, nasty storm.
It flew by us.
But yeah, all those things popup you know, and I'll tell you
more about other kinds of thingsthat happened to me in
different styles of fishingalong the way.
Too Days I would stay out therelonger.

Meghan (12:45):
Yeah, I want to hear about that too.
So that was with the Wheelerfamily, though.
They were just explaining,right.

Rufus (12:49):
Yes.

Meghan (12:50):
Now, was this the same family where they had that video
that they played at MysticConnecticut Aquarium?
That's exactly right, yeah.

Rufus (12:57):
Corey was credited for that.
I think deservingly so, and Ithink she orchestrated that
whole thing.
Put that together, it wasreally kind of a special thing.
They're the last trap family,basically you know and it's
generational and um you knowtheir father still does it with
them and their grandfather had,and grandfather before you know
right so um and luke is stillrunning the boat the boat for

(13:21):
them, I believe and I thinkmiles comes back and helps out
when he does, but he's living inFlorida doing something in a
marina down there.
I think he's in charge of amarina down there.

Meghan (13:30):
They're all nautical kids you know nautical guys,
yeah, that's pretty cool.
So you say it's the last trapfamily, what happens if they
stop doing it?
I mean, I guess there's justother types of fishing.

Rufus (13:38):
Yeah, I think that style of fishing has gone away.

Meghan (13:42):
Yeah, and why do you think?

Rufus (13:45):
Multiple reasons.

Meghan (13:46):
Megan.

Rufus (13:47):
I wish I had that answer for you Right.

Meghan (13:48):
Now we're going into finance and who knows what the
ways of the world and how thatwhole market works.

Rufus (13:55):
So we'll skip past that story.

Meghan (13:56):
But so then, what happened?
How long did you do that?
For Just a couple of years,okay.

Rufus (14:06):
And met some other fishermen along the way,
obviously during that time, andfound gill netting, which was
the next style of fishing that Iwent into, and that was pretty
cool.
I like that and that's a muchdifferent game.
Yeah, let's, let's hear aboutthat so we had these big salt
bags and we would keep our netsin these bags.
The nets are made ofmonofilament lining, so it's
basically just not to not 12inches, and these nets are as

(14:27):
long as a football field Eachone.

Billy (14:29):
We call them panels.

Rufus (14:31):
So each panel was 100 yards.
We would tie 10, 12, 15 panelstogether in a set and then put
end lines on each anchors andend lines and the nets basically
stand up on the bottom, Withthe lead line on the bottom and
a floating line cork line.
On top they stand six feet talland lengths of multiple football

(14:52):
fields.
So the fish that swim along thebottom, you know the ones go
through that we're not lookingfor but 12 inches not to not.
We're looking for monkfish andskate, primarily Dogfish.
Sometimes you know, but themarket was dogfish.
I mean the market was dog fish,I mean the market was monkfish
back then.

Meghan (15:06):
Yeah, why?
Why were they so popular?

Rufus (15:08):
they were special for uh, for a couple reasons.
The livers we had a market foroverseas.
The japanese loved the liversand we were getting a lot of
money for them by the pound wowand actually we had, you know,
the most on different boats.
Everyone was like saving lilivers and they were getting
shipped overseas and we hadmaybe 15, $16 a pound.

(15:30):
We were getting at the height.

Bill (15:32):
Wow.

Rufus (15:32):
And this was right before 9-11.
And we lost our market overthere because everything was
grounded, the planes weregrounded and everything sat at
the flight line, so our loadsdidn't make it over and I think
the market fell apart and it awhile took a couple years for
that to come back and the moneywas never the same really,
because I remember when you weredoing monk fishing I remember

(15:53):
that that was a really also avery intense job yeah, they come
up snapping and you tell usabout this.
You've got to knock them on thehead, megan, you got to take a
hammer, a ball pe hammer, andknock them, because they come up
like this.
They want to get you.

Meghan (16:05):
They're like a piranha.

Rufus (16:06):
Yeah, they have big balls Right and they're flapping in
the net and you're trying topick them out.
Yes, so I had a hammer rightthere and I was playing
whack-a-mole all day, so wasthis one at a time.
They come up and you're haulingup.
So when I started I was on deckflying through the air, trapped
in the net.
Okay, you know okay they're notjumping out at you all right,

(16:29):
but they're coming up along thetable and they're coming right
down the line and you've got toact quickly so when you started,
yeah, so I started with robbiewalls on the finest kind and uh,
and that's a lot of fun.
There was another guy, joe, onthere who was a jerk.
He didn't want to teach meanything, you know?

Meghan (16:46):
oh, that's always a bummer.

Rufus (16:48):
Yeah, it was tough to tough to learn when somebody
doesn't want to help teach youout of his job, if you will,
because there's a lot of thatyou know.
But I figured it out prettyquickly and, uh, actually
started running a boat.
After a little bit I ran thefinest kind you know.
Actually I went dragging andthen I came back gill netting

(17:09):
and then was a captain of thatboat and then I went back
dragging again.

Meghan (17:12):
It was like I was bouncing around.

Rufus (17:14):
I was back into Newport and I was working on the
Seabreeze with um with Phil rule.
Yes and I started doing thatand I actually stayed on the sea
breeze for about five years sothat was that your longest
dragging.
Yeah, that was my longest stint, I think, on any one boat.
Yeah and uh, philly and I gotalong great.
He's my age.
He's also phil, rule the fourth, and he was a fourth generation

(17:38):
fisherman.
His father, red um, was afisherman as well.

Meghan (17:42):
He was phil um, I think we have a picture.
I'm sorry I don't want to sayPhil, I think we have a picture.
I'm sorry, I don't want to saythat, but I think we have a
photo there with the fish, withhis son.

Rufus (17:51):
I believe, the little one , yeah, the little guy With Phil
V Phil.

Billy (17:55):
V yeah.

Rufus (17:56):
Philip.
Yeah, that'd be great if youcould show that pic.

Meghan (18:05):
He's probably pushing some mackerel or something or
something down the hole on onthe sea breeze.
But I know I just cut you offand you were going to share
about the sea breeze?

