Saturday, July 24th, 2006... My mom, older brother Steve, and I went down to local fish market in Freeport. We were buying some fish (and then some meat for me) for a special occasion dinner. On the following Monday, both Steve and I were starting new jobs. Steve had left his previous job to try something new and I was about to begin my four year career as a programmer, I think that calls for a special occasion, don't you? For such an occasion, the family wanted scallops and tuna steaks for dinner (gross!). So we were heading to a place called Cap't Ben's, located on what is called the Nautical Mile, a street packed with marine related stores and restaurants. Marinas, boat sales offices, fish markets, bars, and even some trinket shops all lined both sides of this street.
Parking is usually a pain as the place can be pretty popular, however, it was raining and windy, so the Mile was essentially empty. We pulled up in front of Cap't Ben's and parked across the street, the closest we could get since the weather was so terrible. Coincidentally, across the street from the fish market was a place called Kydd's Marine, a boat sales office. Out in front of the office was a brand new 16 foot fishing boat. It was the type with a center console and plastic seats all around. The boat was designed to catch, gut and clean fish and then just hose the inside down after to clean the mess. On the trailer was a sign indicating a monthly payment as low as a hundred dollars per month. This caught Steve's interest.
After he got out of the car, he went over for a closer inspection, while Mom and I followed. He looked the boat over and turned to me and said, "wouldn't this be cool?" I, with my hatred for fishing, replied that a boat in and of itself would be cool, but this one was not. I like a little more luxury as opposed to the utilitarian fishing purpose that this boat had. Either way, he was not deterred and went into the office for more information. Mom and I continued to follow. As Steve was casually inquiring about the boat out front, I walked around the office looking at the other boats on display. As the office manager was talking up a storm about how great that boat was, I started looking at, climbing on, and playing with a little bow-rider in the showroom. The thing was beautiful. It had plush seating, a sundeck in the back, a swim platform, seats in the bow (hence bow-rider), and a 135 horsepower engine. This was a cool boat. Steve and the manager stopped talking and I called Steve over. I explained to him that this is what I would want in a boat. Something that's comfortable to go out on, its fast, you can swim, etc... The boat was perfect to me. He complained that fishing in this boat would be terrible cause it would make a mess of everything and that the boat was not in fact perfect. As we were arguing over the perfectness of the boat, the salesman came over. He started talking up a storm about how great this boat was and how much better the bigger version is. Steve expressed his concerns while I was curious about the bigger one! With out saying a word, the salesman went into the boat and turned all the seats upside down and proceeded to take the carpet out. He turned to Steve and said... "plastic floor, plastic seats... here's your fishing boat." We were both speechless. This one boat was exactly what both of us wanted and after some more selling on the part of the manager, we had one last question... "Do you have it in blue?"