Rufus (18:09):
Yeah, so I'll tell you that was a shame that we did a
lot of work on that boat.
We did a lot of renovations tofix it and make it into an RSW
boat, which is refrigeratedseawater.
So we would pump, we wouldchill water and pump it through
into the fish hold from theengine room and, you know, turn
all these valves on thesemanifolds and get all the

(18:31):
chillers going.
But basically we built it allourselves.
It was all just PVC pipes.
We drilled holes in throughthem so water could come through
and chill up and down, and thenour squid wouldn't have to be
iced, it could be chilled withwater and we would add it
accordingly.
And that was a way better styleof fishing, that way, um, but
you know, after I think five orsix years aboard, there yeah, um

(18:53):
I'd had enough of that.
So you know, we'll just movealong and I wanted to get off
that boat right for a fewreasons and I'm glad I did, but
unfortunately it sank fivemonths later.

Meghan (19:05):
I remember when that happened.

Rufus (19:06):
That's a terrible story yeah, east of Atlantic City like
25 miles and how many peoplewere on that boat when that
happened three um Red, yeah, orPhil senior um, who ended up
losing his life on that boat.
He never made it out and that'stragic.
And then the other two guysaboard, ray, whom I'd worked
with for a while, and then thisother kid who replaced me and uh

(19:29):
, I don't remember his name, buthow did they get rescued?
They actually were outside ofthe boat, I think.
I don't believe they got intoimmersion suits, but I think
they had something to clutchonto or maybe life jackets on.
But they were in the water forabout three hours and that boat
had listed and was sinking andthey're clutching to the side.
Three different helicopterscame out to try to get them.

Meghan (19:48):
Wow.

Rufus (19:49):
And two were turned around with with not enough fuel
, I believe, or something andthe third one ended up being
able to grab them and bring themback, but the captain wasn't to
be found.

Billy (19:58):
The captain went down, yeah.

Rufus (19:59):
And you know horrible obviously.
But it usually takes threethings to make a disaster.

Meghan (20:07):
What is?

Rufus (20:07):
that the third thing.
Well, the weather came up, sothat was one.
The boat was overloaded, hadalmost 100,000 pounds on it.
Maybe shouldn't have had thatmuch on it.

Meghan (20:17):
Wow, that's incredible.

Rufus (20:18):
It probably could have done it on a nicer day, and we
had done that on nicer days, butnot with that weather, and then
something went wrong.
What we can ascertain is thatsomething wasn't properly locked
down in the fish hold, and Ithink what happened was the
braces weren't put in and allthe fish spilled from one side
once.
It took a list.

Meghan (20:38):
Yes, and then?

Bill (20:39):
once it went.
It wasn't able to come back.

Meghan (20:40):
Couldn't right itself.
Yeah, that's a shame.
So that was that.

Rufus (20:44):
Yeah, it was terrible.

Meghan (20:45):
Yeah.

Rufus (20:45):
So it was a tough hit for everybody, Junior especially,
but he picked up the pieces andmoved on and got another.
He got Seabreeze 2,.

Meghan (20:53):
TOO, and is he still doing that as well?

Rufus (20:55):
He is.
You know he was running thatboat for a little bit.
A lot of other guys run it.
He's moved on.
He's running some bigger boats,like some freezer boats, stuff
like that.

Meghan (21:04):
He's always been a good fisherman, seems to me, though
based on the stories that you'vetold and are even telling now,
it seems like an industry thatpeople grow up in the industry a
lot of them and once you're init, a lot of people stay in it.

Rufus (21:16):
Surely it sounds like Yep .

Meghan (21:18):
It's what you know.

Rufus (21:19):
That's right.
I mean tough to get into andtough to get out of.
I would say, you know, like howwould you even get into it?
How would you get into it?

Meghan (21:26):
It's almost like happenstance Right.

Rufus (21:27):
Just kind of timing and meeting and just working through
it like that.
I don't know.

Meghan (21:32):
That's why it's really cool how it happened for you.
Yeah, I agree, you know likeyou said, a note on the car
opportunity knocks at thatmoment that's right, and you
were looking and I was lookinglike either you're gonna get it
or not, you know you're gonnatake the chance, or is it a good
fit at the time?

Rufus (21:49):
but, I was always looking for something else, searching,
you know right but fishing.
I found I found a lot of peaceout there.

Meghan (21:59):
I was just gonna say what do you, what do you like
about it?

Rufus (22:01):
I mean, there's some beautiful things that happen out
there.
The sun can set and the mooncan rise at the exact same time,
and you're just out there inawe you know able to.
You know, pick your head up andlook around, and did I ever
tell you the story about those?
Uh, the?
All right, listen to this one,okay.
What do you got?
What do you got?

Meghan (22:20):
I'm like maybe you did, maybe you didn't, I'm not sure.
Sure, excuse me.
Yeah, have some water, but I'mnot sure.

Rufus (22:27):
Let me know we're on the Yankee Pride I was fishing with
Tom Donovan Okay.
And we had some surveyors aboardas well, some sea samplers, we
called them and they would goout and check the mesh size once
in a while that they would haveto come up for trips with us.
And I was on watch maybe afour-hour watch and at the end
of my watch I stepped outside totake a peek around out of the

(22:51):
wheelhouse and something caughtmy eye, and it was the bow break
, was completely glowing in thedark yes, it was so cool, it was
the phosphorescence in thewater and it was completely flat
.
I was pitch black, you know,middle of the night, and then
you just see this beautifulglowing bowel break and I just
was captivated by it and youcouldn't get a picture of it

(23:11):
because there was no iphonesback then that's right.
This is before cameras onanything.
You know, we might have had acouple disposable cameras aboard
, I think if memory serves, butnothing it's like you're out
there with your yeah.
I mean it's so great now we cancapture anything, you know.

Meghan (23:26):
But it was a moment with you and the sea.
I woke up the other guys, Megan, because all of a sudden
dolphins.

Rufus (23:31):
A pod of dolphins were swimming at us and it looked
like we were being torpedoed byaliens.
It was absolutely insane.
They were breaking the waterand glowing in the dark.
That sounds outrageous.
And we just watched them danceand play and swim around us, all
of us in awe, you know, forlike 10, 15 minutes.

Bill (23:48):
Right.

Rufus (23:48):
And then they moved on and then that was that.
That was just that moment oftime out there.

Meghan (23:51):
And that was in the middle of the night, yeah,
middle of the night, no one elsearound for.
And no one would ever, no onewill ever see that unless
they're out there.
And so how far out did you gofor these kind of trips?
Um, it varied, that's a greatquestion.

Rufus (24:05):
Dragging.
We moved around mostly, youknow and um we would in the
summertime.
You had mentioned Cape May.
We would do that.
We would leave out of Newportor um uh Point.

Billy (24:17):
Judith sorry.

Rufus (24:18):
And uh, and then we would steam, you know, a couple days
a day and a half.
It's only an eight knot boat,you know eight or ten knot boat,
so it takes forever to getanywhere.

Meghan (24:25):
Right.

Rufus (24:26):
So you want to make sure your moves are lucrative Because
it costs a lot to move around.
You know, put fuel and ice andfood aboard, you're in the hole
before you start puttinganything aboard Any fish.
But in the summertime we woulddo that and then fish it out of
Cape May for elex, which is atype of squid and it's basically

(24:47):
it goes for bait.
But, we would catch it in suchamounts and abundance that it
was really a good way to go forus.
So in and out every day andload the boat.
Sometimes we load the boat inthree hours and a couple of tow.
You know these bags come up thesizes of school buses, where do
you put it all?
We just open up the gate youknow the hatches and let it eat

(25:07):
and it go down, it goes and thenback.

Meghan (25:09):
We go unload and then right back out again and you're
wearing special gear for all ofthis skins, like you know.
Yeah, oil gear, they call itoil gear, but you're kind of
covered from neck to to toe,right yeah you know suspenders,
in the summertime it's hot, soyou know, just suspenders.
Oh, that's true stuff, but uhthere's some photos I've seen of
you where you're standing inthe fish and I don't know how.

(25:30):
You know what photos I'mtalking about.
Whether you're standing thereand there's fish, literally I
don't know.
It seems like it's going forthe whole length of the boat yes
, how much fish is that?
We've been talking?
You said 100,000 pounds before.

Rufus (25:42):
On the Seabreeze.
That was about the max thatcould hold, I think a couple of
these boats I showed you I mighthave showed you a picture of
Phil and had shared some picswith me on some of the factory
boats that he's on or thefreezer boats, and they're like
twice that they could probably.
I think that was like 500,000pounds, half a million pounds of

(26:03):
butterfish you put on in a dayor something like that.

Meghan (26:04):
That's crazy.
I mean, it's mind blowing, likefor you.
You're like oh yeah, that'swhat we did, but for the rest of
us it is mind blowing if you'venever really seen that before
and understand what thecommercial fishing market is all
about and what it's like.

Rufus (26:19):
Totally true.
And to be able to process allthat stuff, yes.

Meghan (26:22):
That's the thing.
Tell us about that.

Rufus (26:23):
Yeah.

Meghan (26:24):
I know you said you when the monkfish would come up.
By the way, don't you have atattoo of a monkfish?
I do.

Rufus (26:28):
It's a deep sea angler actually.

Meghan (26:32):
I know there's a story.

Rufus (26:34):
Yeah, story Megan, you got me you thought it was.
I thought it was a piranha whenI got it in the Air Force when
I was 18 like, oh, look at that.
The guy had probably told me itwas a piranha.

Meghan (26:42):
I'm like all right yeah, it's a good put it on there.
Yeah, I still have that.
Yes, why would you remove it?

Rufus (26:47):
I mean, it's a good one.
Oh my god, that's great.
But that was before you were afisherman, before I was a
fisherman, and it was kismet yes, who knew?
Which is the name of a boat out.
There is it, is it yeah?

Meghan (26:56):
it's also a town here on uh long island that's right so,
but roof, we got to keep going.
So what about some of thethings that you'd pull up you
mentioned before, like you'd seea shark in a net or something,
but tell us some of those cooltales about what, what would
come aboard?

Rufus (27:10):
oh man, um, basking sharks were were eye-opening the
first time those big suckerswould come aboard.
And if you don't know what abasking shark is, look it up and
I will.

Billy (27:19):
I haven't heard they're impressive.

Rufus (27:21):
They're huge sharks.
They don't have teeth, you knowthey um.
They basically just open theirmouth and kind of suck up krill
or whatever it is, whatever'sthere but they sure eat squid,
man, and we would get some ofthose stuff, some of those
sharks in our nets, and what amess to be able to get those off
the boat.

Meghan (27:36):
Oh, was it huge.
They, they're huge.

Rufus (27:36):
They're 20 feet long and they're this big around.

Meghan (27:39):
So how do you get them up and over?

Rufus (27:40):
And they're moving and they're not happy to be aboard,
right.
You know nobody wants themthere.
They don't want to be there.

Meghan (27:46):
So how do we get them off?
How did you get them off?

Rufus (27:48):
We had to rig up some ropes around the net drums, tie
them off and then, you know, tryto get a rope around its mouth
on the other side and come backaround and use hydraulics and
back it off that way.
That was probably the best wayIf we didn't have a whip to you
know, because if you tie itaround the tail you don't know
if you're going to get that ropeoff very easily, and you don't

(28:08):
want to hurt the things.

Meghan (28:10):
Okay, I'm hearing all this everybody, but Mark, if I'm
wrong, was this fun?

Rufus (28:23):
It's all fun.
Does it sound hard?

Meghan (28:24):
I'm like oh my gosh of course, yeah, tough, I mean
listen.
Yeah, it was a way of life.
Of course it was a way of life.

Rufus (28:27):
So I didn't enjoy making a living.
I'll tell you it's a hard homelife, though it's not home a lot
right you know, so that's toughon on a family absolutely so.

Meghan (28:36):
I found that out too yeah, you did, you did, but you,
uh, you did day trips on somefishing and then there were
trips where you were gone forextended periods of time.

Rufus (28:45):
That's right.

Meghan (28:46):
What were?
What was that like Like beingout there and some of the things
that you saw?
And how about the fact of likeriding in some of the storms?
And how did you sleep?

Rufus (28:56):
Yeah.

Meghan (28:56):
All of those things.

Rufus (28:57):
I'll tell you, meg, it's amazing what you get used to out
there.
It really is.
And speaking of weather, I'lltell you the Yankee Pride was
probably the you know hairiestboat I've ever been on.

Meghan (29:11):
Was it.

Rufus (29:11):
Joel Vernez was a great captain, but you know he had
this motto you got to be therewhen it settles, you know when
the dust settles.
You got to be there when itsettles, you know when the dust
settles.
So you have to put in theweather and we would, man, we
would get our butts kicked outthere and it would be blowing 40
, 50 plus.
All the other boats arescattered, gone, and we would
just be jogging into these seasat three or four knots, just
trying to hold ground way outand what kind of fishing was

(29:33):
that at that time?
uh, we were squid fishing aboardthat boat mostly, and we were
icing too.
There was no, uh, chilledseawater aboard there, so we
were doing a lot of work you'redoing a lot.

Meghan (29:42):
I remember.
What I do remember about thatthose times in your life was I
would ask you so what do youmean?
You're out there in the in this, in the ridiculous waves, in
the storms, why, why don't youcome in?
I didn't understand from alogic standpoint.
If it were me and I'm, I'm theI would want people to be safe,
but you're telling me you stilllet it go.

Rufus (30:02):
Because as soon as that storm stops and everything
settles down, you set the netsand you load up the boat.
Because, those scattered fishthat were all confused and off
the bottom for a while are nowsettled, hungry and looking to
eat, and we would scoop them upand then we'd go with 100,000
pounds in a day.
But we have to put four days ofcrap weather to get it To get
it.
And that was the story of thatboat.

Meghan (30:23):
Was it scary.

Rufus (30:24):
Sometimes I'll tell you, like I said, it's amazing what
you get used to.
You're living on the edge.
So much because this boat inparticular was 80-something feet
, maybe 80-footer, steel boatand we pulled twin nets.
So we you know steel boat andit, we pulled twin nets.
Yeah, so we had the doors wouldgo out on cables, the doors go

(30:45):
out and open up, spread the netsand two nets together, but in
between was a huge slug of leadabout the size of this table
okay and that would hold, youknow, the two nets together.
So then they're both open andthen the doors open those up.
So we are wide sweep and that'seating all that bottom and
that's a lot of squid comingaboard.

(31:06):
You know it was a killer, thatboat was a killer, um, but we
did really well on there.
Yeah, I did really well onthere.
I was there for two years Ithink, but I'll tell you the end
of that, the end of my fishingcareer really, really was on
that boat.
Sadie was five at the time.

Meghan (31:25):
That was your child.

Rufus (31:27):
Bear my kiddo yeah.

Meghan (31:28):
Is your child?
Yeah, meaning at the time,though, being five years old.

Rufus (31:31):
Yes, yeah, and it was tough, I was away a lot and it
was really starting to wear onme, you know.
But I'll just tell you this onein particular story.

Meghan (31:44):
Yeah.

Rufus (31:45):
We got hit by a wave.

Meghan (31:47):
Yeah, this is a story.

Billy (31:48):
This one really rattled me, Megan.

Rufus (31:50):
This is the one that I think made me really think about
what I was doing out there.
We got hit by a rogue wave andwe're used to, like I said, all
water coming aboard this boatall the time and we had these
scuppers all along the sidesRight this boat was constantly
wet.
We had multiple elastic bandsaround our skins to keep water
from flying up, you know,getting in our boots.

(32:10):
It was wet all the time.
Yeah, waves coming aboard whenwe're backing down and hauling
back on the gear, but this oneparticular night it was pitch
black.
It might've been two in themorning.
We're hauling back and acaptain's up here and both guys
are on the the hydraulics netdrums bringing up the nets and
I'm in the middle, you know, tohook them up together and then
up they go and then we hoistthem up and and drain and drop

(32:33):
them aboard and then and outcomes.
You know we trip the cod in andout comes our catch.
But we got hit by this wave andMegan, and it was just before I
knew what was happening.
I was up off the groundswimming on the deck and you're
horizontal.

Meghan (32:50):
You're ready to?
I was, I was it just?

Rufus (32:52):
came from everywhere all of a sudden, this wave nailed us
and uh and I was floatingoverboard and how backwards my
feet were going and my feet wereover, nailed us.
And I was floating overboardand backwards my feet were going
and my feet were over the railand I just grabbed out for
something.
And I reached out and grabbedonto a cleat on the stern that
we tie off the boat, you knowthis big metal cleat and I just
held on what seemed like forever, but probably 10 seconds, and

(33:16):
then the water just kind ofscupped out and went away and I
hit the deck inside the boatluckily, because it was pitch
black in the middle of the night.
That would have been it and thewater, the water was white and
just ferocious.
You know it was blowing likecrazy.
I just would have been sweptand that one really kind of well
, how could it not?

Meghan (33:36):
it sounds to me like that would have taken me out to
sea.

Rufus (33:39):
What am I doing here?
So, is there something else Icould be doing?
Believe me, I asked myself thatquestion a lot of times.
Before that A lot of coldnights sitting waiting to haul
back at two in the morning, gether back.
I'm like oh, what am I doing?
Am I not smarter than this?

Meghan (33:59):
you are luckier than this something but yeah, anyway,
I took a couple trips off afterthat last one, megan, and you
were 40 I remember this I was 40, you had just turned.

Rufus (34:03):
10 years ago exactly it was in march.
My birthday was aboard.
Yeah, there you go.
Where's my cake?
Where is?

Billy (34:11):
it where is it nothing?

Meghan (34:12):
yeah yeah but how scary, and god was watching over you
that night, for sure.
I believe so too I'm sure manynights, but that one sounds like
you almost lost it.
Yeah, we almost lost you.

Rufus (34:24):
So thank God, we didn't.
Thank you, I'm happy too.
I'm glad you're still here.

Meghan (34:30):
But what a story.
But there's, you know.
I think that that was what ledyou to, like you just said,
think of what's next.

Rufus (34:36):
That's right, that was a catalyst, for sure.
I took a trip off Megan andmaybe two, but I did go back and
finish off the season with himwhen he.
When he switched over to goscalloping, I told him I was
going to be done at that point.
And um, you know what that's?
When I moved here to longIsland, you're like hey, what
are you doing?
Bro, do you want to come checkout Long Island?

(34:58):
And?
Thank you so much for that.
I'm glad I did.

Meghan (35:00):
You're welcome, but I didn't know you would take me up
on it.
I'm certainly glad you did Metoo.
I meant it.
I worked with Billy.

Rufus (35:07):
Billy was slamming with work and needed some help at the
time.
I was glad to help him.

Meghan (35:13):
And that was awesome.
I was working with him for thewhole year.
How was that going from being200 miles out at sea to working
in audio video?
Oh my God, yeah, it was nightand day.
I found out quickly.

Rufus (35:22):
I had a lot to learn with Billy.

Meghan (35:25):
Cat 5, cat 6?
Yes, how do I?

Rufus (35:28):
terminate these lines.
How do I terminate these wires,Billy?

Bill (35:31):
But you know Billy's awesome Red orange over green.

Rufus (35:34):
Help me along.

Meghan (35:35):
Yeah, I've listened to myself, but he's the expert in
that.
Yeah, I forget what they aretoo now, but it was a big change
for you, surely, to shift.
Yeah, it was.

Rufus (35:45):
But it was great, I worked with Billy for the year
and we would drive in and out ofthe Hamptons we did some jobs
out there, had some really bigaccounts and saw some cool stuff
and got to spend some time withthem as I lived with you guys
here, which was wonderful forthe year.

Meghan (35:57):
And you know, that was about a year, maybe a little
more, yeah, just a little over,and that turned into the next
chapter.

Rufus (36:12):
And again happenstance like it happened with Alan
Wheeler.
Um was working on an accountand this guy, mark, said hey, do
you know how to drive a boat?
And I said yeah.

Billy (36:20):
What are you?

Rufus (36:20):
thinking and he bought this 64-foot Vicham, this
beautiful yacht, and needed acaptain.

Meghan (36:27):
So I'll say Mark happens to also be my brother-in-law,
my husband's brother-in-law,mine by marriage right, which?

Rufus (36:33):
was very helpful.

Meghan (36:34):
Which was nice, but it's nice to have known somebody and
meanwhile you had all of thisexperience on the ocean, on the
water, and I had accrued a bunchof current sea time which was
totally helpful because I wentback and got my captain's
license, and what was that likeNow?

Rufus (36:46):
you're back at school a little bit Now.
I'm back at school Megan, theplace that I couldn't wait to
get out of you.

Meghan (36:51):
couldn't stand it.
Like what?
What the heck Wait?
Had to grin and bear it right.

Rufus (36:55):
Had to just kick it and do it to get this thing, because
we are made for more we aremade for more Megan, and I love
that so much.
By the way, I don't know ifI've told you that, but I think
that's a wonderful.

Meghan (37:06):
Thank you.

Rufus (37:08):
Just the whole thing.
It rests well, you know, we'remade for more, thank you.

Meghan (37:12):
I agree myself that and I keep telling my friends that
and my family that, and all ofyou listeners out there that
that we are made for more,whatever that is for you,
whatever that is.
You're dreaming up thosemoments out on the ocean where
you're like.
What am I doing is this?
Look it was good for a while.
It worked for me, but that'sright if you have that nugget,
that thought inside your mind ofthere's something else calling

(37:33):
me.

Rufus (37:33):
Maybe there is something calling you and you gotta listen
to hundred percent, a hundredpercent, and you have to act on
it and you have to act on it.

Meghan (37:40):
You have to know, you have to recognize it.

Rufus (37:42):
Yeah, it's hard and go and get it and you got to get it
, whatever it takes.

Meghan (37:46):
Make those steps.
This podcast is one of thosemoments for me.

Rufus (37:49):
Let's do it.
Be uncomfortable.

Bill (37:51):
Be uncomfortable.

Rufus (37:52):
Everybody.
Step out of your comfort zoneand try something else, because
nothing's going to change unlessyou do Right.

Meghan (37:59):
Very true.
In fact, I ran into someonetoday outside on the lawn, a
really cool gentleman that's alandscaper in the area and we
were talking about how you knowquickly, my kids had grown up
and he.
Such a profound thing he saidin one little sentence.
And he said time waits for noone.
Nailed it Like that littlenugget I'm like you're right
time waits for no one and you'vegot to step into the fears

(38:25):
sometimes of what's next and uh.
And also the other thing I'mworking on is to not ever stop
playing what people think of youor how they judge you dictate
decisions that you make foryourself.
It's human nature absolutely,that's right it's human nature,
absolutely.
That's right, it's human natureLike oh, what if I fail at this
?
Or what if I can't do it?
Or the fear, the fear of it.

Rufus (38:45):
And we're here for so such a short amount of time.

Billy (38:49):
We really are.

Rufus (38:50):
And we weren't here for a long time.
Think about it.
Think nothing was here.
We weren't here for a long time, and then we're here and then
gone for ever that.
There you go.
So why not try to do everysingle thing we can do in that
short amount of time that we are?

Meghan (39:02):
here.

Rufus (39:03):
I love that experience every possible thing.
You can do every single thingthat you can, because we're made
for more megan that's right,that's a we're made for
absolutely a super moment.

Meghan (39:13):
thank you for for saying that I agree.
Um, we're going to go back alittle bit Sure and then we're
going to come forward into theyacht captain chapter.
But just a couple things Ithink people would want to know
before we move forward is thingslike what did you eat out there
?
What kind of food did you?

Rufus (39:30):
have out there in the water.
What was, you know, a typicalday like that's a great question
too.
You would think we'd eat a lotof seafood.
That's what I would thinkLobster Negative.
No, I mean yeah, Some days, youknow, I remember eating a bunch
of.
We would crack a bunch oflobsters or crabs and make some
in butter and hot sauce and makesome stews real quick.

(39:50):
Throw some Frank's in with some.

Meghan (39:53):
All right, I mean, yeah, you know crackers rich crackers
.

Rufus (39:56):
I could live on that.

Meghan (39:57):
But you had little stoves and ovens.

Rufus (39:59):
Megan, did I tell you the crockpot story?

Billy (40:04):
We had a lashed down crockpot.
You've mentioned a crockpot,Megan.
It's hilarious.
I loved this thing.
You loved the crockpot.

Rufus (40:10):
It saved us, because you can just throw in a roast, you
know, and then chop up somevegetables and then put the lid
on this thing and then just goabout your business.
And it's basically cookingitself for a while and it's
marinating.
When you're out there, likerocking around in the sea, this
thing is marinating in its ownjuices, it's like the most
delicious meals I've ever eatenwere out there in this crock pot

(40:31):
, I got to tell you.

Meghan (40:32):
So it's basting as you're like going up and down.

Rufus (40:34):
It's basting as we're bouncing around in the sea and
the thing is like lashed down.
The refrigerator's lashed down.
Everything's tied down you know, Like you asked how do you
sleep?
Like everything is tough, youknow, and you're like this in
your bunk, you're like pinningyourself in your bunk because
you're just so were you halfsleeping?

Meghan (40:51):
Is that what that was?

Rufus (40:53):
Yeah, you don't get a lot of sleep.
I'll tell you it's a tough job.
It's a tough grind.
It is a tough grind, yeah, dayin, day out.

Meghan (41:01):
I have to say cheers to you for doing it all those years
, 20 years about almost.

Billy (41:06):
Almost.

Meghan (41:07):
And cheers to those that are still doing it, because,
let's face it, that's a hugeindustry and people love to go
out to eat and cook fish.
Yeah, think about it lobstersand squid and scallops.
We didn't even talk aboutscalloping.
That was a.

Rufus (41:19):
That was a crazy story for you, terrible trip.
I'll never do that again wewould catch scallops on on these
uh draggers too, in smallamounts.
But yeah, I did take a scalloptrip and that was just an
absolute dud.
I don't even know if I want totell the story.
Well, you can skip that one.
Yeah, it was a tough one.

Meghan (41:33):
The point is there's many chapters within this novel
of fishing alone.

Rufus (41:37):
Absolutely, absolutely true.

Meghan (41:39):
What a life so.
But you did say it's amazingwhat you could get used to out
there and you've said that acouple of times, and that
resonates with me Just how you,the determination and the
resilience that you had to have.

Rufus (41:53):
So yeah, and, and then you.
I look back now, 10 years laterreally, but of you know, 18 or
almost 20 years of that life and, uh, I, I almost you know, I
wish I got out earlier,obviously.
I wish I had made a moveearlier, but you can't go back.

Meghan (42:12):
You can't go.
So here we are, and I'm gladI'm doing what I am now, right,
which is so let's fast forwardto this story again, where you
said you met Mark and Leslie.

Rufus (42:21):
That's right and I started and I got my captain's
license.
I was captain of their 64-footyacht for three years.
It was a beautiful boat,absolutely gorgeous, and they
had it up until last year.
They had it for almost 10 yearsand I actually ran it again
last year, but yeah I had goneaway and um.
I worked with another guy, fred, and um ran his grand banks for

(42:44):
a while.

Meghan (42:44):
That was a beautiful boat and that, how big was that?

Rufus (42:47):
72 yeah illusion is what that was with the flybridge and
that was gorgeous.
That was a beautiful boat and Itook that up and down the coast
back and forth to florida a fewtimes right, and now those,
both of those boats that you'vementioned so far.

Meghan (42:58):
You're out of Huntington , new York.
That's right and Long Island,which is.
You know, I live in Centerport,which is three miles away from
Huntington, and you live rightthere in the village, but near
the water this place is great.

Rufus (43:09):
I met Tommy Knutson right away.
Through that deal he sold Markand Leslie.
That boat, tommy's aces.

Meghan (43:14):
He's become one of my best friends.
You know we love Tommy, tommy K, part of the family, mom back,
mom back and I still work withTommy.
You know he calls me a brew dog.

Rufus (43:22):
I got a.
I got a boat for you.
Let's go and I'll do sea trials.
You know, I'll hop in the carwith him.
We'll fly out to Sag Harborsomething.
We'll do a sea trial together,you know, and uh, it's great
yeah, and then it's a great thewhole thing works out.
The freddie group, or allied,that he works for and actually I
took a, uh, a beautiful boatyears ago when he had sold a

(43:43):
family and they flew me down toum, right into the freddie group
, uh, harbor, yeah, we're allyou know, the factory and it's
basically these boats are likeright in these slips, right in
the water, and it's absolutelygorgeous in florida and fort
lauderdale.
I've seen some of thosepictures took that brand new
boat down to miami and then,over to the bahamas.

(44:05):
The family flew in there.
I spent like two weeks in thebahamas showing them around on
this, that's right and then flewback home.
I mean, what a trip it's.
Just those things have happenedbecause of this industry and
meeting people and you know, allthese beautiful boats I get to
run.

Billy (44:20):
I know these Rivas and Ferretti's and Pershing's and
Wally's.

Rufus (44:24):
They're absolutely stunning Brand new multi-million
dollar boats and I get to, Iget paid toying around on them
for the day.
I can't believe it, but is it?

Meghan (44:32):
okay, what's that TV show?
Is it like the below deck typeof show?
No, it's not, you're going tosay that, luckily.

Billy (44:40):
No, nothing like that.

Meghan (44:40):
Luckily that's just TV.
Really, yeah, it's above deck.
Yeah, it's above deck.
You should make your own show.

Rufus (44:45):
Everything fun happens above deck you and Nikki Come on
below deck.

Meghan (44:48):
Get out of here.
We have to talk about.

Rufus (44:49):
Nikki.
All the fun fiance that's rightand I'm very happy and lucky.
Yes, she's been with me.
She's been up and down thecoast with me, she fell in love
with the industry.
She joined the autobahn society.
She fell in love with birds andevery dolphin swimming behind
us.
She couldn't get enough of it.
She was my little trooper.
She and I took that grand banksback from florida up here

(45:12):
together just the two of us,during covid, when that hit I
remember that we were luckyenough to be down there aboard
that boat during that wholepandemic and for months in
Florida, and then you had totake turns.

Meghan (45:23):
right, that's the right terminology.

Rufus (45:26):
Oh yeah, to bring it back .
Yeah, she was great, she wouldpilot that thing right next to
me.

Meghan (45:31):
I was like what's the right word?
Yeah, the helm.
What's the?

Billy (45:33):
right terminology.
Either of those is fine, thatworks.
Yeah, it's great.

Rufus (45:37):
All right, she's a trooper.
She's wonderful to have as mymatey or my co-pilot.

Meghan (45:42):
So you work together now and bring us back past the
Grand Banks.
What did I say?
The Grand Banks?
Yeah, that was the boat, that'sright.

Rufus (45:48):
Yep Oslofjord.
That was a beautiful boat andstayed in Stewart.
We almost stayed in Florida.
We made some pretty goodcontacts and some good
opportunities were there for usand we really loved the climate.
I'll tell you that.
The place is beautiful it isbut my kiddo's back here, my
family's back here, it wasn'tthe right time, so I didn't want

(46:10):
to do that at that time.

Meghan (46:12):
And another opportunity came up, another opportunity
came up here.

Rufus (46:14):
Mark and Leslie bought a bigger boat.
A 97 foot came up here, Mark,unless he bought a bigger boat,
a 97 foot Sounds just like thesaying we're going to need a
bigger boat.

Meghan (46:20):
I'm sure you've heard that many times and that
opportunity came up and so I'mback here captaining that boat.
And that boat is.
Nicole is my mate.

Rufus (46:28):
That boat is.

Meghan (46:29):
Which one is that called the type of boat that's a
Vichem Vichem, yeah.

Rufus (46:33):
Sorry.
Yeah that's a beach.

Meghan (46:35):
I'm a turkish built wooden boat, cold molded it's a
beauty also beauty, it'sactually in the yard right now
I'm back and forth to bridgeportgetting that thing ready for
this next season.
Um yeah, so that's gorgeousgoing on exciting stuff so um
what?
Talking about the yacht life,how is it different than?

Billy (46:55):
I mean, I guess we could all draw our own conclusions.

Rufus (46:57):
The exact same.

Meghan (46:57):
It's the same right.
Yeah, going out, and oh, wedidn't even talk about that.
I wanted to definitely get thison record here how big those
waves were when you were outfishing, like some of those
waves that you saw.
And I mean no, we talked aboutthe rogue wave already that came
from who knows where.

Billy (47:12):
Yeah.

Meghan (47:12):
But what were some of the big waves that you'd see?

Rufus (47:15):
Yeah, we would get in some pretty hairy seas out there
and live out there for days andyou would see lights come and
go because you're just up anddown in these huge swells, you
know.
But the Atlantic can stack uppretty bad.
It gets hairy out there.

Bill (47:28):
And.

Rufus (47:29):
I saw a lot of it for many years in the winters, you
know 30-foot-plus waves for sure.

Meghan (47:36):
Okay, I always said we do TV and movie correlations, I
guess is the right word I'mlooking for.
So remember the movie withGeorge Clooney.
That's true story.
Yes, is that realistic too?
That?

Rufus (47:48):
100 foot wave.
Was that 100 feet?
That was 100 foot wave.
Okay, I think they made that ina bathtub Maybe, but the story
is absolutely true.
The story was true, yes, butwas that true?

Meghan (47:58):
Like a hundred foot wave they think is what took them
out.
Oh, that's so terrible.

Rufus (48:01):
During that hurricane.
Yeah, can you imagine a hundredfoot wave?

Meghan (48:03):
No, I can't, but you saw like up to 30, 40 foot waves.

Rufus (48:06):
Yeah.

Meghan (48:06):
I can't, Guys?
I can't imagine that.

Rufus (48:18):
I don't know if all of you can out that really is, and
the men and women of the seathat are out there dealing with
that.
That's right, it's remarkableand, and you know, fishing is
one thing and there's all these.
Think about the navy people,the navy guys.

Meghan (48:24):
They see and they're on huge ships and they see
tremendous seas, that's rightthose guys live out there in
that stuff yeah, day in, day out, it's a different life, men and
women, you know different life,completely not, you would not
take the 97 Vicham out in thoseseas?

Rufus (48:39):
No, I would not In that way, it's much different.
That Grand Bank side might,though Okay.

Meghan (48:44):
I had that thing in some pretty 15 to 16 footers going
through the goalposts downheading around the Carolinas
that was, I can imagine itdoesn't kind of kind of bang
down.

Rufus (48:54):
It was.
But now it's a different life,but this is a different life.
This is a fair weather life now, and it's good, because I'm
getting older, it's about time.

Meghan (49:03):
That's true, but I mean, it's not all easy being a yacht
captain.
No, it's certainly not.
Yeah, it's different.

Rufus (49:09):
A lot of planning.

Meghan (49:11):
Yeah, it's a different way to go about things you know.

Rufus (49:14):
I totally enjoy it.
I love it.
I like the contacts.
It's a nice life.

Meghan (49:20):
And the beautiful towns that you get to visit,
absolutely Like the wholeNortheast.

Rufus (49:24):
Absolutely, this place is gorgeous, and then anywhere
around here you can't reallymiss, you know.

Meghan (49:29):
Name some of the towns in the Northeast that you guys
pull into we love going toNantucket for one Newport.
Absolutely Newport's one of myfavorites Sag Harbor.

Rufus (49:38):
Yeah, I mean, there's some special places that I'm not
going to mention because Idon't want people to know.
Yes, understood but even goingup the Hudson was a cool trip.
You know we would the 64 wewould take up there and that's a
neat ride totally differentexperience.

Meghan (49:51):
I never did that one.
You never came on this one.
Yeah, they, they kept asking usand we never worked out on this
one.

Rufus (49:57):
If we could find a place to put this, this boat, up there
yeah, leslie would always sayoh, she loved the.

Meghan (50:01):
You know, in the fall, going up the hudson, the cia,
the culinary, institute and, um,that was fun.

Rufus (50:08):
Yeah, it's a nice in the spring or in the fall is nice.
The leaves are changing on thetrees.
You know you go past west pointup there it's gorgeous, you
know, up in the hills that's anice ride too.

Meghan (50:20):
So let's see, what haven't we talked about with
yachting that you would mention?
I was going to say what's ahard day like a board, but we
already kind of touched on thatyou're always fixing something.

Rufus (50:31):
That's the thing.
You know something's breakingthis is what we say.
Something's breaking right now.
We just don't know what it isyet, so we'll find it.
I know you hear the produceryou just want to have an ACZ day
and cruise, but there's alwayssomething.

Meghan (50:44):
Listen for people like my husband and me, for example.
We always say that the bestboat is someone else's boat.

Rufus (50:49):
That's a great point, megan.
Yeah, show up with some food orsome beer.

Meghan (50:56):
And we always do food.
We'll bring wine, we'll bringit all.
Yeah, um, but we appreciate allof our friends that have votes,
because it's a lot of work tooyou know to maintain these
things, but, um, what advicewould you have for a current
fisherman or somebody out therethat's looking to make a change?

Rufus (51:14):
do it.
Get out as fast as you can callme.
I'll give you some hints thereyou go.

Billy (51:20):
I tell my friends that like the grass is greener.

Rufus (51:22):
Trust me, please just try it.
Um, but you, you do what you doand you love what you love, and
sometimes you can't, you know,for for various reasons, I was
fortunate enough to be able tocome here, because you lived
here, my sister lived here.
Yeah, be able to just move andstart somewhere abruptly, it's
not, it's not always possibleit's not.

Meghan (51:39):
It's not, and I'll tell you what like I was lucky that's
great that you feel that way,but I have to say too, even when
you had said, oh, yes, I'mready to do it, I had those
moments of, oh my god, is mybrother gonna end up, you know,
hating me?
Because it's different when youhave a family that you love and
you visit once in a while,right.
But then, when you're going tolive together for a bit, it's
like, oh, are we going to getalong?

(52:00):
and we did we did get along andyou don't get along all the time
that's reality.

Billy (52:04):
How could you know?

Rufus (52:04):
it's family and we wanted to.
I'm so glad that it worked out.

Meghan (52:07):
It was wonderful and, um , the best move I'd made,
probably I'm so glad that youfeel that way, roof, and you
know the other things we didn'tmention yet today, just even
about our own family.
We do have another sibling, ourbrother, brother Tyler Hi.

Rufus (52:18):
Tyler, Tyler, what's up?

Meghan (52:19):
buddy Hi Ty guy.

Rufus (52:20):
Talked to him yesterday.

Meghan (52:22):
Me too.
Actually we both did that'snice, but he and our mom and
stepdad live on Cape Cod.
Mom and Bill yep.
Don't get to see them nearlyenough we don't, but they ended
up near the water too and Ithink that's why, too, that

(52:45):
we've become close with, whichis great right, they love the
water they all love the watertoo, they do, and uh, we all try
to get together.
Yeah, it's very, very nice.
So hello to our family outthere.
Um, anything else that wehaven't touched on, that you
would uh say, hey, we gotta, wegotta mention this probably, and
we and we're probably going tosay, shoot, what did we not say?

Rufus (53:03):
But maybe I can get a guest invite back, megan, or
I'll sneak back in.

Meghan (53:06):
Oh, maybe you can and do a part two with you sometime.
You happen to know the producerand the host, so you know what
I'm lucky to.

Rufus (53:11):
I feel lucky to be here.
First of all, thank you forinviting me on you have been a
very pleasant guest, I have tosay.

Meghan (53:18):
on our 10th episode, Number 10.

Rufus (53:20):
I love number 10.
This is number 10.
Lucky number 10.
It felt great.

Meghan (53:23):
So I got past the pod fade everybody of getting 10
episodes out.
We're going to keep going and,like Rufus just said, we'll
absolutely have them back.

Rufus (53:31):
We're going to do some short episodes too, and maybe
we'll do like hey to tell youabout the starfish See, because
you've been to the starfish.

Meghan (53:41):
You said they're huge.

Rufus (53:43):
They're huge, they're multi-colored, multi-legged, I
mean 10, 12-legged purplestarfish.

Meghan (53:48):
Is that true?
I?

Rufus (53:49):
swear to God, I would collect these things on deck,
like in my free time, or wewould come up with sea urchins
and I would spend time cleaningoff all the spines and drying
them out and putting like alittle bleach in with the water,
making them perfect.
They're purple and red anddifferent colored and I bring
them home and lay them out onthe picnic table back home and

(54:09):
my dog would come and eat themall, and I was so curious, after
all that work after all thatwork, but you had to kill time
while you're out there but thestuff you come up with is
unbelievable.
The stuff that you could find.

Billy (54:18):
It's really, really not that deep.

Rufus (54:20):
It's not in the trenches somewhere.
It's really close In George'sBanks, a couple hundred feet
down.

Meghan (54:27):
It's amazing what's living and swimming down there.
It's a fascinating life at thesea, I have to say, and I'm
definitely, my cup is full.
Thank you so much for sharingall this good stuff today, and
hi to our mom.

Billy (54:40):
Hi, so much for sharing all this good stuff today and hi
to our mom, Hi.

Meghan (54:42):
Mama.
Hey, mom, hope you like thisepisode and hi to our dad,
that's hopefully watching overus.

Rufus (54:46):
Megan, this was such a treat for me.
Thank you so much.
I think it's awesome whatyou're doing.
Thanks, ruth, glad and proud tobe here.
Love you to pieces, thank you.

Meghan (54:55):
Thanks for tuning in today.
Everybody so excited to haveall of you here.
Please, if you have a moment,rate me on your podcast channel.
Let me know what you think ofthis, Like and share, send it to
someone that you think mightenjoy a great fisherman to yacht
captain story.
And, most of all, just rememberwe're all made for more.
Have a good day.

Bill (55:18):
Well, that's it for today.
Thank you for listening.
If you like what you heard,bookmark this podcast and follow
Megan on Instagram.
Okay, now for the disclaimer.
This podcast is solely foreducational and entertainment
purposes.
Megan is not a licensedtherapist and this podcast is

(55:39):
not intended as a substitute fora physician, professional coach
, psychotherapist or otherqualified professional.
Goodbye, everybody.

Billy (56:00):
Thank you.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Navigating Life's Tides: Rufus Alfred Ayers IV's Tales from Offshore Fisherman to Yacht Captain and the Call of the Sea

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

Navigating Life's Tides: Rufus Alfred Ayers IV's Tales from Offshore Fisherman to Yacht Captain and the Call of the Sea

Crime Junkie